I suppose that it has been long enough that I am going to give my thoughts on the last Harry Potter book.

SPOILER FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T FINISHED HARRY POTTER

My biggest problem is that the people who should have died, lived, and the people who should have lived, died. The second biggest problem was that the book felt like an afterthought in plot.
If a Weasley was going to die, I was hoping it would be Ginny. I don’t like her. She was an afterthought relationship. Groundwork had been laid for Harry to get into a romance with Cho Chang. She seemed respectful enough. Then, out of nowhere, with nary a foreshadow in sight, Ginny leaps to front and center as the girlfriend.
I wouldn’t mind so much if there had been hints of it. But nothing.
It also seemed an afterthought in killing Tonks and Lupin. As near as I can remember, they were killed in one sentence and never referenced again. It was like she put it in at the last minute. You think there might have been some mention later of how horrible it was to have the baby, Teddy, be an orphan. That might have made me believe it was planned from the start, but this? Just sloppy.
I can only assume that Rowling is setting up for a sequel series where we follow the adventures of this new orphan. This was also pointed out by a friend of mine.
I have frequently mentioned my favorite author, Lawrence Watt-Evans. One of the things he did that impressed me a lot was in the end of The Unwilling Warlord. He devoted several pages to clearing up little plot threads that he had introduced; Some of which were clearly only obvious in his head. A paragraph was devoted to each and then we moved on. That was nice and tidy and didn’t interfere with the story.
I wish Rowling had done something like that. She could clear up her threads and still have a good story. I might have found if my theory on Umbridge was correct.