It's been an odd experience, reading this. I've read it once before, on the day it came out, and I was genuinely disappointed with it then. I didn't like the treasure-hunt aspect of it, I thought the book was too long and weighed down in the middle with that interminable bloody camping trip, I hated that Ron ditched Harry again, I really hated the very silly epilogue, and none of the far too few deaths moved me in the slightest. (Apart from Dobby, but all I felt there was fucking delight because only Jar Jar Binks is more irritating.) In fact it's amazing how many of them happened offscreen, but god forbid we actually see Lupin, Tonks, or Moody go out when we could have another 50 pages of angst in the forest.

So. I was not pleased, and I wasn't looking forward to the reread. Recalling my emotions the first time round, I'd expected to give Deathly Hallows two stars. (Snape and Neville were bright spots even then.) In fact, when I read and reviewed book six last week, I said "it's not the best in the series, but it's not the worst either", as I was confident that the worst was yet to come. Well, dear reader, after all this moaning my opinion has changed. I appreciate a lot more of the story now than I did then - Dumbledore's history held my attention much more this time round, for instance. And again, Snape. I seriously considered giving this four stars... but as likeable as I find it, those flaws I mentioned above are still there. They simply bother me less now... and some, like the treasure-hunt aspect, don't bother me at all (in fact I rather enjoyed it this time round). The camping drear and the epilogue and the determined refusal to make the most of death scenes continue to act the anchor, and not in a positive way, but I find, previous review aside, that I genuinely prefer this to Half-Blood Prince... and, I think, to Chamber of Secrets as well. And that's been such a pleasant surprise.