Valley of the Dolls is the title of a best selling novel by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. It is widely considered one of the most commercially successful novels of all time.^{[citation needed]} The “dolls” within the title is a slang term for downers, mood altering drugs.

Valley of the Dolls was an instant success when it was first published. Since then it has sold more than 30 million copies. As the first roman à clef by a female author to achieve this level of sales in America, it led the way for other authors such as Jackie Collins to depict the private lives of the real-life rich and famous under a veneer of fiction.

In 1967 it was adapted into a dramatic film of the same name which was directed by Mark Robson, and stars Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, and Patty Duke. The novel was adapted again for television in 1981 and in 1994 a late-night, syndicated television soap opera ran for one season using the name and a loose adaptation of the premise.

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Plot summary

The novel begins immediately after the end of World War II and chronicles the story of three young women who embark on careers that bring them to the dizzying heights of fame and eventual self-destruction. The three characters are brought together by a Broadway play called Hit The Sky. Anne Welles has recently arrived from Lawrenceville, Massachusetts with hopes of changing her life in New York City. She lands a job with an agency that represents legendary Broadway star Helen Lawson, who stars in Hit the Sky. Neely O’Hara (aka Ethel Agnes O’Neil) is a plucky kid with an undeniable talent and a background in vaudeville. Neely lives downstairs from Anne and uses her friendship with Anne to get a role in the chorus of the play. Jennifer North, a beautiful blonde showgirl with limited talent who is squired around by rich men, appears in the play as well. The three women become fast friends, and share a bond of ambition and the tendency to be involved with the wrong men.

Jennifer’s mother constantly hounds her for money via reverse-charge telephone calls from Ohio. Like Grace Kelly, Jennifer has married a European prince, but then discovered he had no money except what he could earn through advertising and wanted her to sleep with the advertising executives to get contracts. Returning to America, Jennifer takes up with nightclub singer Tony Polar. Believing his childish behavior is caused by his overprotective half-sister/manager Miriam, Jennifer eventually persuades Tony to elope, then goes to Hollywood with him as he pursues his career. Shortly thereafter, she becomes pregnant. On finding Tony’s been unfaithful she decides to leave, but keep the child. Tony’s half-sister Miriam finally explains that Tony has a congenital brain condition that causes seizures, mental retardation and will culminate in total insanity. Jennifer decides to have an abortion.

In contrast to the film version (where Jennifer finds herself working in “art movies” to pay Polar’s medical bills), Miriam pays Tony’s hospital expenses out of his own savings. Jennifer decides independently to perform in French art house films, since she is only highly regarded for her body and is desperate for money owing to her mother’s unceasing demands. Jennifer’s real ambition is to have children upon whom she will lavish the approval and affection she was denied by her family. Stress and smoking make her an insomniac, and she uses titular “dolls” (barbituates) sparingly as sleep aids.

Jennifer returns to the United States after years in Europe, where she gains moderate success as an actress. She meets and falls in love with a young senator who has Presidential ambitions. However, she is diagnosed with breast cancer and told she must have a mastectomy and should not have children. In bed, her lover unwittingly mentions that he loves her breasts, becoming overly enthusiastic about it to the point that she believes he, like all men, loves her only for her body. She commits suicide with an overdose of “dolls”. (In the film, she does this so that Tony, whom she never divorced, can have her life insurance money for medical care.)

Neely becomes famous on the Broadway scene, and moves to Hollywood to work in movies, and becomes a superstar in Hollywood’s musical movies, even winning an Oscar. She eventually earns a reputation as demanding, spoiled, and difficult to handle. Despite that fact that her movies earn high returns at the box office, they consistently lose money due to her behavior and long shooting periods. She becomes addicted to the dolls that Jennifer introduced her to, using “uppers” (Dexedrine) to lose weight and be able to wake herself up in the morning, and barbiturates (Seconal, Nembutal) to sleep. Her addiction grows to a serious and dangerous point. After numerous suicide attempts, a year long black list from the entertainment world and two failed marriages, Anne has Neely committed to a psychiatric hospital. Upon release she works with agent Lyon Burke to revitalize her career and quickly returns to her vicious, arrogant behavior. She begins a relationship with Lyon, despite the fact that he is married to her close friend Anne. Her attraction to the dolls is too strong, and she seems to spiral into a final decline.

