LOTS OF SPOILERS FOLLOW
Ruth's finished, writes Richard Lea. Well, actually she finished some time yesterday afternoon, but there were sandcastles to build and trips to go on ...
She liked it. "It's one of the better ones," she says. "It's very different to the others. He doesn't exactly fight Voldemort, and I don't think it goes on too much about Harry's scar hurting and things."
The unusual opening "worked well", she says. "They normally start on Harry's birthday. I thought it was a good idea to change that this time."
She also liked "the funeral scene, Hogwarts fighting the Death Eaters and the bit in the cave". "I think the Pensieve works well," she continues, "because it's a bit like time travelling."
She's still not convinced by the "kissing stuff", explaining that "there wasn't much Voldemort stuff, so I understand why she put it in, but I didn't much like it."
JK Rowling's pacing of the story also gets a thumbs-up. "The plot moved quite slowly," she says, "which was quite good because it let you get a grip on the story."
Despite hints that Dumbledore wasn't going to make it to the end of HP6, Ruth was "quite surprised" and "quite sad" when he died, because "he's a good character." However she maintains that she "wasn't surprised that Snape was a Death Eater".
She's excited about the final instalment, though already a little concerned. "I'm looking forward to the next one," she says. "I think it's going to have to be quite long to fit in finding the Horcruxes."
* What did you think of HP6? Let us know ...
