Hallows, I love you

Like thousands of others across the world on the morning of Saturday July 21, I woke up to a Harry Potter 7-inspired hangover.

My night of debauchery had kicked off at 8.30 the evening before. It was a Friday night in Dublin and where was I? Standing, bedraggled outside Eason’s bookstore on O’Connell Street waiting patiently for midnight – the hour when I would finally be able to purchase a copy of a children’s book featuring magic, wizards and witches (with a few giants, house-elves and goblins thrown in for good measure).
Fire-jugglers and wizards passed out sweets and gifts to the waiting Harry Potter fans. I felt like I had been invited to a surreal children’s party, where everyone was waiting to open hundreds of versions of the same present.
The most entertaining act by far, however, was the host of cars screeching up and down Henry Street carrying boys, who hung out of the windows shouting ‘Harry Pot-hur Dye-uhs!”
As Potter-heads waited for the store to open, some ventured opinions as to how the series’ final novel, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows might conclude. Would Professor Severus Snape prove to be good or evil? Might Harry himself might be the final Horcrux?
Close to midnight, we had some villainy of our own to contend with: late-comers attempting to jump the queue. I found myself glaring angrily at a five-year-old child trying to wheedle his way past the stern security guards by crying pitifully, his over-sized wizard’s hat askew. Maybe he should have tried harder to convince his parents to be there at 8.30 like me – if you can’t take the heat, then get out of the queue, bub!
And then, suddenly, midnight was almost upon us: “Eight, seven, six, five...” chanted the crowd as it surged expentantly towards the doors. Why, it was almost as unruly as a Barbra Streisand concert – for about a minute...
Was the wait worth it? Well the magic of the Harry Potter series lies in the ability of author J.K. Rowling to conjure up intricate plot twists and turns. But each twist and turn must be logically justified and this requires a large amount of narrative exposition. Although this exposition is necessary it tends to be excessive and very tedious to read. This is something that plagued the entire Order Of The Phoenix book. Thankfully, though, it is only present here in small doses. Otherwise, this book sparkles.
Rowling delves into deeper and darker subjects than hitherto, a Muggle Holocaust being one of the truly disturbing elements featured. And the sense of closure that Rowling promised is present. For me, however, the end felt overly sentimental. As an adult reader I felt almost cheated. It seems that Rowling did think of the children after all.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows published by Bloomsbury is out now