The new Harry Potter book is out, and I have just read it yesterday in a one-day marathon. It is amazing, in comparison to the last book, it’s full of adventures and less psychological teenager trouble. Of course, I have been a bit late with reading it, and also with buying it. The £5 ASDA price war offer has sold out, the £5 TESCO offer isn’t anymore either, and the £6.99 WHSmith offer has now risen to £12.99, Waterstones is £10.99. Actually, the price development of Harry Potter books was quite a phenomenon in itself, differing apparently with every book.
So, I got inspired to read it after taking part in the Three Weeks review workshop last Saturday, when we were given the task to write a review about anything weird and wonderful, and Suzanne picked the last Harry Potter book. We had to rewrite the same review three times, with different word counts and read them out aloud to the others. Afterwards, I was really keen to get and dive into the latest Harry Potter book, after hearing its review three times.
I did not know how it ended so far, thanks to the spoiler embargo, but all kids interviewed seemed really happy with it and enthusiastic, so my worst fear that it all would end badly was luckily and quickly demolished. The end is rather abrupt in a way, so I am grateful for Wikipedia’s collection of official comments. Still, there is no mention about who would be the new headmaster of Hogwarts.
I would have felt really defrauded if Voldemort would have won as an explanation for why so many evil things happen in this world. It would have been quite mean to the children, too, and possibly destroyed the books educational and reading value for future generations.
One odd aspect is that Harry never used the killing curse. He seems a bit too nice in this book and collects several other holy attributes along the way. Another aspect I found quite funny or maybe just odd is how the goodies seem to resemble revolutionaries this time, living like partisans in the woods with their pirate radio and leading ambushes out of their hiding places. The help they receive seems to be oddly random, exactly like it is in emergencies, with the betrayal of people they trust and help by people they don’t know but sympathise with their aims, and mistrust into friends who later turn out to be okay and all that stuff.
Somehow the story also reminded me occasionally a bit about Nazi Germany, with all the muggle “racism” and bloodline discussions, and people fleeing into exile or getting imprisoned or killed for their family trees. That thought just stuck in my mind when the author describes a pile of white naked bodies carrying a monument before the hearing in the Ministry of Magic. Well, maybe it’s somehow preparing the kids for that part of real-life history.