Anne fares the best of all three, becoming a highly successful model after a stint as a secretary. Even in her administrative job, her beauty and class are obvious to everyone. Shortly after she arrives in New York, millionaire Allen Cooper falls for her after only six weeks of dating, and demands her hand in marriage. Anne, not ready to settle down so quickly, repeatedly refuses. Allen does not take no for an answer. During an out of town trip for the debut of Hit the Sky, Anne realizes that she is in love with handsome and charming Lyon Burke, a lawyer at the agency. When she tells Allen, he angrily breaks off the relationship, much to Anne’s relief; but Lyon is not ready for a serious relationship with her. She remains in love with him for years, even when she is a successful model in a relationship with an older man. When she meets Lyon again their passion is quickly rekindled. She and Lyon are married, and Anne has a baby, whom she names Jennifer after her now deceased friend. Lyon continues to have affairs, including one with Anne’s close friend Neely. In the book, Anne stays with Lyon, falling under the allure of the dolls and using them to escape the reality of her life. In the film, Anne and Lyon never marry and there is no baby. Rather, she leaves Lyon and returns to Lawrenceville, which is described as the one place she found real happiness. He then visits her one day to propose but she refuses. These were last-minute changes in the script, so out of keeping with Anne’s established character that original screenwriter Harlan Ellison took his name off the film.

Background

Much of the narrative is drawn from the author’s experiences and observations as a struggling actress in the Hollywood of the early forties. Helen Lawson, the aging stage actress who befriends and uses Anne, is based closely on Ethel Merman, whom Susann had known personally and reportedly had been sexually involved with.

The character of Neely O’Hara with her excess of talent coupled with her self-destructive alcoholism and dependency on prescription drugs, is said to be based upon Judy Garland. Her powerfully energetic stage and screen image are closer to those of Betty Hutton. Like Neely, Hutton had an ingenue role in a musical (Panama Hattie) opposite Merman — and had her one song cut from production by Merman, exactly as Lawson does to ingenue Terry King in the novel, because it drew attention away from the star. Judy Garland was originally cast in the movie as Lawson, until Garland’s unpredictable behavior led to her dismissal and Susan Hayward replaced her.

O’Hara’s treatment in the sanitariums is a milder version of the fate that befell actress Frances Farmer. Susann was well acquainted with institutions and mental hospitals because of her struggle to find an acceptable milieu for her autistic son. The tragic character of Jennifer North is said to be based upon actress/pin-up girl Carole Landis, who had been romantically involved with Susann in their Hollywood days. Like Jennifer, Landis was seen as an ambitious blonde with little real talent, and after a series of failed relationships and a career that had quickly stagnated, she committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates. Certain aspects of her personality resemble those of Marilyn Monroe, particularly her actual yet often overlooked intelligence. Her involvement with Senator Adams is comparable to Monroe’s rumored affair with John F. Kennedy. The character of Tony Polar, the mentally impaired singer, was rumored to be based on Frank Sinatra, but Susann herself was quoted in her biography Lovely Me saying that she got the idea for Polar when she tried to interview Dean Martin after one of his shows; he was too engrossed in a comic book to pay attention to her.

Quotes

American ska-punk-rock band Sublime used a quote from Valley of the Dolls in their song Smoke Two Joints. Exact quote from the movie based on this book: “She was living in a single room with three other individuals. One of them was a male and the other two, well, the other two were females. God only knows what they were up to in there. And furthermore, Susan, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn that all four of them habitually smoked marijuana cigarettes–Reefers.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Dolls

House of Many Ways is a young adult fantasy novel written by Diana Wynne Jones. The story is set in the same world as Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air.

