[JaredL]

I was surprised by a few things.

Firstly, as mentioned in the other thread the book was really slow in the middle. The first couple hundred pages were exciting and the last couple hundred incredible but the middle seemed to drag on and on.

It was a lot darker and more adult than I was expecting. There was some line about a Merlin's hanging left ----- which referred clearly to his left nut, they said "effin" repeatedly, and Mrs. Weasley referred to Bellatrix as a bitch. I wasn't really expecting that. Plus a lot more sideshow characters died than I was expecting.

On the other hand I expected one of Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I guess including Ginny to die. That none did was surprising given what Rowling had said.

I felt like the perfect ending actually would have been to have Harry die when was AKed, which would then kill Voldemort. They would have to have killed the snake somehow though I guess. I tend not to like happy endings that seem to come out of nowhere and while this wasn't really that I think having an ending that was less completely happy would have been good. Only Fred dying was the real downer.