>However,,, there were some flaws. There was about 100 pages in
>there of straight misery.

i agree. it might be more than 100? the lag you're talking about didn't make any sense to me. the longer it went on, the more i got frustrated.

the prince's tale is a perfect example of my harry potter reading experience. snape is one of my favorite characters and i was really excited to find out about snape. but when i read the prince's tale all i could think was: pacing!? i didn't want to find everything out about snape in straight narrative flashbacks, especially because he didn't get a lot of face time in the book. plus, it felt like instead of bringing closure to a story, rowling introduced a new story (with an ending) towards the big finale of the book. that drove me up the wall even though it was interesting.

i didn't care for the dumbldedore backstory, either. i liked the deathly hollows angle, but i'm so so about how it was handled. i liked how the issue of truth and belief was a theme in this book, too. one of my favorite parts of the book was how hermione didn't believe in the deathly hallows, but believed that dumbledore loved harry. and also how harry kept wanting to know the truth. i liked how the situation was resolved between harry and ron during the whole gryfynndor/horocrux chapter. someone already mentioned it, but i loved when harry called voldy riddle.

the same stuff that's always bothered me about rowling's marathon books was in deathly hollows, but as usual, even though i felt annoyed at different points, i loved the book. flaws and all, it was everything i wanted it to be and more.