J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with a print run of 12 million in the United States, drew crowds of children and adults at bookstores everywhere – and Rowling herself gave a midnight reading to 500 contest-winning kids at London's Natural History Museum.
So, what about the book itself? PEOPLE critic Sue Corbett offers her take on Harry's goodbye:
Rowling doesn't want anyone spoiling the plot of her wildly successful epic, but she's quite the tease herself, having whipped readers into an anxious frenzy by dropping hints about characters biting the dust in Deathly Hallows. And boy, do they ever. The first death comes in chapter one, and the final body count is high. Harry is in peril from the beginning, with Death Eaters swarming the skies as he's about to turn 17. The plot careens nearly non-stop from one scrape to the next – it may be some of the most exhausting fiction ever put to page. But it's also exhilarating, and a must-read for those with nagging questions about Snape's true nature, Dumbledore's childhood, and all else Hogwartian. As expected, it all ends with a Star Wars-worthy battle between Good and Evil. Rowling's fans won't be disappointed.
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