Plot Summary

Charmain Baker had led a respectable, sheltered life. She has spent her days with her nose in a book, never learning how to do even the smallest household chores. When she suddenly ends up looking after the tiny cottage of her ill Great Uncle William she seems happy for the adventure, but the easy task of house-sitting is complicated by the fact that Great Uncle William is also the Royal Wizard Norland and his magical house bends space and time.

Though she is supposed to clean up the mess Great Uncle William has left the house in, Charmain knows next to nothing about magic, and yet she seems to work it in the most unexpected way. The house’s single door can lead to almost any place – from other rooms like the kitchen, to faraway places, and even other time periods. In her first days in the magical house, she ends up looking after a magical stray dog, a confused young apprentice wizard named Peter, a box of the King’s most treasured documents, and a clan of small blue creatures called Kobolds.

When Charmain is caught up in an intense royal search to remedy the kingdom’s troubles, she encounters Sophie Pendragon, her son Morgan, a noisy but beautiful child named Twinkle, and their fire demon Calcifer.

She is soon involved in curing the kingdom of its ills and restoring the long-lost Elfgift.

Characters

Charmain Baker

A thin-faced, ginger-haired girl who grew up in an ultra-strict family environment. She has the abilities of a witch, inherited from her family, but was raised thinking that magic was vulgar.

Royal Wizard Norland

An old wizard who is sent away to be taken cared by the elves when he falls sickly. He allows Charmain to take care of his house, while he is away

Sophie Pendragon

Formerly known as Sophie Hatter, Sophie is a lovely, powerful witch who is able to speak life into objects. She has a young son named Morgan and is married to the Wizard Howl.

Wizard Howl

Known also as the Wizard Pendragon, Howl Jenkins is a flamboyant wizard who is married to Sophie. In Castle in the Air, he had two apprentices: Michael Fisher and another unnamed apprentice. He becomes the ridiculously adorable child Twinkle and claims that Sophie is his aunt.

Calcifer

A fire demon that lives with Sophie and Howl.

Morgan

Howl and Sophie’s child, he is almost two and rather mischievous. Howl uses Morgan as an excuse to be “Dinkle” and meddle with the mystery that only Sophie was supposed to be involved in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Many_Ways

Gone is a young adult supernatural novel written by author Michael Grant, originally published in hardcover in 2008. It is the first novel of the Gone series.

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Plot summary

In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fifteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have “The Power” and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not.

Sequel

As of now, Michael Grant has said in a blog post entitled ‘Killing a Character?’ that the sequel to Gone, is going to be titled, Sacrifice. It is slated for a publication date, in late June or early July of next year.^[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_(novel)

The Fall of the Templar is the third volume of the Grey Griffins series written by American authors Derek Benz and J. S. Lewis, and published by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Press. The book centers upon the adventures of the Grey Griffins: a secret club of four best friends living in the fictional town of Avalon, Minnesota.

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Plot summary

Lord Sumner has unlocked the secrets to the Spear of Ragnarök, unleashing a power that threatens to bring a second Ice Age. All hope seems lost until the Templar Knights discover clues that may lead them to a relic with the power to stand against the Spear.

Now Max Sumner, Natalia Romanov, and Harley Eisenstein must join the Templar in a treacherous journey into the Underworld as they hunt for that lost relic and try and save the planet from extinction and rescue their friend, Ernie Tweeny. But even if they make it through the underground labyrinth, an ageless dragon awaits at the end of their quest.

In the end, Max finds the Eye of Odin but it is taken by his father who then stabs the World Tree. This awoke the Great Dragon and the dragon and Lord Sumner engaged in combat. Max then gains control of the Spear of Ragnorak and kills the dragon, sparing his father who escapes badly injured. As Max is ready to leave the battle scarred field, Athena betrays the Templars and steals the spear, revealing that she now works with the Order of the Dragon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_of_the_Templar

The Eyeless is a BBC Books original novel written by Lance Parkin and based on the long running science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor. It will be published in December 2008, alongside Beautiful Chaos and The Story of Martha. This is the first of the New Series Adventures to feature the Doctor without any companions.

