This has excellent potential to become my favorite book. The tone seemed so epic, so final, throughout. It was better than I could have possibly imagined it. The book (and series) ended in a thoroughly satisfying manner which far exceeded my expectations.

I worked as a volunteer on the 20th, and ended up staying at my area’s Barnes & Noble for nine hours. I had been terrified that someone was going to drive by and reveal the ending, such as they had in that well-distributed Internet video on the occasion of the 6th book’s release. At about one o’ clock, I did hear someone drive by and say, “Harry Potter….” Thankfully the last words were entirely muffled by the sounds of traffic. (Thereafter I covered my ears.) The sixth book had been spoiled for me when I inadvertently found myself looking at a scan of page 606 on the Internet.

The last several chapters of the book were especially fulfilling. I was very pleasantly surprised by a certain ex-Potion Master and was impressed by Rowling’s ability to tie together the previous six books so entirely and completely.