Anyone else think D. Hallows was mediocre?

IMO, series went downhill starting with OotP, when JKR started to add lots and lots of filler to make the books of comparable length as HP4 (GoF). And hit rock bottom with DH, with the generic fanfic-y epilogue, a crapload of filler (first two-thirds of the book), characters acting out-of-character, etc. etc. The book also seemed like it was written specifically for an action flick, with so many narrow escapes from Harry & co. that it was hardly believable. There are some well-written 2-star reviews on Amazon that elaborate on these points, so I won't bother repeating them here. That's not to say that there aren't any good bits here and there, but for a book series that's received so much popularity and been so positively received by critics, I feel like I'm missing something. Do most people just have poor taste or is it just me?

JESUS FINALLY SPEAKS!!

Well, the whole series was pretty mediocre, but that's beside the point. IMO, GoF was the best in the series- OotP didn't quite measure up to its predecessor, but it was good enough that I just assumed that I was trying too hard to compare the two (and Umbridge, in my view, is one of the most ingeniously crafted characters she's come up with). HBP was where it truly began to suck, though it was less of a downhill slope and more of a brick wall in the middle of the freeway.

The problem with DH, more than anything, is that it required JKR to finally write an ending to the series, which hey! turns out she's not very good at. Some parts of it, including the scene in the grave yard, Dobby's death, Snape's past, the taboo thing, etc. were done VERY well. Other parts of it? God no. Harry was, if possible, 10 times as Mary Sue-ish in this one than in the past 6 books...I mean come on, she finally started to move away from that with 5 and 6 and then she brings it on stronger than ever. The final fight and every narrow escape before it all seemed like convoluted situations created for the sole purpose of making Harry
"the man".

Other nitpicks: The ending was fucking lame. I facepalmed hard at the entirety of Harry's duel with Voldemort. The epilogue made me gag and the entire ending was way too Deus Ex Machina for me...I mean, SUDDENLY, GOOD GUYS, THOUSANDS OF THEM! God dammit, JKR...way to get lazy and pass it off as "epicness".

I agree with (3) and (4) completely.

The only reason DH is so highly rated on Amazon is that the stupid teenage fangirls who make up about half of the series' readership inflate the scores because they've been so blindly obsessed with this franchise.

I mean, when the vast majority of the five-star reviewers simply write one-liners and yet the 2- and 3-star reviewers back up their criticisms with paragraphs of text, you know which side is more intelligent and whose opinion holds more water.

I pity those who find HP a "great" series that's anything above merely an entertaining read. They really should read more books.

>>5 I agree you.

>>5
But you admitted that it was an entertaining read, and that what makes Harry Potter sell and what makes it so popular. Most people read books to be entertained, not to experience great literature.

>>7

the two are rarely mutually exclusive, retard.

I'm still pretending that Deathly Hallows was a bad fanfic.
I don't think I'll ever be out of the closet.

DH sucked ass.
Especially the epilogue, which was the worst of the whole fucking book.

She was rich enough already, and she thought, 'Hey! Let's make another billion!' So she added all the crappiness she could think of into a book. Because she would make money without any effort.

She should die. DAMN YOU JK ROWLING!