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Claire North – The End of the Day | Review

Title: The End of the Day

Author: Claire North

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 428

Rating: 4*/5

Claire North – The End of the Day

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for free to review as part of my position on the Young Writer of the Year Award shadow panel. Click here to find out more about that.

This is the third book that I read for the Young Writer of the Year Award, and while I’ve given all of them a 4/5 so far, this one made me realise that one of those should have been a 3/5 and one of those should have been a 5/5. But you live and learn.

The idea behind this book is pretty simple, but it’s hard to actually tell you what happened because it quickly became repetitive. We basically follow Charlie, who’s the Harbinger of Death, as he travels the world to visit people before Death does. Sometimes he’s a warning and sometimes he’s an omen. Sometimes he arrives in time for someone to change their life and to dodge death. Sometimes he doesn’t.

It’s a cool concept, and I was excited to begin with. I liked how it’s just an accepted part of life and thought that added an interesting slant to it, and it forces the reader to ask themselves all sorts of questions about life and death. It almost felt a bit like Neil Gaiman in places, and I thought for a while that it would make a good Tim Burton movie. Then I changed my mind and thought that Quentin Tarantino would do a better job of it.

Claire North

Then there’s Charlie, the protagonist, who’s almost an anti-hero. He’s certainly not necessarily what you’d expect from Death’s harbinger, and I liked that. I also liked that Death was a woman. I just felt as though the book was too long, and I struggled through the last third of it because I just wanted it to end. Then, when it did end, I was disappointed by how it ended.

So there’s a lot to like here, but there’s also a lot to dislike. After a while, you become jaded by it, but in many ways so does Charlie – so perhaps that move is deliberate. I certainly found it to be thought-provoking at times and I also think that I’d need to re-read it if I wanted to pick up on all of the little nuances. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to re-read things.

Overall, I’m glad I read it, but I think there was also room for improvement.

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Click here to buy The End of the Day.

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | Review

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J. K. Rowling

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 610

Rating: 8/10

J. K. Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

This is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, and it focusses on the exploits of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they attempt to locate and destroy horcruxes, which are basically artefacts that include fragments of Lord Voldemort’s soul. Whilst his essence is scattered across different artefacts, he can’t be defeated – the horcruxes must be destroyed first, and only then can there be a final showdown.

This happens at Hogwarts towards the end of the book, when all of the characters converge for a massive face off between good and evil. There are casualties on both sides, but I won’t say who survives and who doesn’t – that’s down for you to find out, when you read it.

What I will say is that this is easily Rowling’s most ‘adult‘ book – it comes at the end of the series, and the series seemed to mature over time. This is great news if, like me, you grew up with the Harry Potter series – it meant that as the series grew darker over time, you were able to appreciate that darkness.

J. K. Rowling

I don’t know whether this necessarily works as a standalone – I think you could probably just about follow what was happening, but I also don’t see why you’d want to. After all, the great thing about reading a series is that you pick up on the subtle nuances that occur over time, which you don’t really get with standalones.

As always, Rowling’s characterisation is in top form here, and the interpersonal relationships between characters in particular are highlighted here to their fullest extent. In fact, we get to see them taken to their logical conclusion – in the epilogue at the end, we see how things turned out for all of the characters that we grew to know and love. Except for the ones that are dead by the end of the book.

One of the interesting things in Deathly Hallows is that very little of the action takes place at Hogwarts – Harry himself is on the run, because the country has effectively been taken over by He Who Must Not Be Named and his Death Eaters. Despite being a ‘good guy‘, Harry is living as an outlaw, because the law happens to be enforced by the bad guys.

J. K. Rowling Quote On Robert Galbraith

Things are bleak, and Rowling paints an incredible picture of a world that’s headed towards ruin. Just when it seems like there’s no hope, something happens to pull us back up again, but only temporarily – it’s a fantastic storytelling technique, which helps to keep the reader interested throughout.

After all, it’s a relatively long read, like most of the later Harry Potter books, but it’s well worth it, especially if you’ve read the rest of the series in order. This book does a great job of wrapping things up – is it a problem that Rowling was in no real rush to do so?

In fact, the main problem with Deathly Hallows is that it ended – when it came out, I read it in a day, and then felt a sense of crushing disappointment. It had nothing to do with the story or the quality of the writing – I was just hit with the realisation that that was it, and that there would be no more Harry Potter books for me to look forward to.

Still, Rowling has a great talent for writing, and she hasn’t stayed idle – I’ve read her subsequent work, and it’s pretty good – she seems to excel in every genre.