I heard third-hand that this ended on a cliffhanger, and that really slowed my progress about 4/5ths of the way through the book. But it was NOT TRUE! Anyway, not only does this conclude quite nicely, but the finale was fittingly intense, and definitely lived up to the buildup of the rest of the novel.

There were some long-ish bouts before the end that felt a bit indulgent, (didn't necessarily feel like they were going anywhere, or contributing to the story arc, etc.), but if you are a HP fan (and why would you be reading this if you aren't?), then they were usually interesting in some way in their own right. Generally speaking, I felt like the writing got better over time, and what was in my opinion "fun" in the beginning became downright GOOD later on, and concluded in a way that was both brilliant and obviously well reasoned. There were a great many surprising and really interesting re-imaginings of character motivations and histories.

I very much enjoyed reading this. It's probably not for everyone, but I found it very satisfying.