Many people may vehemently disagree with me here, but I felt that Book Seven was the biggest letdown of the series. Mainly because so many of the characters we've grown to love over the source of the series are killed off left, right, and center, with no preamble or build up to them. And some of them seem to happen "off screen" entirely! I get that she wanted to make it feel like a real war, but I feel she took it WAY too far. I'm writing a war story, and deaths in these types of stories are always more powerful when you spend time with them, like she did with Sirius and Dumbledor. So many of the characters who die in Deathly Hallows deserved better.
That said, I
loved the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. It works beautifully as the ultimate ideological climax of the series. As an actual fight, it leaves a fair bit to be desired, but a full blown brawl would have come of as lame for one simple fact. Voldemort knows
far more deadly and offensive magic than Harry does, and Harry was never seriously trained in magical combat, especially not to the degree that he would have needed to actually go toe to toe with Voldemort and win. It would have been awesome if he had been, but he wasn't. As the fight stands, it was a perfect representation of J.K. Rowlings idea that Love is the most powerful form of magic. Think about it, Love is so powerful, it defeated Voldemort
in one blow!!! That, my friends, is epic.
So yeah, those are my primary thoughts on the finale. My favorite book has to be Book Five. I never though she could write a character I hated more than Lockheart. And then she gives us Umbridge... *shudders*