Okay, time for coherence. Maybe.

[elaby]

I suppose I should have known that reading for an entire day and doing essentially nothing else would require a sacrifice of good sleep the next night. Anyway.



Okay, I was glad to come on this morning and find that I'm not the only one who thought that this book read like fanfic. That said, I also think this one was the best one yet (they don't have to be mutually exclusive). I had problems with it, of course, but I think all of them were overshadowed by the fact that Harry is hardly ever an obnoxious pain in the ass in this book. He's really grown up, thank GOD, especially by the end.

Okay, onto more petty stuff, like why this reminded me of fanfic.

Harry/Ginny - Er, wha? Okay, it didn't bother me, particularly, and I'm very glad they could be happy and that Harry could seem to actually feel for someone in that way, which I felt he didn't really with Cho. But it seemed so sudden. And like I've read it a million times before (which I probably have; as someone said, there are only so many ideas). I was also not surprised that Harry broke up with her for her own protection at the end. But I couldn't help but looking at the publishing info every few pages, going "Is this really a copy of the new book, or did somebody cleverly substitute a very long fanfic?" I'm REALLY glad Ron didn't have a huge problem with it, though. All in all, Ron was neither terribly annoying nor terribly wonderful in this book. But his role was satisfying enough for me.

Ron/Hermione - Duh. How obvious was it that this would happen. Even, as in most fanfic I've read, Ron had his Lavender Brown stint first. I was a little surprised at all the making out, though, but I think that's just me... it never occured to me to do that when I was 16. But the scene with them at Dumbledore's funeral made me happy, because it wasn't a "OMG, Ron, I love you!" "OMG, Hermione, I love you too!" kind of thing. It was just them, doing what was needed, being friends, and perhaps whatever is more between them coming just a little into play. Because Ron doesn't hug people often.

They did drive me a little bit crazy with their prevaricating, though.

Remus/Tonks - OMGWTF. Again, I don't have any particular problem with this pairing, especially if it makes poor Remus happy and no longer lonely, but it seemed to come completely out of left field at the end. Probably because I took it for granted that Remus was pining for Sirius, and Tonks was having major survivor guilt over the same. I didn't think she was in love with Sirius when Harry suggested it... but I never imagined she was in love with Remus. It just gave me the feeling of JKR nicely fitting every couple together that she possibly could.

Draco crying in the boy's toilet - *BOGGLES* While the angst whore in me jumped up and down and squeed like mad during this scene (even when Myrtle mentioned the boy being in there crying earlier, because I suspected) I still couldn't help but thinking how fanfic-y this was. Once more, not that I'm complaining at all. But for some reason I was also very surprised. In some ways it makes perfect sense and I'm very glad she did it that way, and in others I just couldn't believe what I was reading. I think disbelief was my reigning emotion while reading the whole book, actually. It was less that I wouldn't think it would happen, and more that I couldn't believe it had actually been written into canon. Because no matter what some of the Draco fangirls say, as far as I'm concerned, this is the first time we've seen anything even remotely redeemable or sympathetic when it comes to Draco, and I wasn't sure JKR was ever going to do it.

Regarding Snape:

This doesn't have anything to do with my thinking this sounds like fanfic, except  for the fact that I knew the fans would be made very happy by that second chapter with Snape and Narcissa. Onto my discussion of Snape in this book:

*choke* *cough* Adda-- wibba--

... Yeah. I was much more disturbed, having read the last hundred pages at approximately midnight last night, before I woke up in the morning and saw my nice friendslist reassuring me that there isn't any way that Snape is entirely EVIL OMG - and if he turns out that way, it'll be a very big disappointment after all these years of hints. That said, Snape is where my incredulity really came into play. I just couldn't believe it. His protection of Draco made me very happy indeed, but I must say I was really kind of freaked until somebody (copperbadge perhaps [edit: and redatt!]) pointed out that Dumbledore's pleading before Snape killed him could have been pleading to kill him, so the Death Eaters didn't take him away and pull his brains out a la Thor. That possibility, however remote, made me feel much better.

As for Snape being the Half Blood Prince, OMG YES. I never saw it coming for a moment, but it made utterly perfect sense, and I was so happy for it to be something like that and not some new character being introduced. Speaking of which, the only thing I can say really miffed me about the book was that the new Prime Minister turned out to be just as bad, if not in the same way, as Fudge. Scrimgeour was so COOL looking that I really wanted him to not suck. Feh.

Also, Inferi. AAAAUGH, play on my rooted-from-childhood Dead Marshes fear, why don't you? Yeezus. Also good to be reading at approximately midnight when I'm home alone.

Let's see, was there anything else?

Oh, yeah *laughs* For about five seconds, I held the ridiculous hope that that mirror Sirius gave Harry was a Horcrux. Dunno who he'd have killed to make it that way, but. I don't even know if we'll hear about that mirror again.

I also didn't actually think Dumbledore would ever die. I know everyone said he had to, since it was the Aged Mentor's job to die (even if sometimes they do come back), but I don't think I ever really believed he would. And Harry not going to Hogwarts next year? If he doesn't, the seventh'll be one damn unformulaic book.



I need to watch something fluffy now. Or else write my Candy is Dandy ficlet, which I was wanting to do all yesterday.

Comments

[redatt.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously, I meant proud, not pround. ::duff::

[redatt.livejournal.com]

HP7, not HP8 ::Double Duff:: I have an aversion to prime numbers. Also, I've had very little sleep.

~wonders off muttering something about it being time to put the computer away and stop reading H-BP responses.~

[elaby.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice ^_^