"It's the good girls who write in a diary, the bad girls don't have time. Me? I just want a life I am going to remember, even if I don't write it down."
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By Joyce C. Abaño
And yes it was exhilarating!
As I was leafing through the final pages of the seventh and last installment of the Harry Potter series a few hours after buying the book, I couldn’t help but feel like I was saying goodbye to a dear friend who was both intriguing and exciting at the same time. A friend who has been with me for ten years.
The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book by J.K. Rowling was released worldwide last July 21. Yes, it was like every other Harry-Potter-book releasing date, thousands of people were queuing outside bookstores. In fact, this time, the sales have surpassed the previous six books. It sold more than 50 million copies worldwide in just the first 24 hours it was released in the bookstores.
Many young adults grew up with Harry Potter; I have captured my youth with it.
As I closed the book ten hours after I bought it, I was ecstatic and devastated at the same time.
Ecstatic because the story surpassed even my wildest imagination and the action-packed plot played out well; and devastated. I was devastated because it was complete. I will miss the thrill of waiting for the next book to be released; I will miss the excitement of guessing what’s going to happen next. I will miss the fun of discussing possible plots with my friends, I will miss… yes, I will miss queuing up for the book outside bookstores and the Harry Potter parties that go with it.
The Hallows doesn’t have Quidditch, or petty classroom duels, or candies laced with love potions and Blast-Ended Skrewts. It doesn’t have Hogwarts School as a friendly backdrop. We don’t even get to read into which house the new first years were sorted.
This book is about answers. It has matched and closed all the loopholes in all the other books, as a good conclusion should. Here we learn about the struggle of good versus evil in Harry’s magical world.
We learn about hatred, prejudice and mistrust… and how these things can lead to war and destruction. But most of all, there is hope. Hope, wisdom, tolerance and love.
I have made every effort to control myself from revealing spoilers here and I will not test my self-control any longer. I have already irked several friends and family members by giving a loud whoop and telling them I was right! Snape was not evil and that he and Dumbledore staged the latter’s death.
Oopps! There I go again, giving spoilers to readers. But seriously, this is a must-read. Rowling outdid herself in this book.
To sum up this review: it was a page-turner, a gripping story, and yes, it was magical. A magical tale… of epic proportions.
ALyXaNdRiA
