Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Review
What does a book expert think: Get a comprehensive overview of the reception and review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Article written by Mohandas Alva
M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.
It accounts for the last year that Harry is supposed to go to Hogwarts, but unlike all its predecessors, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ ends up being the only book in which Harry decides not to go to Hogwarts for his seventh year. His friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger decided to accompany him on a journey to find the five remaining Horcruxes that Dumbledore set him on. Furthermore, this book marks its end with the ultimate and highly anticipated battle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, the protagonist and the antagonist of this book series, respectively.
Key Facts about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Published: 21 July 2007
- Literary Period: Contemporary
- Genre: Fantasy
- Point-of-View: Third Person, omniscient
- Setting: 1990s Great Britain
- Climax: When Harry Potter faces Lord Voldemort in the Great Hall of Hogwarts
- Antagonist: Lord Voldemort.
J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
J. K. Rowling wrote the story of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ in several locations but eventually completed it in the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in early 2007. She is said to have signed a statement on a bust of the Greek god Hermes claiming “J. K. Rowling finished writing ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ in this room (552) on 11 January 2007.” Furthermore, she has stated in interviews that finishing the entirety of the series was both a thrilling and sad feeling, very emotional and difficult because of how much she loved writing these books. She agrees that writing ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ was by far her favorite writing experience out of all the books she had written so far.
When asked if she would write another book, Rowling claimed that she had no plans to do so and that she didn’t want to change the ending of the book she had already written. This ending made justice to Harry’s character. It is said that she wrote the last chapter of this book titled ‘The Epilogue’ very early in her journey writing the series, as early as 1990. She claimed that this marked the ending of the Harry Potter series officially, although she later collaborated with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany to write the play ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ which picks up from the last chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’
Books Related to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The most obvious set of books related to ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ are the other books from the Harry Potter series. The book closest to ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ is probably ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,’ which was the penultimate book of the series. J. K. Rowling herself has compared the two and has claimed that they are very closely related, and they even play as ‘two halves of the same book.’
Other books that are compared with ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ include J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ and C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’ Both these authors’ works are comparable to ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ because of similar magical creatures and characters as well as the worlds of magic. Even the plots and the hero’s struggle are quite similar in all three of these authors’ works.
In the Narnia series, the first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, deal with the White Witch, a character who controls the land of Narnia forcibly to do her bidding. However, with the help of Aslan, the magical lion, the two sons and the two daughters of Adam and Eve (humans) fulfill the prophecy of overthrowing the White Witch and freeing Narnia from its evil. Similarly, in ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ the protagonist Frodo sets out on a mission with a ‘company’ of men, dwarves, and elves, to destroy a ring of ultimate power before the antagonist Sauron can confiscate it. Frodo is guided by the wizard Gandalf.
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ has a lot of parallels with both these books as Harry Potter himself is the resultant of a prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney about how he will eventually vanquish the Dark Lord, Voldemort. This, when heard by Voldemort, sets a chain of events that eventually lead to the very prophecy that claimed them. Here, Harry is like the four saviors of Narnia – Peter Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, and Lucy Pevensie. Dumbledore, the wisest wizard of his time, guides Harry through this path, just like Aslan, a wise-talking lion. Furthermore, Harry enlists the help of several of his friends to defeat Voldemort, like Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, the members of Dumbledore’s Army, the members of the Order of the Phoenix, other students from Hogwarts, and many others just like the four siblings in Narnia take help from centaurs, mice, beavers, and many other creatures. Similarly, like Frodo, who takes help from Gandalf, Harry uses Dumbledore’s assistance. Like Harry’s friends and supporters, Frodo too has his friends – Samwise Gamgee, Pippin, and Merry, and a ‘company’ including Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and several others with whom he journeys to destroy the magical ring.
Also, Voldemort, the White Witch, and Sauron are all very powerful beings with great magical abilities, willing to control the world around them according to their wishes. However, Harry, the Pevensie siblings, and Frodo are all ‘underdogs.’ Harry lives under a cupboard in Privet Drive, oblivious to anything about magic or Voldemort, the Pevensie siblings are just human children sent away from their parents due to the war, and Frodo is just a Hobbit living a very happy and content life in his ‘Shire.’ They all are doing normal things until the threat of mass destruction makes them step up and decide to carry out the mission to stop the tyrants from flourishing.
These are just some of the prime similarities between ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ The Lord of the Rings, and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.’ There are several similarities between the entirety of the Harry Potter series and other works of Tolkien and Lewis as well.
The Lasting Impact of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ the final book of the Harry Potter series, was pitted with a lot of responsibility. Firstly, the phenomenon of Harry Potter had gripped the entire world by the time ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ was meant to be published, with people flocking to bookstores to buy Harry Potter books and details of books being revealed before publication due to leaks and so on. Secondly, the previous book, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,’ left a lot of details unexplained and confused readers enough to want this last book to come out as quickly as possible. Therefore, it was essential for ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ to live up to the expectations and hype it had been collecting.
When it came out, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ did almost everything it was expected to do. A majority of the readers were thrilled with how well this saga came to an end and how well Rowling had woven all the details left unaddressed in previous books into ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ delivering a very satisfying and heartwarming ending to the very beloved children’s book series. The story of Severus Snape and the connection and conversations between him and Dumbledore surprised readers very much. So did the unaddressed details of the actual connection between Harry and Voldemort. Even the moments where Harry, Ron, and Hermione exhibited their differences and had disagreements garnered great praise for being very true to reality and portraying human relationships exactly as they are.
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ went on to be adapted into two separate movies, with most of the characters‘ roles being reprised by the actors who played them in previous adaptations. However, some significant additions to the cast included Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour, Domnhall Gleeson as Bill Weasley, and Nick Moran as Scabior. The movies, too, garnered great critical reception and broke several box-office records as well. The premiere of the movie ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’: Part 2 was attended by all the major stars of the movie, and J. K. Rowling too made an appearance on the red carpet.
The promotion of this book involved Scholastic releasing a set of seven questions they claimed will be answered at the end of this book. These questions included, “Who will live? Who will die?”, “Is Snape good or evil?”, “Will Hogwarts reopen?”, “Who ends up with whom?”, “Where are the Horcruxes?”, “Will Voldemort be defeated?” and “What are the Deathly Hallows?” This proved to be a successful strategy as book sales skyrocketed.
While some early reviews of this book were not very praising of it, later reviews began to make up for the negative critics, and soon, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ went on to become one of the most sold books in history.
‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ also won a lot of awards and prizes. It was among the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books in 2007. Malcolm Jones of Newsweek named it the best book of 2007. At the Nebula awards, it won the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2007. It received the Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award in 2008. It was also named in the list of the best books by both Publisher’s Weekly and the American Library Association. It still holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest-selling book of fiction for 24 hours.
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About Mohandas Alva
M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.