I don't care what they say: Harry Potter is the biggest waste of printed paper I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. Yes. I said it. I can already hear the thousands of angry fans stampeding to my house with their plastic, fake wands, ready to shout curses at me, real AND fake.

But truly, what is it about Harry Potter that keeps children and teenagers so captivated? Was it the mystery of Harry Potter's past? Was it the idea of a young boy going to a school to learn magic? Or perhaps it was, as I personally believe, the luring first book? Yes, it's true. Even I used to be an avid Harry Potter reader, gobbling up one book after another. But, as I grew older and the later books were released, I became more exposed to the great writers of the past: Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and, my personal favourite, Fyodor Dostoevsky. In comparison to these collosal writers and their works, the childishly undeveloped characters of Harry Potter and the banal cliches struck out to me even more with each new book. Finally, during the summer I was to enter highschool, the 7th book was released and my teetering adoration of J. K. Rowling's series turned into absolute disgust and abhorrence. The part in the book that most greatly annoyed me was during the Harry Potter vs. Voldemort "battle." For countless pages, Harry raves on and on about how he saw through Voldemort's plan and how the power of friendship is so amazing and bla bla bla; much to my surprise, Voldemort simply listens and patiently waits for Harry to finish speaking. Had it been I in Voldemort's place, I would've just killing Harry then and there. I mean, he had a flipping wand in his hand! What's a wand good for if you can't, if not kill someone, at least chop off a limb or two?

Harry Potter's magical "resurrection" was so obvious and uncreative that I almost gagged at the blatant allusion to Christ.

Perhaps I'm a bit too harsh, a bit too biased. I personnally was just waiting and waiting for Harry to just die and get it over with. The ending of the series was something much less than what I expected from an enormously famous children's author, but that's just the thing--it's a CHILDREN's author. Of course the story's audience had to be taken into consideration while writing it. The simplistic depictions of governmental tyranny may have been a little too exaggerated, but maybe the easy to understand world of Harry Potter is just what children needed: something complex turned basic. But still I refuse to support this series. I believe that books should make children not only enjoy reading and thinking outside the box, but also to thirst for knowledge, to obtain and appetite for better and more sophisticated reading with each newly devoured novel. As a series goes by, shouldn't the quality increase? But as the saying goes, sequels are never better than the first book. Sayings aren't always the truth though. That's for you to decide.