akeyoftime (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
akeyoftime) wrote2007-07-29 08:40 pm
akeyoftime) wrote2007-07-29 08:40 pm
Entry tags:
Obligatory Reaction Post
Well.
I confess, I cried, but not a lot. It wasn't really a have-a-good-sob book; there was too much action to really stop and indulge in such things.
I literally stopped reading and logged online to yell at Myriam when I found out that Harry was Horcrux after all. I... really hadn't thought that would happen.
Neville! Love! You did so well! I was also pleased to see more of Luna and to meet her dad. (I read the passage in which Dean takes Luna's hand and immediately thought of the shippers. Someone's going to read into that. I also thought of the shippers when Harry confessed to loving Hermione... like a sister. I could hear the collective Harmonian moan.)
19 Years Later was the single biggest piece of fannish garbage I have seen since I stopped reading Dragonlance spin-off novels. I mean, it's alright when it's from the fans, really, because sometimes fanfiction is indulging in fun and fantasy, but from the author herself? Lily, James, and Albus Severus? I'm still trying to wrap my head around *Severus*, because his actions weren't that endearing, not from where I'm standing. And it is just me, or do Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione seem to have failed to mature emotionally in those intervening 19 years? Maybe part of it is a reader bias, since I expect the younger mindset, but the characterization was extraordinarily weak.
Poor Tonks family and Lupin. Especially Teddy and Andromeda, who had to go on without the rest of them.
Ginny's role (or rather, non role) in the book is faintly disturbing. I was so impressed with her for stepping up and kissing Harry on his birthday, but after that, Ginny was just sort of... there. Did anyone else notice that the children are all named after the people who were significant in Harry's life? Where are her loved ones, the names she likes?
Also, not at all shocked that Snape was in love with Lily. I'm pretty happy with his ultimate character resolution. In a way, it's fitting that he was really neither a good or a bad guy (we've always known Snape to be self-serving), but JKR got a little carried away with the theme. Snape felt remarkably out of character and even as if he were a little stupid. And Snape is most definitely not stupid.
I was glad to see Percy back, but I still think his siblings treated him pretty poorly in the first place and I'm not happy that that is being ignored. He put up with a lot of crap from them and it was all brushed off as normal sibling rivalry, when it was often more along the lines of bullying.
... and Slytherin still gets the short end of the stick, because they are all EVIL, you see. Why should any of them stay behind and fight, even just one? It's because Slytherins are never ever nice people. (I get it, they're largely from pure-blooded families who would at least sympathise with Voldemort, but I'm really tired of seeing Slytherin house members painted with the same heartless brush.)
All of this isn't to say I didn't like the book. I could generally appreciate how the dark the book was and going further into Dumbledore's backstory (and stripping away even more of his shiny awesome layer) was enjoyable.
There may be more later, when it's all digested a bit.
I confess, I cried, but not a lot. It wasn't really a have-a-good-sob book; there was too much action to really stop and indulge in such things.
I literally stopped reading and logged online to yell at Myriam when I found out that Harry was Horcrux after all. I... really hadn't thought that would happen.
Neville! Love! You did so well! I was also pleased to see more of Luna and to meet her dad. (I read the passage in which Dean takes Luna's hand and immediately thought of the shippers. Someone's going to read into that. I also thought of the shippers when Harry confessed to loving Hermione... like a sister. I could hear the collective Harmonian moan.)
19 Years Later was the single biggest piece of fannish garbage I have seen since I stopped reading Dragonlance spin-off novels. I mean, it's alright when it's from the fans, really, because sometimes fanfiction is indulging in fun and fantasy, but from the author herself? Lily, James, and Albus Severus? I'm still trying to wrap my head around *Severus*, because his actions weren't that endearing, not from where I'm standing. And it is just me, or do Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione seem to have failed to mature emotionally in those intervening 19 years? Maybe part of it is a reader bias, since I expect the younger mindset, but the characterization was extraordinarily weak.
Poor Tonks family and Lupin. Especially Teddy and Andromeda, who had to go on without the rest of them.
Ginny's role (or rather, non role) in the book is faintly disturbing. I was so impressed with her for stepping up and kissing Harry on his birthday, but after that, Ginny was just sort of... there. Did anyone else notice that the children are all named after the people who were significant in Harry's life? Where are her loved ones, the names she likes?
Also, not at all shocked that Snape was in love with Lily. I'm pretty happy with his ultimate character resolution. In a way, it's fitting that he was really neither a good or a bad guy (we've always known Snape to be self-serving), but JKR got a little carried away with the theme. Snape felt remarkably out of character and even as if he were a little stupid. And Snape is most definitely not stupid.
I was glad to see Percy back, but I still think his siblings treated him pretty poorly in the first place and I'm not happy that that is being ignored. He put up with a lot of crap from them and it was all brushed off as normal sibling rivalry, when it was often more along the lines of bullying.
... and Slytherin still gets the short end of the stick, because they are all EVIL, you see. Why should any of them stay behind and fight, even just one? It's because Slytherins are never ever nice people. (I get it, they're largely from pure-blooded families who would at least sympathise with Voldemort, but I'm really tired of seeing Slytherin house members painted with the same heartless brush.)
All of this isn't to say I didn't like the book. I could generally appreciate how the dark the book was and going further into Dumbledore's backstory (and stripping away even more of his shiny awesome layer) was enjoyable.
There may be more later, when it's all digested a bit.
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