FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

by J.K. Rowling

(Scholastic)

Reader Appeal: All Ages

Genre: Fantasy

Warning: This review contains some treatment of themes which could reveal the plot of the book. Read at your own risk.

I opened Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as a Harry Potter fan, and I closed it a J.K. Rowling fan.

Rowling had the formidable job of bringing closure to a her seven-volume fantasy series which has captured the imagination of planet. According to Wikipedia, the seven books published to date have collectively sold more than 325 million copies and have been translated into more than 64 languages. Each movie adaptation has proven to be a blockbuster in it’s own right. And so, the pressure for Rowling to bring this epic to a satisfying close, to tie up the loose ends, all the while satisfying fans and critics was, in and of itself, a Hagrid-sized task. “J.K. Rowling and the Planetary Hype” anyone?

No worries, though. Rowling delivered.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows separates itself from the first six novels by discarding the cadence established by Hogwarts' school calendar. Harry has dropped out of the only place he ever considered home in search of the remaining horcruxes—the fragments of Lord Voldemort’s soul which must be destroyed in order to ultimately defeat the nemesis of both the magical world and the world of the muggles (the mundane world in which you and I live).

The Harry Potter stories can be seen as “coming of age” stories, and in Book Seven, Harry finally becomes a man. He is no longer the mischievous boy in book one who bends and flaunts the school rules. In The Deathly Hallows, he buries the anger and petulance which accompanied his entry into adolescence. Harry emerges from his final conflict with Voldemort a noble and serene warrior.

In order to arrive at this place of peace, Harry must first grapple with new revelations about the late Dumbledore, Harry’s mentor and headmaster, and the only father-figure that has stuck with Harry for all seven books. In doing so, he must adopt a more realistic vision of his hero. Dumbledore becomes less divine to Harry; the headmaster was a mere mortal after all, and one burdened by ambition and selfishness. Harry finds the ability to forgive Dumbledore, and by doing so, begins to adopt a more adult version of the world. Even heroes, even in a world of magic, have clay feet.

The final enemy that Harry must defeat before becoming a man is not Voldemort, but the fear of death. It was the fear of death that drove Voldemort to unthinkable depths of wickedness. Each time he tore a piece of his soul to create a horcrux, the deeper he descended into evil.

Harry on the other hand found redemption and immortality by being willing to confront death, free from fear. It’s in book seven that Rowling’s Anglican faith finally shines through. She drops New Testament references in the novel and weaves the Christian themes of death and resurrection into the story. Don’t get me wrong, Rowling did not write a Christian allegory (just as she didn’t write a Satanic allegory as some religious critics have wrongly charged). Lev Grossman, in his Time magazine review, notes there are no gods or devils in Rowling’s world. Mr. Grossman is correct. Even with these qualifiers it is impossible to miss the influence that New Testament texts had on The Deathly Hallows.

A good friend of mine recently noted that Rowling has earned a place with the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in the pantheon of great fantasy writers who were informed by the Christian tradition. I concur. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a triumph.

FAMILYFANS RATING: A

--LS

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