Like all Doctor Who spin-off media, the way the plot fits in to the ongoing story of television series is open to interpretation (see New Series Adventures Canonicity for more details). It is possible that this novel will take place after Series 4 as Catherine Tate has said Donna will not appear in the 2009 Specials and no other companions have been announced to take her place. Another possible “companion-less” gap is between “Voyage of the Damned” and “Partners in Crime.”

Plot

At the heart of the ruined city of Arcopolis is the Fortress. It’s a brutal structure placed here by one of the sides in a devastating intergalactic war that’s long ended. Fifteen years ago, the entire population of the planet was killed in an instant by the weapon housed deep in the heart of the Fortress. Now only the ghosts remain.

The Doctor arrives, and determines to fight his way past the Fortress’s automatic defences and put the weapon beyond use. But he soon discovers he’s not the only person in Arcopolis. What is the true nature of the weapon? Is the planet really haunted? Who are the Eyeless? And what will happen if they get to the weapon before the Doctor?

The Doctor has a fight on his hands. And this time he’s all on his own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyeless

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is a novel by the bestselling author, James Patterson and co-author Michael Ledwidge. Written in the same vein as his Maximum Ride series James Patterson returns to the realm of science fiction in this novel. It was released on July 21, 2008.

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Premise

Daniel X works alone for his job. Having watched from the shadows as the brutal murder of his own parents unfolded before him, he has been forced to make his own way in a dark and unforgiving world with a heavy task handed to him. Daniel’s parents were alien hunters and their deaths sees him working his way through their fearsome ‘wanted’ list of aliens intent on seeking control and wreaking devastation, with the help of his four best friends, who he has “created” with his mind and powers. But as he planned his next target, his own time was running out. Following his parents’ sudden deaths, Daniel faced an uncertain future: he knew little about his family nor where he came from but a few things were clear, he had inherited the list from his parents and a unique ability to create anything that he needs including some very devoted friends to help him along the way. His life has become dedicated to the mission. Every day has been transformed into a terrifying hunt, watching each step he takes for danger awaits around every corner and lurks within the shadows. His ultimate aim is to exact revenge against number 1 on his list: his parents’ murderer. But first he must target the others: each more sinister and gruesome than the last.

