The last and final installment of the saga of Harry Potter and his arch-enemy, Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle. In this story, Harry and his best friends Ron and Hermione set out in search of the horcruxes, the items in which Voldemort has planted bits of his soul, which make it impossible to kill him. Not only do they have to find the horcruxes, a task given them by their deceased head master, Dumbledore, but they must also destroy them, not an easy thing to do.
At the start of the novel things are not good for those who oppose the Death Eaters, Voldemort's followers. The Death Eaters have managed to infiltrate the halls of government and Dumbledore's killer, Snape, is now head master at Hogwarts school.
Harry Potter is wanted for questioning in the death of Dumbledore as Potter was seen leaving the scene of the crime in the previous novel. And witches and wizards who come from muggle (non-magical) families are under attack as "thieves" of magic.
Harry and his friends set out to do the task Dumbledore had given them, and they decide not to attend their last year at Hogwarts. Now that Harry is seventeen he is considered an adult and he is not required to attend school any longer.
While on their search for the horcruxes, Harry and company find out about the Deathly Hallows, which turn out to be three objects, one of which Harry already owns, the invisibility cloak. The other two are the elder wand and a stone that can bring the dead back to life. All three items belonged originally to Death himself.
Harry becomes entranced by the idea of the Deathly Hallows, especially the magic stone because he wants desperately to have his parents and his guardian, Sirius, back in his life again. He even thinks of giving up the search for Voldemort's horcruxes and looking for the three items instead. But the untimely death of a very good ally gets him back on track and makes him put aside his doubts and rededicate himself to destroying Voldemort.
Harry realizes that Voldemort must have hidden one of the horcruxes at Hogwarts because Hogwarts was a very special place to Tom Riddle, Voldemort. So the last actions of the book take place at the familiar stomping grounds of Hogwarts. A long battle takes place between Harry and his allies and Voldemort and his supporters. The struggle leaves many dead including some important characters, people close to Harry. Harry, of course, has to confront Voldemort and he does so unarmed, ready to die for the cause if need be.
I enjoyed the story, more than I did some of the Potter stories. This novel is not fun, like the first few Potter stories were. In this story, Potter has to face the facts that Dumbledore was a human and flawed and that Snape is also not the man Potter believed him to be. Potter also learns to accept his destiny and to face it like a man.
Review by Catherine Bennett from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/28/booksforchildrenandteenagers.jkjoannekathleenrowling.
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