I didn't want to be spoiled, and couldn't wait to get to the end, so I had it finished by yesterday afternoon. I'll go back to it in a few weeks, I think.

Overall I had the same feeling I got from book 5 - that nothing had really been achieved by the end of it. It's all foreplay. I'm assuming it'll all come together in the last book, but I don't want to wait that long.

My favourite unintentionally funny line - "I need to know what Malfoy is doing inside you".

Jars and I are one in this, including the favorite unintentional funny line.

It may just be the looooooong wait between books, but I feel like she needs to get to the frelling point already. Books 1-4 all had their own storylines in addition to the overall arc. Books 5-6 have mainly been Harry running around saying "The sky is falling!" and nobody believing him, and then a tiny piece of sky really does fall in the last 50 pages. Maybe HP7 will be nonstop action, but I'm losing faith.

I also still think Rowling can't write this age range as well as she could the pre-teens.

I want book 7 now!

I finished. I loved it. I was prepared for Dumbledore's death, but it still just slayed me, especially Harry remembering his silly words during the service.

I have more to say, I'm sure, but I think I need a re-read.

Also, in regards to Harry's conversation with Ginny at the end. Did anyone else think, "yeah, I saw Spider-Man 2 too, Rowling."?

I loved the bit where Harry remembers Dumbledore's words too. That other thing seemed familiar but I thought it was more something I'd read in FF. Although you could be right. It could be that I remember it from Spidey 2.

What killed me was "Dumledore's man, through and through" both when it made Dumbledore tear up and when Harry repeated it at the end.

Not that I didn't eat it up, sumi. I just, you know, wanted her to know that I know.

I also really liked that moment at the funeral when Ginny got fierce instead of teary and Harry noticed and knew what it meant and admired it.

I'm with y'all on the Spidey 2-ness of the "We can't be together" speech. Though I have seen that about a million times elsewhere too.

Two other references that occurred to me were the: 24-ness of the Snape scene at the end. It seemed like he was going all Jack with the doing bad things for the right reasons.

Could be wishful thinking on my part there.

And: the LOTR-ness of the dead bodies under the water in the cave.

Must confess that my least favorite scene was the entire cave section.

Then again, I was 22 hours into it and perhaps not at my discerning best. Must reread.

Beyond these things that sort of took me out of the story, I loved it a lot.

Could be wishful thinking on my part there.

I definitely think that Snape was following Dumbledore's orders. There was that moment that Hagrid (I think) overheard DD telling SS to do something that SS didn't want to do. I bet that thing was killing DD if the situation was needed. It paralleled DD asked HP to force him to drink in the cave. There was also SS's reaction to being called a coward. SS always seemed to respect DD and DD was the only person to completely trust SS. Killing him must've been really emotionally difficult to do. Poor Snape. He's now completely alone. He needs a hug.