Tales of the Decongested (Volume 1) Edited by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and Paul Blaney

The Blurb On The Back:

Tales of the DeCongested, Volume One, contains the best stories from the first two years of the Tales of the DeCongested short story reading event. Among the 34 superb tales included in this volume are stories by Ali Smith, Nicholas Royle, Ray Robinson and Frank Goodman.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Intelligent and enjoyable - this is a short story collection that's definitely worth a look. I look forward to reading the next volume.

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

The Blurb On The Back:

Harry has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task: that of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Never has Harry felt so alone, or faced a future so full of shadows. But Harry must somehow find within himself the strength to complete the task he has been given. He must leave the warmth, safety and companionship of The Burrow and follow without fear or hesitation the inexorable path laid out for him ...

In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited. The spellbinding, richly woven narrative, which plunges, twists and turns at a breathtaking pace, confirms the author as the mistress of storytelling, whose books with be read, reread and read again.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Oddly, I think that the book felt rushed - the use of exposition was simply too heavy to be effective and I got the impression that Rowling really lost her bottle when it came to character deaths in that whilst she was happy to whack characters, she didn't want to write anything that gave any emotional impact to those deaths. On many levels, I found the book to be personally unsatisfying - the Epilogue is poorly written and there are two plot holes that really irritated me. Parts of the book could easily have been edited out without causing any loss to the reader and much of the exposition dumped here could have been hinted at or explained in earlier books. Whether this is the children's classic that reviewers claim is something that only time can tell, but I think that looking at this book in terms of the overall arc, it was an undeserved end to the series.