Now for the obligatory Harry Potter review.
In a nutshell, I was unimpressed, borderline unsatisfied. I don't feel like ranting on too long about it, and I don't want to give away any spoilers for those still reading. Basically, I think the first 500+ pages are boring and largely unnecessary. The last 250 or so are where the good stuff is, where the things we've been waiting to have addressed since the last book finally happen, and where we're finally hanging out with all of the characters and in all of the places we like so much but which have been absent the entire book so far. The whole book should have been the last 250 pages explored more fully instead of all the other crap that preceded it. Seriously, reading those first 500 pages was like homework. Ugh. And, because all the good stuff is jammed into the last 250, none of the characters get the treatment they deserve (Snape and Draco in particular are deserving of way more page time). Also, as with several of the other books, there's a tendency for Harry to seem like luggage, getting dragged around while everyone makes plans for and about him, without him even knowing until he's wrapped up in the middle of it. It's all a very frustrating experience.
