Ok yes, so I spent a week in July re-reading the Harry Potter books so that I could go into book 7 with all the building blocks firmly in place. Overall, the series is uneven, not terribly well written from a language point of view, but the stories keep dragging you along, dragging you along, and the characters are compelling enough that, I’ll admit it, Rowling regularly makes me cry. Order of the Phoenix is still my least favourite (there’s just too much in there that doesn’t add anything). And Deathly Hallows definitely managed to tie up a lot of loose ends, raise the stakes on the complexity of the characters and the situation, and bring the series to a satisfying close. That said, if you haven’t read it yet, I’m quite happy to recommend that you not bother to read the epilogue. I suppose it’s still possible to spoil people at this point, so I won’t go into detail, though I’m happy to discuss this with people some time.