Plot

Daniel X has the best superpower ever: the power to create. He can create real object–people, food, anything–with only his mind. And they aren’t merely projections or holograms; they are actual objects. In addition, he has super-speed (he out-ran a 100-mile-an-hour truck) and super-strength (he can throw a car into the air if the need comes). He is also granted an eidetic memory.
When he was three, his parents were brutally murdered right in front of his eyes by a praying-mantis-like alien called the Prayer. He came in search of the List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma (Earth), and when Daniel’s parents refuse to hand it over, he kills them. Daniel survives only by transforming into a tick and grasping onto the Prayer as he flees from the burning house. After he loses his grip on the prayer and falls off, he avenges to kill the Prayer for the death of his parents. He returns to the site when he is thirteen to recover the List.
Twelve years after the murder of his parents, fifteen-year-old Daniel X has taken up the task of his parents as Defender of Earth. In the sewers of Portland, Oregon, he faces and defeats number 19 on the List, in hopes of working his way up to number 1: the Prayer. Later, he is confronted by the Portland Runaway Juvenile Unit, and he escapes with the help of his “parents” which he conjured up using his powers. He then leaves to go to Los Angeles in search of number 6 on his List — a shape-shifting alien named Ergent Seth who resides in Malibu.
On his way to LA, he confronts an agent of Seth’s. He has a message for Daniel: Don’t go to LA. Daniel ignores his command and continues on towards LA. He spends that night in the wood, camping with his “friends” Joe, a motormouth and competitive eater; Willy, a stocky and headstrong fighter; Emma, an compassionate environmentalist; and Dana, the love of Daniel’s life.
The next day, Daniel arrives in LA. With the help of his parents and “sister” Pork Chop (Brenda), he rents a house. His parents warn him not to go after Seth, because he has never gone after an alien in the Top 10. That night, while he is asleep, he is haunted by one of the many vivid nightmares that he has, in which the Prayer warns him not to go after Seth because the Prayer wants to get him.
The next day, Daniel decides to go to school, a first in Daniel’s life. Because of his power to telepathically access human knowledge, school was never necessary. At the end of the day, he bumps into Phoebe Cook, someone whose first day it also is. He walks her home and, following ideas from her mind, asks her out on a date.
He decides to search the city for clues about the whereabouts of Seth. He stumbles in upon a child-slave and drug-dealing operation. He goes to the one in charge of the operation (not Seth) and wipes his mind and makes him believe he is a Pentecostal preacher.
The following day after school, he walks Phoebe to his house, which he finds destroyed by two alien cats. The cats are regents of Seth’s, and warn him to leave LA. After attacking him, they flee. Soon after, he is contacted by Seth. He warns Daniel (again) to leave LA and never come back, or Seth is going to kill him.
The next day. More school. Daniel, so as not to seem too smart, purposely flunks a History test. He literally runs into Phoebe after the test.
Phoebe has something to tell him. She feels terrible for keeping a secret: the reason she had changed schools. A few months before, Phoebe’s sister, Allison, had been abducted without a trace off of her own driveway. Daniel suspects it to be the work of Ergent Seth. On his way out of the school, he is attacked by some of Seth’s henchmen. After incapacitating them, he hurries home, where he finds his mom—only he didn’t intentionally create her. He speculates he created her from his subconscious.
Later that day, Phoebe calls Daniel to a coffee shop, and gives him the case file, which has details to other abductions that form a pattern, which Daniel describes as forming “an almost-perfect connect-the-dots circle with Malibu at its center.”
After his house is compromised (again), he feels it is unsafe to return to his house that night, so he goes to spend the night with Phoebe. They plot to go to Malibu the following day to investigate Allison’s disappearance. Phoebe lets him sleep in the closet, so as to avoid detection from her parents.
The next morning, Daniel awakens to find Phoebe missing. Her parents don’t know where she is. Daniel checks around the house before checking the school. He finds Phoebe, but something is wrong.
Phoebe turns out to be Ergent Seth in disguise. Seth takes his powers and knocks him out. Daniel comes to in a truck as it drives to a warehouse near Death Valley National Park. After and exchange of words, Seth shoots Daniel with an Opus 24/24, the same kind of gun that killed his parents.
After getting shot, Daniel is dragged through the desert and is taken up into a space ship. The ship flies away from Earth. Daniel is put into a cell for the duration of the trip. He summons his friends, and they take to reconnaissance. During a poker game with his “family,” he figures out that his mother had been pregnant when she was killed, which also killed the unborn Pork Chop.
Daniel is taken to the bridge as the ship comes to another planet very similar to Earth, only it isn’t. It is Daniel’s home world; only it has been destroyed by Seth. Daniel escaped from a landing party, and flees to under the wreckage, where the few survivors.
After regaining his strength, he goes after Seth again. He meets him at a Mexican standoff with the help of a thousand summoned soldiers. He makes Seth agree to one-on-one combat with Daniel.
He turns into a tick and enters into Seth’s head via his ear. He expands inside Seth’s head, killing him.
He leaves the planet, returning to Earth, as it is his duty to defend it because he is Daniel X, Defender of Earth.

