Currently an over-worked 19-year old college student, struggling to juggle writing for leisure and writing essays. I'm going to enter into my sophomore year, majoring in English. I can only hope that my writing has improved as a result.

My hobbies are still watching anime, reading, and writing. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some time for what I love to do.

Gah! I've been awful! How long has it been since I've updated!

Anyway, I'll be getting back to writing fanfiction soon. The Elemental series will be going on hiatus to be rewritten and given a new plot. I'm not sure about the future of Tears of Twilight or Dark Reflections.

Currently, I'll be focusing on a rewritten version of Celestial Requiem. It'll probably start in 1st year though. I'm still working out the new plot.

OVERALL: a good read. Rowling introduced some great subplots, especially the ones concerning the Deathly Hallows and Dumbledore's past. Hopefully, some creative fanfiction writers will pounce on the stories of Grindelwald and Dumbledore, the Peverell brothers, the bloody saga of the Elder Wand, and Grey Lady's tale. Can someone write something on wandlore? Or Gryffindor's sword? I also loved how she brought everything together, big and small.

However, I felt that the end was a bit rushed and that she sacrificed plot in favor of lessons in morality (in that Voldemort kills himself, easily abused knowledge, etc.) and incredibly unrealistic (and cliché) development of romance. The epilogue was disappointing -- in my opinion, Rowling becomes disappointingly predictable and dry here. While she may have wanted everything to finish and wrap up, it seemed superfluous and might have been better for the reader's enjoyment if it was excluded.

Characters: No doubt, it is here that Dumbledore and Ron shine. Dumbledore shows himself to be a flawed, believable character that had dreams and could make mistakes, thus no longer just a 2-dimensional, grandfatherly powerhouse opposing Voldemort. Ron makes some excellent remarks here, sometimes outshining Harry in knowledge and wit.

And I can understand some of Ron and Hermione's frustration with Harry here, who seems to have diminished here slightly into the typical hero stock character. It frustrated me to see Harry sticking to spells he's used countless times, relying on Hermione and Ron for explanations and more advanced spell work. But at least he learned to control his temper somewhat and matured in his view of life-and-death. Ginny Weasley was also unbearably flat and boring here. And Draco Malfoy was shunted into a shadowy weak character that was over his head and nearly powerless, largely relying on his mother.

It is unfortunate however that the novels still focus only on the Gryffindors and to a lesser extent, the Slytherins. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs have been ignored for most of the entire series. This was saddening.

But on a side note, give some credit to Crabbe, Flitwick, and McGonagall. And Neville. Neville was awesome here.

Style: Much better than Half-Blood Prince. It flowed much better and the inclusion of so many puzzles answered was superb. Everything came together for the most part, answering questions and providing the significance behind Harry's adventures. The darker, tenser tone present throughout the novel, providing a shadow even on happy occasions like Bill's wedding, was very well done. But I must state again that I found that the end seemed rushed and cliché, dealing with few of the repercussions of what has happened before jumping into the future. It seemed as if everything happened at once and then came to an utter standstill. And there seemed to be no concern as to how the future would be settled before jumping right into it.

But it was excellent to hear so many different sides of the story, via Rita Skeeter, Aberforth Dumbledore, the Pensieve memories and so on. It had gotten rather boring to rely on Hermione to explain everything.

Romance: I believe that Rowling should stick to adventure and fantasy novels, while leaving romance out of it as much as she can. While I understand that she wanted to stick to only 7 novels in the series and introducing romance early on would be unrealistic, she neglects to realize that the same could be said of introducing it when she had. These are teenagers -- why on earth are they thinking about true love when they've got their whole lives ahead of them as well as a whole WORLD of people out there (even with the war going on)? And I severely doubt most people can suddenly find the "love of their life" after only one/two failed relationships. The cliché pairing of Harry/Ginny had been too obvious and I had hoped Rowling would go a different route, where she wasn't so blatantly trying to pair her main character with a flat character nearly identical to his mother/mother figure who was furthermore developed only in the latter novels as practically a Mary-Sue who seemed to just come out of nowhere. (Note: I admit I'm biased against this pairing, as I had bored myself of it enough in fanfiction with its usual pattern that Rowling herself eventually followed, especially when you consider they're probably third/fourth cousins due to pureblood in-breeding.)

The only somewhat realistic relationship here would be between Lupin/Tonks, dealing with disapproval and new responsibilities. While some have commented that Lupin acted horribly with his willingness to abandon Tonks and his unborn child, I thought it was brilliant. Lupin obviously wouldn't be able to handle such a situation well since he had been alone most of his life and is sensitive to how the world views werewolves. It also shows how Lupin, like Sirius, never quite grasped adulthood and tried to avoid responsibilities, trying to run away. Also, it was quite possibly the only mentioned relationship that occurred outside of Hogwarts.

I will however, applaud her treatment of Snape and Lily Potter's relationship. While I may have railed on the unrealistic side of teenage true love here, I do understand this dynamic. Snape had obviously been neglected and ignored most of his life, with many people shunning him. Lily had been the first witch he knew and who accepted him despite appearances and his hardships. Considering how Snape had been treated his whole life, of course he would hold onto the one person who had cared about him. Why else would his patronus be a doe, or why he would want Harry to look at him before he died?

Lastly, the novel lost a great deal in Rowling's obvious desire to have nearly everyone somehow tie into the Weasley family, even in the future where Teddy Lupin is dating Victoire Weasley and where she seems to be foreshadowing a future relationship between Scorpius Malfoy and Ron's daughter. This is where it just got ridiculous. A fairy-tale ending is nice, but please!

And Hogwarts should change its school anthem to the B52's "Love Shack" or something. Nearly every couple, young and old, gets together at Hogwarts in someway, usually before age 17. I can understand a few people, but so many? Really? Even Bill, who graduated, met Fleur at Hogwarts.

FINAL END NOTE: I would like all readers of my review to understand that this is my view of the final Harry Potter book. I am not looking for a debate nor a flame war. This is what I thought, so don't deluge me with a hail of e-mails or spam claiming you disagree or I'm horrible in that I criticized Rowling's work. You're entitled to your own opinion as I am to mine. I doubt that my critique would shake the world's foundations.

When I was asked what I had thought of the book by my mother and my brother (non-HP fans), they were somewhat surprised at what I had said. My brother, simply because all he had heard were good things and couldn't believe that a HP fan would actually criticize the work. My mother, a voracious reader who often can tell what the ending of a book is within three chapters, acknowledged my comments and responded to them. Her answer as to my criticism was that while I had been waiting years for the series to finish, I had been reading other novels and experiencing other forms of media, as well as expanding my knowledge with college readings and analysis -- in short, my tastes have changed and evolved, my expectations have increased. Similarly, I'm much older, while the Harry Potter series is (for the most part) geared toward children, pre-teens, and teenagers. If I were younger, or had access to all 7 novels at once, I probably would have been completely satisfied. Also, she noted that Rowling wanted to finish the series here, so she had to tie up everything and probably didn't want to add any extra characters, even if I found it to be rushed and disappointingly predictable. My mother's last response was that Rowling's British and I'm American: despite the similar language, there are bound to be some differences in values and customs -- perhaps I'm thinking too much like an American, while it may be a perfect ending to Britons and people of other nationalities.

But, nevertheless, it's over. And that is that.

Quatre Winner's site: /animefictionworld/harrypotter/potter-index.html