she’s come undone

Year 7 at Hogwarts

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows after 12 hours of on-and-off reading the day of release. So yes, this post is a week late. But who cares! Also, I’m not hiding the spoilers so…stop reading if you don’t like them.

Hmm, where to start? For the most part I actually enjoyed the book. Or should I say the overall effect of the book was one of enjoyment. The exposition of the book was a drag on par with The Wheel of Time. Ron, Hermione, and Harry traveling, camping out, complaining about traveling and camping out. I find it odd that the book is considered Year 7 when they didn’t even go to school. I was really disappointed about having to read about people sleeping in tents instead of actual, you know, Hogwarts fun.

Now, it would seem some people were surprised by Ron/Hermione and the revelation about Snape. I wasn’t surprised about Ron/Hermione, in fact I had thought it was already established they would end up together. Of course, I haven’t read any of the books except from when I first got them, so Lord knows what was actually in the books and what I just invented in my head.

Snape could have gone either way. At the end of the sixth book I did believe he was a good guy in hiding, but for most of book seven I wasn’t so sure. I wanted him to be, but it wasn’t until his death scene that my hopes were confirmed. Also, James Potter was an ass.

I loved, loved, loved, LOVED Molly Weasley kicking ass. She is now officially my favorite character from the series.

Dobby’s death was sad for me. I got a little teary, I admit. And no, I didn’t give a crap about the stupid owl! Anyway, Tonks/Remus…I never liked them as a couple. When I read that Remus had left Tonks (for however briefly) I was so happy! I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. And then he went back. So them dying was fine with me! Besides, the movie Tonks isn’t as soft and pretty as the book Tonks is in my head. So die, Tonks, die!

*coughs*

Who else died? Oh yes, Fred. I was surprised but not emotional about that. Actually, Dobby was the only one to get me a little teary, so there you go.

When Harry said “I am about to die” I felt a wave of emotion; it was fantastic writing at that point. That quickly went away when Harry “died” but then came back. Felt so cheated! However, I did like how Mrs. Malfoy lied about Harry’s death in order to save her son’s life. So from that point to when Molly kicks ass I was enjoying the ride.

The epilogue…the epilogue was horrid! It was a different style of writing and there were random names being thrown around like so much garbage. Ginny not getting to pick any of her kids’ names was sad, and naming a brother and sister after a husband and wife was weird. It wasn’t a very satisfying ending, and I would have liked it better had it ended maybe a year after the events or even just after a mass funeral or something. Although I guess the epilogue did end all the shipper debates.

Oh, which reminds me! Within hours HP fans all of a sudden became fanatics of the next generation of wizards and of course had to team them together. Teddy and Albus, though?! A boy who is almost 20 with a kid who has just turned 11?! These people are worse than WOT fans, and that is saying something.

Book Time

Some books just piss you off. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi IWon’tDoHerTheHonorofaLastName (whew!) is one of those. She spent all the time of the novel developing a character you care about only to go “oops! I don’t know how to end this so I’ll do a Lifetime movie plot twist! :D”. There are other issues: Brian is one dimensional, his wife Sara is two dimensional, and the whole Campbell/Julia love thing? Yeah, so not needed in a story like this.

I read this book last year, maybe even the year before, but I looked it over again the other day whilst cleaning and realized how bitter I was over how she ended this novel. She is obviously talented if she can upset people the way she did: if she hadn’t created a believable cast no one would have cared. So in my own mind I have decided to pretend that ending didn’t happen and make up my own. I feel better that way.

Then there is Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series. It started out so strong. So nice and fun to read, with just the right hint of sex to spice it up. I picked up one of the more recent books and, wow. Just wow. Every freaking chapter there are pages and pages and PAGES of full on pornesque sex. And it’s the same kind of sex every damn time! Anita is a whore. Apparently she is a whore in love with all her men (she’s up to seven at the same time. Yeah.) doesn’t help. It just makes her greedy especially since she wouldn’t want her men to sleep with other women, and she’s undecided on letting them sleep with each other.

So she says she’s “in love” and that Richard should accept sharing her. Ok, wait, so he should share you and be happy about it, but god forbid you share! It’s ridiculous! I did not start this series to read a bad soap opera gone even more wrong, I read it to read about a kick ass zombie killer! WHERE ARE ALL THE DAMN ZOMBIES?! She says her job is her life and I’m a little over half way through this novel and she has yet to go to work. She has sex. A lot of sex. She wakes up and has sex. She has sex before bed. She has sex at noon. Sex sex sex sex. She manages to avoid saying “penis” so the sex scenes read like a romance novel. Only with far less tact and entertainment.

As much as I complain about WOT and Rand and his hos, Hamilton has made me realize how much I prefer them to, well, Blake and her sex slaves. At least Rand knows he’s an ass and doesn’t have all three in the bed with him. Yet.

gasp!

Can you believe it?! I’m updating after…a really long time!
There really isn’t much to say, or maybe there is and I just don’t feel like typing it all up.

I received and read Jan’s first novel (awww!) and yes, Jan, I did enjoy it. She all ready knows this, but for those who don’t, my favorite characters are Chiyo and Ariba (hope I spelled that right!). I like Noah well enough, but he’s not my fave or anything. But then it’s very rare for main characters to make it on my favorites list.

The more I think about it, the more it seems I will be buying vBulletin instead of upgradting to phpBB 3, assuming that project ever sees the light of day. I never thought this day would come! But I am seriously thinking about, and how to go about testing a conversion. I have a feeling the members will like it more; aside from Jan and Niklas and their “open-source!” club. I even thought of making Jan create a vBulletin skin for the forum, but that’s because I’m lazy. I hear it’s easy to do, so it’s not like she can complain! I’d make Kate do it, but she no love us anymore.

My OFB ships tomorrow!!!! w00t! Oh, and I do get spring break off so that means lots of sleep and lots of Sims. And maybe even lots of homework to catch up on. poo on that one.