Characters

Daniel “Hopper” X — When his parents died in the beginning, he was left with a list, a list of aliens, to terminate. Daniel has the power to create, anything he wants, and he can shape shift, and read minds, which makes it easier to terminate all the aliens. He is forced to move from town to town, due to breaking the law.He doesn’t go to school, not until the middle of the book, when he moves. He is very smart, but sometimes he acts dumb, just so he doesn’t get made fun of. The whole book he is after number 6 on the list.

Phoebe Cook — In the middle of the book, number 6 impersonates her, pretending Daniels girlfriend, thus earning his trust. But one night, Daniel jumps up to her window, he sleeps in her closet, and as she dreams Daniel reads her mind, and he thinks it’s very weird. It’s number 6 in a classroom, trying to figure out a confusing problem, and everyone is calling him “dumb dumb”. In the end Daniel finds out that it’s his weakness. After number 6 is dead, the real Phoebe comes up to Daniel to give him his laptop.

Release details

• 2008, USA, Little,Brown ISBN 0-316-00292-5, 21 July 2008, Hardback
• 2008, Australia, Random House Australia ISBN 9780385613774, 01 July 2008 Trade Paperback

Literary significance and reception

Jodi L. Israel was fairly critical in her review of the audiobook version of this novel for the Library Journal saying “Though Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia’s reading is well executed-his self-deprecating tone conveying all the insecurities of teenagehood-his talented reading can’t save this work from its substandard prose, flat characters, absurd plot twists, and holes large enough to fly an alien battle cruiser through-flaws all exacerbated in audio. Not recommended.”^[1]

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It was reported in May 2008 that New Regency Productions obtained the rights to The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.^[2][3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dangerous_Days_of_Daniel_X

Change of Heart is a novel by Jodi Picoult published in 2008.

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Plot introduction

Shay Bourne is the first New Hampshire death row prisoner in 69 years. He wants to donate his heart after his execution to the sister of his victim who is in need of a transplant.

Plot summary

Prologue

June and her husband Jack are in a car accident. Jack dies, policeman Kurt helps June and eventually they marry and prepare for birth of a daughter. During the building of an addition to their house their contractor leaves, leaving them with a hole in a wall and rain leaking through the attic ceiling. Shay Bourne arrives one day and is hired to work. One day after June’s eighth month ultrasound she arrives home to find Kurt and Elizabeth shot. Shay is charged with their murders.

The trial

The jury convicts Shay of two counts of capital murder. The jury then deliberate on the death penalty. Eventually they all agree with Michael being the last juror to agree on the death penalty.

Eleven Years later

Shay Bourne is transferred to the I-tier at the Concord state prison. Shay is in the cell next to Lucius DuFresne an artist with HIV who killed his gay lover. During the night Shay tells Lucius the he wants to donate his heart to a little girl that he saw on TV.

Michael the juror has become the junior priest at a parish in Concord, New Hampshire.

June has long since given birth to her daughter Claire, who is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. Although she has had an defibrillator transplanted in her heart prior, it is wearing her out and without a new heart, she is sure to die.

Back in the I-tier there is a strange incident with wine flowing through the toilet pipes. Shay’s final appeal is denied and his execution date is set, two and a half months away. He fights with Maggie, his lawyer, for the right to be hanged instead of lethal injection because he wants to give Claire, the little girl, his heart.

Calloway is covertly caring for a bird (Batman the Robin) in his cell. He plays a game of chess with Shay where the stakes are Shay’s brownie and Calloway’s bird. Guards come in and search Calloway’s cell and the bird is tossed across the cell and killed. Shay still wants his winnings and after the dead bird is given to Shay (in his cell out of sight) the bird comes back to life.

Claire is in the hospital as she has been told that they have a heart available for transplant. But the heart had a bad right ventricle. Michael while saying Mass drops a consecrated host into the wine and sees a vision of himself on the host.

Back in the I-tier Shay gives gum to all the men on the ward even though he says he has only one piece. When Lucius chews it the sores in his mouth no longer hurts, he sleeps through the night for the first time in 6 months and when he wakes his AIDS appears to be gone. The news makes it to the media and people and news crews come to the state prison, many believing that Shay is the Messiah.

