Alas, the end I meet again. Alas, the pain in my heart comes into being once more.
Anyway, I should probably say before the review that even though my header states that I'm unbiased, I never thought that I would consciously decide to review the books that taught me to revere all books. So, in this case, I am slightly biased, but I did try my hardest while reading to be critical of the books. Now for a note on how this review will be done, I will give a summary of the story throughout the series, then I will go over some major plot points in each of the books, followed by my review. So, without further ado, the review of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter (and the *insert the remainder of the title here*)
Harry Potter (series) is the story of Harry Potter (character), an orphaned wizard sent to live with his Muggle (non-magic) aunt, uncle and cousin. When he is eleven, he gets a letter from Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards. Hagird, gamekeeper at Hogwarts explains that his parents died at the hands of the evil wizard Lord Voldemort (referred to by the wizarding world as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who, or the Dark Lord by his supporters), not by the car crash his aunt and uncle have been telling him. Harry goes to Hogwarts and meets two friends Ron and Hermione, faces multiple troubles, both trivial and not, tests, enemies, and various other things. The series progress through to Harry's second year (Chamber of Secrets), when a house elf (a race of enslaved creatures who are forced to do their master's bidding until presented with proper clothing) by the name of Dobby comes to warn Harry of a danger at Hogwarts. Dobby tries to thwart Harry’s attempts to get to Hogwarts and fails multiple times. Harry finds out about the danger, a monster in the mythical Chamber of Secrets. Hermione finds out what the monster is, and Ron and Harry enter the Chamber to kill the monster, and rescue a girl who has been taken into the Chamber (I won't say who the girl is, but you probably already know from either the book or the movie). In Harry, Ron, and Hermione's third year (Prisoner of Azkaban), mass murder Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban and is hell-bent on murdering Harry. There have been Dementors (faceless creatures that cause you to relive your worst memories, or if you've been really bad, will kiss you and suck your soul out through your mouth) wandering around to try and catch Black. Harry's Defense Against the Dark Arts teach, Remus Lupin, long time friend of Harry's dad, teaches him how to produce a Patronus (the only defense against Dementors) because the Dementors affect him more than anybody because he's had so many horrible experiences in his life. In the end he meets up with Sirius Black, and he finds out some things, including the fact that Ron's rat, Scabbers, is really Peter Pettigrew, friend of Harry's dad, Sirius, and Lupin. Pettigrew ultimately betrayed Harry's parents by telling Voldemort of their whereabouts. And unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, you already know what happens next, if not from the book, the movie. In the next book (Goblet of Fire), the Triwizard tournament is taking place at Hogwarts, and Harry would be perfectly content with watching three other students from Hogwarts, Beaxbattons, Drumstrang fight for their lives, but no, it is essential that everything happens to him, therefore, someone placed his name in the Goblet of Fire (which chose the champions) under the name of a fourth school, so he has to play. So of course he survives the tasks, all the while trying to find out who put his name in the Goblet (and dealing with a crush). In the final task, he finds the cup and ties with the other Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory, but when they grab the Triwizard cup, it transports them to an old graveyard, for the cup was a Portkey (a magical object that transports people touching it at a prearranged date and time to a prearranged location). There they find Peter Pettigrew holding what remains of Voldemort. Voldemort orders the death of Cedric, and Harry is forced to watch as Pettigrew concocts a potion that brings back his master. Voldemort summons his followers and he and Harry duel. Harry escapes bringing Cedric's body. Dumbledore says at the end of term feast that Voldemort is back; we then cut off and enter into the fifth book. In this book (Order of the Phoenix) the Daily Prophet (the wizarding newspaper) and the Ministry of Magic have been saying that Harry and Dumbledore have been lying about Voldemort, and when two Dementors attack Harry and his cousin Duddly and Harry has to use magic to get them out with their souls intact, the Ministry calls a hearing to make the final decision on his expulsion from Hogwarts. He gets off, but back at Hogwarts, they find that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, made Dumbledore hire a Ministry official as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and she refuses to teach them any defense. Eventually this pushes Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the point where they form an illicit D.A.T.D.A. club, by the name of Dumbledore's Army. Throughout the novel, Harry has been getting flashes of what Voldemort's seeing, so when he gets a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius in the place Harry has been dreaming of for months, he goes to rescue him. It was a trap and a fight ensues, eventually ending with Voldemort's failed attempt to posses Harry. In the sixth year at Hogwarts (Half-Blood Prince), Harry takes many private lessons with Dumbledore in which Dumbledore shows Harry memories which feature moments in Voldemort's past. They find out that Voldemort made six Horcruxes (objects in which a person hides a piece of their soul), and that they have to destroy them to kill Voldemort. Meanwhile, Harry has been excelling at potions because of a book with helpful tips and tricks written in the margins. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione are dealing with romance, Draco Malfoy has been doing some mysterious things. When Harry and Dumbledore return from finding a Horcrux, they find out that Malfoy has been ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Malfoy fails, but someone else succeeds. In the final book (Deathly Hallows), Harry, Ron, and Hermione go on a hunt for Horcruxes (hunt for Horcruxes sounds cool [the words, not the actual event]) while on the run from Death Eaters. They are forced to camp out in the woods, are placed under constant fear and worry, and take many detours and deal with resulting disaster before finally coming back to Hogwarts to finish it all. There they destroy the second to last Horcrux, Neville destroys the final, and a very epic battle takes place. I will stop here as to not give away anything I haven't already given away.
Now I know that was probably not very detailed in the way of explaining, but I trust that those who haven't already read the book will have seen the movies or at the very least understand many essential terms used here (mostly in the way of characters and their roles) .
I'd like to start by saying that Rowling's writing is beautiful, and I would expect no less from someone who has been penning stories from the age of six. The story line is excellent, and when you look, there are things leading up to things in the final book from the start, which is impressive. There are however loopholes, but if I were to say, I would risk spoiling an important part. I love the last book, it was awesome in my opinion. The writing dwarfs that of earlier books, the story line is again great, the dialogue is natural and unforced, everything just fell into place. My least favorites were the Chamber of Secrets and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't like Chamber of Secrets because the plot never seemed to appeal to me that much. I didn't like Order of the Phoenix because of the whole teen angst thing. When someone writes about teen angst you're supposed to feel sympathetic to the character and relate, no matter your age, with this book, it just seemed very annoying, I kept saying, "Just shut up already, we get it, you're angry, now please be quit!" I assume Rowling forgot what it's like to be a teenager, or otherwise had trouble putting it in words. I love the story, and I always have, but I don't think it's normal to sob over the pages of a book, especially when you've already read it three times before. I leave you with a very Shakespearean take on my feelings upon leaving this series.
O, woe! my troubles hath taken over mine heart! Mine insides curl with pain, and mine eyes stingeth with tears of cruel departure! How fast it hath ended! How fast it hath leaveth me! Lo and behold my suffering! I faceth the unknown now, and may I be granted the pleasure of conquering it. Sad is my face as I turn my back on that which I love.
