First, let me take a moment.  I'm not in the fandom, but I've been a fan of the series since 1999, when my friend Sara sent a copy of Sorceror's Stone with the words: "Read this!"  I've gone to four midnight release parties, and I've seen all the movies, and I've had my pet theories.  Never wrote any fanfic, although I've read post-war stories that made me cry.  I've said, often and at great length, that I don't think J.K. Rowling is a great writer; I do however think she is a fantastic storyteller.  I'd like to thank her for telling Harry's story.  I've enjoyed it very much.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows contains elements of tragedy in the Shakespearean sense: it begins with two weddings and ends with quite a few more funerals.  Harry dies.  We knew Harry was going to die, knew he was going to be the final Horcrux, just like we knew that "R.A.B." was Regulus Black and that Neville was going to have a role to play in the downfall of Voldemort.  Rowling isn’t subtle.  And that's okay.  This is, or was, a fairy tale that began with a foundling baby abandoned on a doorstep.  Fairy tales aren't subtle, even when they're complicated.  Aware of her own genre, Rowling even plants a fairy tale for the Trio to follow, leading to a delicious red herring.

This book stands out from the others by its setting, for once away from Hogwarts until the climax, and of course by its position as the last book and thus the one that has to tie up enough loose ends to keep Rowling's fans from throttling her.  Regarding the first item, I was initially skeptical but with the return of draconian rule at the school, we really didn't need a redux of Order of the Phoenix anyway.  Regarding the second, I think Rowling succeeded.

In all the books, bad things happen, usually to Harry.  As a friend said earlier today, part of the reason we keep turning pages is because bad things happen to Harry and we are indignant on his behalf and want to see them made right.  Not everything can.  Harry's parents cannot come back, even though their spirits can walk with him to his knowing destruction.  Neville's parents cannot be made whole again, just as Dumbledore's sister could not be made whole, but both men could take up the fight for justice in their honor.  Lupin and Tonks are killed while their son is an infant, but Harry and the rest can make certain he is raised by people who love him.  Things can't be undone (except maybe one) but those who are left can keep going out of love for those who have fallen.

Rowling wrote the first book when her daughter was young, and so the theme she chose was love, mostly of a parent for her child but also for chosen family.  She carries both through to the end: it is not Harry or Neville who kill Bellatrix out of revenge, but Molly, out of love for her children.  The Malfoys drop their allegiance to Voldemort for the sake of seeing Draco alive.  Snape's love for Lily drove him to sacrifice absolutely everything.  "Love one another" is a trite message, but I can't say I'm sad that it just got drilled into ten million little heads today.

Is the ending hokey?  A little bit, yeah.  The bait-and-switch with the "who's your master" on the wands seemed poked in at the end, but it worked given the setup of the destruction of the final Horcrux.  I'm a sucker for "twenty years later" kinds of epilogues, though, and the simple image of the kids leaving Platform 9 ¾ for the first time and the bits of who landed where -- without going into full biographies of everyone -- was just the right end note for me.  The war came, many died, the survivors buried their dead and remembered them and moved on anyway.  (Ask me how much I bawled when I read "Albus Severus."  Go ahead.)

I'm going to have to reread this to get a proper feel for where this fares amongst the other books.  Prisoner of Azkaban has been my favorite of the series since I read it, with Goblet of Fire a close second.  I think Deathly Hallows may unseat them.  Parts are slow, especially with the Trio on the run, and while a post-mortem exposition dump was at least original, I actually groaned when the obligatory "Dumbledore explains it all" scene got underway.  Ditto on "Are you a wizard, or what?"  There's a fine line between touching on previous threads and fanservice shoutouts.  The last installments of many popular franchises wallow in the latter (Star Trek, I'm looking at you.) so I'm glad this did not otherwise go there.

Actually, that sums up my opinion of the book pretty well: it didn't fall into many of the traps I was fearing (fanservice, too much focus on 'ships, too neat an ending) while it told an engrossing story.  I am pleased to have been witness to the Harry Potter phenomenon, and I'm a little sad that the broomstick ride is over.