Like all true Harry Potter fans, I purchased Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this Saturday morning and read it straight through. It was a fantastic book, and I was going to write a review of it, until I read Thomas Hibbs review, which says what I wanted to say, only far better than I could. Here’s the opening paragraph:

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” This passage, without a reference to its scriptural source (I Corinthians 15:26), appears nearly half way through J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the final book in her hugely popular series. Deathly Hallows marks a satisfying completion of the series, more dramatically captivating and more effectively orchestrated than any book in the series since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. As both the title and the scriptural reference indicate, the book is preoccupied with death. While addressing our peculiarly modern obsessions, the reflection on death and its possible overcoming is hardly morbid. Ultimately, it is not even tragic; instead, it is a comic affirmation of the triumph of life over death, love over hate, and community over isolation.

Read the whole review here.