Pun Salad

Woohoo! Finished the last Potter book!

Tradition dictates that I do a little plot summary here. That seems pointless, but I'll do it anyway:

It's a dark time for Harry, his allies, and his friends: at the close of the previous book, a very important figure in his life was lost. Now Voldemort and his henchpersons are on the Potter hunt, and don't care too much about who they need to torture and kill in order to get to him.

Worse: nearly right off the bat here, they manage to kill off another of Harry's allies, and—this is the really nasty bit—Harry's owl, Hedwig, who had been with him from the start.

The only hope for the good guys: find and destroy the remaining McGuffins (here called "horcruxes") into which the V-dude sequestered little bits of his soul years ago; they provide for his immortality. The minor problems: they have no idea what they are; they have no idea where they are; they don't know how to destroy them once they're found.

Nevertheless, the book winds its (dare I say it? I guess so:) magical way toward a satisfying conclusion. All the major loose threads of the plot are tied up, mysteries are solved, and secrets revealed. Really good stuff that had me hooked right to the end.