I have now read The Book.

[gement]

Before I rant, I loved this book. Especially the fact that the Gryffindor password is a bastardization of one of my online handles. "Mimble Mimble!" "Mimble Mimble!" I am immortalized in the longest children's book in the English language.

I loved seeing St. Mungo's. I loved finding out about Mrs. Figg. I... rather like that the war has begun. Things are more straight-forward now. The only plot "twist" (the bit about who sent the dementors) seemed almost thrown in as an obligatory nod to the format. Sorry, we're at war, too busy to muck about with Old Man Withers who runs the amusement park turning out to be the ghost of Abe Lincoln.

BUT.

For the record, I am really sickened by the fact that they leaked the body count DAYS before the book came out. I know it was to increase hype, but like the hype needed increasing. All it did was make me wait for it instead of reading along never knowing if anyone would be ok, or if everyone would be okay.

Instead of letting my heart break when it happened I just thought "well thank goodness that's out of the way so I can stop wondering who it is." Instead of hanging on, jumping everytime someone was injured, or attacked, or leaped out at, or disappeared, thinking "oh god, Arthur." "oh god, Hermione, no, wait, Ron, no, wait, Damn it woman, you're doing it on purpose now, threatening everyone and INFORMING us that exactly one of them will not make it."

And then throwing it out of left field. I felt like I blinked and almost missed it, and my emotions got left out of the loop.

Anyone who's read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead before watching it? I finally got to see the movie last week, and felt the same thing when they stabbed the Player King. I wanted to be surprised. Not to... wait for it.

And, last note of rant, it sickened me that she wrote Harry as someone who would forget to unwrap a Christmas present from one of his most beloved people in the world. That should have at least been a moment of crashing, sickening irony, realizing that he could have checked the mirror to find out where Sirius was... The ramifications of that didn't even seem to register.

That's not even a plot twist, that's just cold. And not in line with how she's ever written these people. He'd have had that package open the instant he was alone.

Okay, rant off. Did I mention I loved the book? It's just easier to start with the complaints and work up, and I think I've hit my only complaints. Oh, that and Harry's turned into a git with anger management issues, but that's a personal irritation, and it admittedly makes him a more realistic character; I just wouldn't want to spend an afternoon with him at this stage of his career.

Comments

[eeyorerin]

Yeah, I liked how the characters were more realistic, but sometimes it's so hard to see them struggling with their flaws. And I agreed with you about the mirror -- it's like she had to get the mirror out of the way so that Harry would do the Big Plot Thing and end up in the Dept. of Mysteries.

The scene with Dumbledore at the end (since it seems like she stuck true to Dumbledore Explains It All, Or At Least Some More) just made me weep. I felt like some of the exposition was a bit ham-fisted (I really think the book could have used some editing of the pointing out plot inconsistencies and areas where it could have been refined, as opposed to just the blow and go of copyediting, but I know they wanted to get to press hastie post toastie), but the reasons for him not wanting to tell were just heart-breaking, and, I think the only reason I would have accepted for the way she used controlled exposition to further the plot.

What do you think about how she tarnished Harry's parents and the Maurauders? Sirius was becoming a rather unsympathetic character in the time leading up to his death.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Agreed from all directions on Dumbledore. I thought that some of the things he "revealed" had already been revealed last time (the thing about making him stay home once a year), but apparently Harry had been too thick to get it last time, as evidenced by his behavior.

But the reason was perfect. I kept going, "Trust Dumbledore. Trust Dumbledore. Trust Dumbledore. Okay, WTF is Dumbledore doing? Even if there's something Need-To-Know because Voldemort might read it out of him, TELLING HIM SO would be a nice touch. He's fifteen and about to go ballistic!"

I think making the rivalry between James and Severus more... equal(?) was a good decision. I get tired of villains who froth at the mouth just because they're sociopathically malicious. If James had treated me like that, sure I'd see his kid as an asshole no matter what.

We've always known Sirius was slightly sociopathic. I'd always just assumed he was the one making Snape's life hell and it had rubbed off on James through peer osmosis. I found Sirius more and more sympathetic as the book went on, actually, first finding out that he and James were a matched set, and then watching him deteriorate through inaction - hard to say whether he might have preferred Azkaban to that house, being told he was useless.

The wrenching irony, what made it hard for it to be *him*, at least for me, was I had assumed through dramatic structure, that he was being set up to do something Great, either this book or next. When I saw him resisting Voldemort, I thought, "Argh, they're going to kill him because he's being noble and resisting and all, but at least he'll die *doing* something. That's decent."

And in the end he did... as much as everybody else did in the battle, and was bait. I don't think that's the legacy he wanted, and that's the bit that got me.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Yo. I'd go for that. I went on at length about the mirror: that was sick and twisted and wrong.

It's easier somehow to start with the complaints. Unlike HP IV, this one is worth really working over. The bad parts stick out, rather than being lost in a forest of other bad parts.

I read R&G before I saw the movie (well, before there WAS a movie) and think I'm really glad I did it that way. Mmmmmm.

[gement.livejournal.com]

One of my local friends pointed out, in fairness, that Harry's thought process on receiving the package was, "I'm no way ever calling him because it's too dangerous for him to leave the house." In his interpretation, Harry deliberately left it wrapped so he wouldn't think of calling on Sirius as an option, to protect him.

And frankly, leave something buried in your luggage for a month while you're cramming for your OWLs and it's just not in the short term memory anymore. It's still a cheap shot, but slightly less cheap.

I've never worked over an HP book before, so this is fun. (I'd be interested in hearing some of the "forest of bad bits"; the things that tend to get me are internal inconsistencies, which I didn't spot any of in HP IV. But then, I wasn't reading particularly critically.)

I am, for the most part, exceedingly glad I read R&G Are Dead first, mostly because the text is sooo dense. I was just referring to that one "ending-spoiling" moment, where it would have been incredibly powerful to see that scene without knowing how it ended.