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My two daughters were 8 and 9 years old when they read the first Harry Potter book. It was a sweet story of an orphaned boy who discovers that he is special - a wizard with a great destiny. As each new book was released my daughters devoured them, sometimes cover-to-cover in a single weekend. I'm just happy that they were growing up as J.K. Rowling was writing these stories, and were in high school by the time that last couple novels were released. If they had been able to read them all at ages 8 & 9, they might have been truly traumatized!
Ms. Rowling created a magical world full of mystical creatures and characters that children everywhere fell in love with. Then, one by one, she killed off these beloved characters in truly heart-wrenching ways. Sirius Black, Dumbledore, Lupin, Tonks, Mad Eye Moody, Fred Weasley, Dobby, even poor Hedwig, all murdered.
Each book grew darker and darker, and the final one, The Deathly Hallows, is by far the darkest. Forget about all the death and violence, the things she revealed about the characters in this last installment of the series were deeply disturbing.
It is revealed that Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindenwald were once lovers who plotted world domination together. Really? Okay, so Dumbledore is gay - I'm good with that, I mean did we really need to know his sexual orientation? No, I mean honestly, was anyone reading these stories wondering about Dumbledore's sexuality? I don't think so. But hey, why not have a gay character? I'm all for diversity and acceptance, but did she have to make him a reformed Lex Luthor? He was wise and kind and Harry's friend and mentor...oh wait...no, he wasn't. He lied to Harry, withheld information and used him. Good grief!
**And in response to the comments I have received saying that Ms. Rowling never outright said that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers, I give you these quotes from Dumbledore himself, "Grindelwald. You cannot imagine how his ideas caught me, Harry, inflamed me. It was the thing, above all, that drew us together," he said quietly. "Two clever, arrogant boys with a shared obsession." And Bathilda reported to Rita Skeeter: "Yes, even after they'd spent all day in discussion - both such brilliant young boys, they got on like a cauldron on fire - I'd sometimes hear an owl tapping at Gellert's bedroom window, delivering a letter from Albus! An idea would have struck him, and he had to let Gellert know immediately!" And Harry Potter said, "I don't know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn't love, the mess he's left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me." ...Sure, J.K Rowling never actually said that the two were buggering each other, but if it looks like a duck and it walks like a duck and it sounds like a duck... ..."THEY GOT ON LIKE A CAULDRON ON FIRE"...I can't think of words that better describe sexual attraction. Can you? When Dumbledore said, "IT WAS THE THING, ABOVE ALL, THAT DREW US TOGETHER." I had an ah-ha moment, as did readers the world over. Ms. Rowling's one attempt at sublety makes me wonder if the average reader needs an anvil dropped on their head to acknowledge the obvious...
But the worst thing in the whole of the series is what she did to Snape. Turns out that the single motivation for everything that Severus Snape did to help Harry was a creepy, obsessive, unrequited love for Harry's dead mother. Seriously? I think Ms. Rowling must have read Wuthering Heights one too many times as an adolescent and tried to turn Snape into a Heathcliff-like tragic, romantic hero. She missed the mark - by miles. The whole thing just comes across as, well, creepy. In high school I was the object of a troubled teenaged boy's obsession. There is nothing sweet or romantic about it - it's upsetting and very frightening. If I were to find out today that the same troubled boy was still harboring an obsession over me, all these years later, I would feel violently ill. Snape was a character we loved to hate, and I think in the end she wanted us to pity him, but honestly, it was sick, twisted and unnatural. All I can say is...Eewww!
And Harry Potter's great destiny turned out to be...wait for it...to marry a girl he knew since he was 12 years old and have three kids. That's it. What else did he do with his life? Did he become an Auror, a politician, the Minister of Magic, the Headmaster of Hogwarts? Who knows? Apparently the only thing that Ms. Rowling felt was relevant enough to reveal to us was that he fathered three of Ginny Weasley's offspring...who are going off to school with Ron and Hermione Weasley's offspring. Seriously? Thousands of pages of prose culminating in the perpetuation of the Weasley bloodline? Hermione bears Ron's children, Harry father's Ginny's, and soon Teddy Lupin will father Victoire Weasley's children. In the end, it was all about adding branches to the Weasley family tree. Good grief!
The thing is, right now there are third fourth graders all over the globe who will spend thier summer vacation reading the Harry Potter books - they don't have to wait a year or two between installments as my children did. Are they ready for all the death, destruction, violence and darkness? Even I cried reading some of the saddest passages, Dumbledore's funeral and Harry burying Dobby's body, and I'm a grown woman! How will a young child react? Parents beware - these books are not for the faint of heart.
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{HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS} BY Rowling, J. K.(Author)Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(Paperback) ON 07 Jul 2009)
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