Done.

[perpetual_motion]

Finished Half-Blood Prince.



Snape? Good fucking Lord. At the moment I'm working under the idea that he had to kill Dumbldore because of the Unbreakable Vow. Whether or not Dumbledore knew about it, I don't know.

Dumbledore? Cried. Like a baby. Sad. Very sad. Can't form real sentences, yet.

R.A.B.? Sirius's brother.

Me? Completely worn out.



I do *not* relish the bad!fic to come.
When's the next book due?

Comments

[royalwhore.livejournal.com]

Finally finished last night. And yes, cried like a baby.

[julianlee.livejournal.com]

OK. Finally got my hands on a copy of the bastard (had to get it from ::shudder:: Borders ::shudder:: because my beautiful, independent local feminist bookseller is being massively plank-like), and let me respond by saying:

1. Agreed. But what does it say about Snape that he was willing to make that oath, hmmm? No, much as it pains me to say it, this time there doesn't appear to be any way around the fact that dear old Sevvie is one bad apple.

2. I didn't cry. I gasped when I got to that part, and there was a slowly dawning sickened sensation as I realized he really was dead - that there wasn't going to be some trick to it, or some miraculous recovery. But mainly I just thought, Yeah, that sounds like the guy; doing something foolish and noble to get himself killed. Kind of like Harry that way.

3. Thank you! That was my first thought (well, OK, my very first was "Albus was his middle name?" because I'd misread the "B" as a "D" and thought Dumbledore'd somehow written it before he died. But Regulus was my first thought after I got my momentary dyslexia sorted out), too. I was flabbergasted that none of them came up with it. Sometimes JKR makes her characters conveniently dumb at unbelievable moments.

A few other things: I admit I was a little disappointed in the writing in this one. Rowling's storytelling's still excellent, but I think she's reached that dangerous stage where she (or her publisher) doesn't think she needs an editor anymore. And, man, were there places where I wanted to whip out my red pen. Awkward constructions; trite, hackneyed phrasing; awkward exposition...I had to stop and look at the publisher's mark on the spine to remember that, no, this wasn't an unforgivably long, slightly-better-than-average fanfic.

Also, d'you reckon it's possible JKR fears TEH GAY? Not slash writers - pfft, c'mon; we're fanfic writers, what can we do to the richest woman in England? And, rationally, I knew Harry and Ron were never gonna drop trou and engage in feverish mansex. But did you notice how she seemed determined that everybody be perceived as happily heterosexually linked: Harry & Ginny (stupidly noble break-up not acknowledged here); Ron & Hermione; Hagrid & the magically-reappearing-and-yes-they're-still-together-though-we-haven't-seen-her-for-a-couple-books Maxime; Neville & Luna (you caught that bit at the funeral; I know you did); Bill and Fleur (OK, we saw that coming); even Tonks & Remus, for pity's sake - Remus, the gayest o'the gay! Never in my life have I been so close to writing a letter to a famous author to say, "Please, Ms. Rowling, please - just one minor character; we don't need to see them much - just one little queer Hogwarts kid for the thousands of confused queer Muggle kids scouring these books, hoping to see a glimmer of themselves." Which would probably earn me a cease and desist letter from her lawyers, but it would be totally worth it.