Mistah Pot-terr.

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

For those who haven't yet read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" but intend to, stop reading NOW.

I mean it! Stop now!

I'll not, probably, reveal any specific spoilers....whether Harry dies; or whether Snape is good or bad; or if Hermione drinks polyjuice and ends up as Margaret Thatcher.....

But if I tell some of my impressions and reactions, I'll certainly reveal at least some of those things, I suspect.

So....you've been warned, if you're still here.

I liked it. Darn near perfect, it was. Darn near! (although, like all her recent stuff, too long by about 20 percent).

You know, I've read a lot of series in my life; and way more often than not, the finale ends up disappointing. Either the author tries too hard to tie up every little thing, to the detriment of the book; or the author re-introduces all the old characters and themes, and it ends up being a "very special" book which is nothing like the predecessors; or it's just a quick dash-off book to get the author off the hook.

In so many cases, anyway, the book has a self-awareness that it's THE FINAL BOOK, and that so often changes everything.

I read the whole "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King. I loved books 1 - 6. By the time he had ended book 7, I was so angry at him that I decided -- and have stuck to it for three years -- never to read anything by Stephen King again. He completely screwed it up, and cheated us readers.

But.....

I think Rowling did a marvelous job. Absolutely wonderful.

She answered everything, tied up everything, and still wrote a true Harry Potter book.

Okay, here come a few specific spoilers after all:

I KNEW Snape was in it with Dumbledore when he killed him, although I didn't imagine why.

I thought Rowling was making a mistake veering off into all the Dumbledore history -- I thought it was going to be too much to add to the series to be able to tie everything up -- but it turns out that all of that was vital...not only to the story line, but to Harry's continuing growth. I think he needed to see that Dumbledore, too, was human....and for Dumbledore to tell Harry that Harry was a better man than he, well, imagine what that meant to Harry!

In the epilogue, Harry tells his son that Snape was the bravest man he ever met!!! Whoda seen that coming?

I can't believe how much I loved this book.