Michael visits Shay in prison and Shay tells him the he specifically wants to donate his heart to Claire. Maggie arrives and becomes Shay’s lawyer. Maggie finds that in the New Hampshire death penalty code it states that an inmate can be hanged if the commissioner finds it impractical to carry out the sentence of death by lethal injection. Michael investigates the supposed miracles and finds that Lucuis’ irreparable damage to his brain caused by the HIV has been reversed.

June agrees to meet Shay in a restorative justice meeting. In the meeting June asks Shay “Why did you do it?” Shay responds “She was better off dead.” June does agree to take Shay’s heart out of spite. Maggie starts the legal process to petition commissioner of corrections to allow Shay to be hanged so his heart can be donated to Claire. Shay is determined by Clare’s doctor to be a perfect heart transplant match. Maggie brings Father Michael to her parents house for dinner and during a religious discussion Rabbi Bloom gives Father Michael a book about the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas written by Ian Fletcher. Shay has quoted various parts of the Gospel of Thomas. One of the prisoners in the I-tier attacks a guard guard with a broken broom handle while cleaning his cell. He is pronounced dead by the EMT’s, Shay is seen huddled in the corner of his cell apparently praying and the dead guard comes back to life while the EMT’s are moving his body. Another prisoner using the confusion attempts to kill Shay.

Father Michael visits Ian Fletcher to discuss the Gnostic Gospels. Maggie arranges a dinner meeting with Dr. Gallagher to discuss organ donation for Shay. The dinner turns into a date. June sneaks Dudley into the hospital to make Claire feel better and a nurse reveals the upcoming transplant which June has not discussed yet with Claire. Shay’s trail begins, Michael testifies that its his religious belief that he needs to donate his heart to Clarie to obtain redemption. Father Michael uses Shay’s quotations from the Gnostic gospels as his religious foundation. Ian Fletcher then testifies as an expert on the gnostic Gospels. Father Michael admits to Shay that he was on the jury that convicted him. Mather Michael locates Shay’s sister, Grace and tried to convince her to forgive Shay for setting the fire that disfigured her face. While testifying at his trial all of Shay’s chains fall away from him for no apparent reason.

Shay tells Father Michael that on the night of the murder that Shay had come into the house and Kurt, Elizabeth’s stepfather was molesting her and that during a struggle with a gun and both Kurt and Elizabeth were killed. Shay refuses to allow Maggie to use that information to try and delay his execution. Claire convinces her mother to let her die and June tells Maggie that she is refusing Shay’s heart. Lucius dies in the prison from AIDS-related pneumonia. Maggie and Christian make love and spend the night together. Judge Haig hands down his ruling and instructs the state to allow Shay to be executed by hanging so his heart can be given to Claire. Shay’s sister Grace visits June and tells the story of how she was abused by her foster father, how she set the fire which kills him and which Shay takes the blame. She plants the idea in June’s mind that Kurt might have been abusing Elizabeth and June changes her mind and accepts Shay’s heart. Just before his execution Shay admits for Father Michael that he did murder Kurt after the struggle with the gun where Elizabeth was accidentally killed. Shay’s heart is successfully transplanted into Claire. Three days after Shay’s execution his sister gives Father Michael Shay’s things from his prison cell, in it was a page torn from The Gospel of Thomas.

[edit] Epilogue

Three weeks after her surgery Claire is home and Grace is coming to visit. In her room she sees that her dog Dudley is dead, but when she picks him up his heart starts beating again.

