KEY POINTS:
So much has been said, and written, about the Harry Potter phenomenon, that it's easy to forget that at their heart the stories are nothing more - or less - than good, old-fashioned adventures.
And so, true to its roots, the seventh and final tale ends not only with a heart-thumping, nail-biting showdown between good and evil, but with every last loose end tied up, every mystery explained. While devoted fans will read the last 200 pages like I did - in a state of increasing mourning - it was underscored with immense satisfaction that JK Rowling had delivered not only her best book, but had achieved perfect closure.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows starts like a James Bond film - with a huge, horrifying action set-piece that has two well-known characters dead by page 69. Our reluctant hero, struggling ever further with his unwanted role as leader of the resistance against the dark force of Voldemort, sets out with friends Ron and Hermione to carry out the quest left for them by Professor Dumbledore before his death at the end of the last book.
But with Voldemort's Death Eaters having infiltrated and taken over both Hogwarts School and the Ministry for Magic in their manhunt for Harry, nobody is safe and nobody can be trusted to help. Still reeling from the murder of Dumbledore at the hands of the duplicitous Professor Snape, Harry spends a great deal of time following one false lead after another. His growing despair and frustration is contagious - not only to Ron and Hermione, but also to the reader.
But eventually, the pace picks up again when Harry uncovers a myriad of secrets about his own past and the equally mysterious background of Dumbledore, which forces him reconsider all he has believed in, including his allegiances with his friends.
Ardent fans of the series are well-rewarded - in fact without re-reading the previous six books it would be easy to miss the trail of minute clues and references to previous events and characters that Rowling deftly folds together as she propels Harry towards his destiny. Who'd have guessed that as minor a character as the ghoul that lives in the Weasleys' attic - mentioned once or twice around about book two - would have a part to play in the finale?
With each instalment, the Harry Potter books have become not only darker but infinitely more complex; the intricacies of the plots in books five through seven take them firmly from the realms of children's literature. The Deathly Hallows, in particular, is a sombre book.
It's JK Rowling's astonishing achievement that she has seamlessly transitioned her characters from simplistic childhood - where goodies are good and baddies are bad - through the complexities of adolescence and emerging adulthood. As Harry discovers that his own heroes - his parents, his godfather Sirius, and Dumbledore - have feet of clay, he has to come to terms with his own faults. And, most reluctantly, he is forced to concede that some of his enemies - namely the sinister Snape, the twisted house elf Kreacher, his arch rival Draco Malfoy, and even his bullying cousin Dudley Dursley - may be not all as they seem.
- Detours, HoS
