To boldly go where everyone has gone before

Update!
I missed out Tom Riddle's diary in the first version of my post, as many people have reminded me, so I've updated and added it in.
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Everyone I know who's into Harry Potter has read, discussed, forum-ed, blogged, and whatnot about the book.. Just jumping on the bandwagon here!

I can't believe there's anyone out there who is into Harry Potter who hasn't read HP7 yet, so might as well go ahead and blog out some spoilers.

I did not like:
- Don't see the point of Charity Burbage's murder. Hello, who has even heard of her before HP7?
- Kreacher's conversion was too fast and too complete to be believable. Rather like a deus ex machina character, he suddenly is able to give Harry the key to finding the locket.
- What does Umbridge want with it anyway??
- Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem was entirely too conveniently found and destroyed.
- Suddenly the entire novel revolves around the Deathly Hallows, which have never been mentioned before! And if Marvolo's ring was the Stone, how come Voldemort didn't realise that when he made it into a Horcurx?
- How come Voldemort can't sense Harry spying on him killing Snape in the Shrieking Shack? He was able to sense him easily enough before.. And Harry accesses Voldemort's mind without Voldemort himself knowing or trying to make use of that connecttion to "plant" images in his mind?
- And the fact that wands that have been won from their owner now recognize new "ownership" - if that was true, wouldn't wands have changed owners multiple times during every DA session (Expelliarmus!)? And if it applied only to the Elder Wand, well, Harry won Draco's own wand from him, and not the Elder Wand.
- Too many (seemingly) random deaths.. Lupin I understand, last of the Marauders, but why Dobby, Fred, Tonks, etc? It somehow feels like the names were picked out of a "lucky draw" containing all the remaining characters!

I like:
- Snape's loyalty. Beautifully shown in the form of his doe Patronus. Finally providing the plausible reason why he both loathes and tries to protect Harry - father's face, mother's eyes. Finally it's revealed as important why Harry has his mother's eyes.
- Love. Not the sappy puppy love kind of love, but the self-sacrificial love that Harry finally proves to have.
From beyondhogwarts.com:
The most important part of the prophecy was that LOVE was the weapon that would ultimately defeat Voldemort, and i had always wondered how Ms.Rowling would execute this most extraordinary concept. I think it's absolutely brilliant how she did it. Snape's LOVE for Lily redeemed and protected him from going back to being evil, Regulus' LOVE for Kreacher redeeming him from the same, Dumbledore's LOVE for his family redeeming him from corruption, the Malfoys' LOVE for their son eclipsing their lust for power, and the LOVE shared by Harry and his friends and families so strong that they will gladly die as Lily Potter did--to give the others protection through their sacrifice. LOVE as the ultimate weapon against evil and all its' temptations. An excellent way to teach a modern generation about one of life's most important lessons.
- That friends like Neville, Ron and Hermione got some of the limelight too - I thought it was rather cool that each Horcrux was destroyed by a different person rather than all being single-handedly done by Harry alone.
1. Tom Riddle's diary - Harry
2. Marvolo's Ring - Dumbledore
3. Slytherin's Locket - Ron
4. Hufflepuff's Cup - Hermione
5. Ravenclaw's Diadem - Crabbe
6. Nagini - Neville
7. Harry - Voldemort
8. Voldemort himself - Harry.

(oo what a hard-to-please reader I am..)

Nonetheless, it was a great ending to a great series, I stayed up until 2am to devour the book! (a super rare occurence for me nowadays) and on a weeknight no less.. Now I can go back to my book-lessly boring life and wait for the next series to come along and fascinate me.. JKR joins my list of "all time favourite series writers" together with Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern), David Eddings (The Belgariad etc), Piers Anthony (Xanth), Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time).. ahh.