tiredI finally finished
Ah, if only this book had been around 350 pages shorter. It would have been excellent. As it was, I spent the first 300-odd pages asking "Where's the plot?" like some old lady from an old Wendy's commercial. The end of the book more or less redeemed the beginning part. (Which, while not bad, did sort of leave me wondering how it is that most authors manage to resolve their plots by page 300, while Rowling seemed not to have even managed to begin hers.)
I wish to say many thanks to Rowling's editor for damping down her enthusiasm for "-ly" adverbs. The last book was starting to read like a badly written fanfic. This one was less painful in that regard. Now if only her editor could get Rowling to stop retelling the same story over and over again and perhaps branch out into new arenas...
In summary: Is this the best thing I've ever read? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. It is vastly better than the last one.
Annoyingly, I think I need to go read (or more likely, watch) something else. I don't really feel like falling asleep to that ending. It was good, but I think I need to have something else fill the blank space left at the end.