Characters in Change of Heart

• June Nealon — Mother of Elizabeth and Claire, wife of Jack and Kurt
• Elizabeth Nealon — June’s daughter by Jack, her first husband
• Kurt Nealon — policeman at accident, then June’s husband
• Claire Nealon- Kurt and June’s daughter, needs a new heart
• Shay Bourne — murderer of Kurt and Elizabeth
• Michael — UNH college student, member of the jury, priest
• Lucius DuFresne — Prisoner in the state prison in Concord. He has HIV, is an artist and has the cell adjacent to Shay. Lucius is in prison because he killed his lover, Adam in a fit of jealous rage.
• Alma — prison nurse
• Calloway — white-Supremist prisoner in the I-tier
• Maggie- ACLU lawyer
• Oliver — Maggie’s pet rabbit
• Dudley- June and Claire’s 13 year old Springer Spaniel
• Dr. Wu — Clare’s cardiac physician
• Rabbi Joel Bloom — Maggie’s father
• Judge Haig — Judge that presides over Shay’s trial to control his method of execution.
• Dr. Christian Gallagher — Doctor who provides Maggie with information on organ donation and eventually becomes her lover and the physician on record for Shay’s execution.
• Grace Bourne — Shay’s sister, she was disfigured in the fire that sent Shay to juvenile detention.

Style

Change of Heart is written such that each chapter is from the point of view of one of the characters.

Literary significance and reception

Publishers Weekly in their review said that “Picoult bangs out another ripped-from-the-zeitgeist winner. Picoult moves the story along with lively debates about prisoner rights and religion, while plumbing the depths of mother-daughter relationships and examining the literal and metaphorical meanings of having heart.” It also says that “The point-of-view switches are abrupt, but this is a small flaw in an impressive book”, however, others say that the different viewpoints of the characters provide valuable insight to the story for the reader and abruptness is inevitable.^[1]

Donna Seaman reviewing in Booklist says that it is a “a compulsively readable saga and dramatic critique of capital punishment”. She compares Change of Heart to The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. And that the novel is “Laced with intriguing musings on the Gnostic Gospels, Picoult’s bold story of loss, justice, redemption, and faith reminds us how tragically truth can be concealed and denied.”^[2]

Janet Maslin writing for the New York Times had several complaints about this novel. She felt that Jodi Picoult wrote the novel on “authorial autopilot”, that it has the subtlety of a jackhammer and was made needlessly long by scenes such as Maggie chatting with her pet rabbit. She says that June Nealon is “a wet hankie of a character, full of grief and anger, but otherwise lacking any distinguishing characteristics.” She felt that Jodi Picoult missed her own chance at redemption, “had Change of Heart culminated in revelations that were truly plausible or unexpected, its vapidity might have been transcended. But there is no substance to the story’s last surprises.”^[3]

In terms of public reception, Change of Heart debuted as number one on the New York Times Fiction bestseller list.^[4] It remained at the number one position for two additional weeks,^[5] before being knocked from the number one position on April 13, 2008 by Jonathan Kellerman’s Compulsion.^[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_of_Heart_(novel)

The Battle of the Labyrinth is the 4th book in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. It was released on May 6, 2008 in the US and Canada. This book is recommended for children aged 10 and up.^[1]

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Plot

Percy Jackson has been invited to Goode High School by Paul Blofis, his mom’s new boyfriend. While at the freshmen orientation Percy has a run in with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the mysterious mortal he met the previous winter at the Hoover Dam who can see through the Mist, and two demonic cheerleaders, the “empousai” (empuses). He’s able to defeat one of the empousai, Tammi, but the other, Kelli, explodes into flames upon defeat, instead of disintegrating like the other monsters and getting Percy in trouble yet again. With Rachel’s help, he’s able to get out of the school, escape the cops and find Annabeth, a fellow demigod who is also daughter of Athena the goddess of wisdom. They were supposed to have a “date”, but with the sudden interruption of the empousai and Rachel, their afternoon together is canceled and they head for Camp Half-Blood, which is a refuge for demigods.

On their arrival, Percy discovers Dionysus‘ absence and he attends Grover Underwood‘s hearing with the Council of Cloven Elders, who feel that they should revoke his searcher’s license since he has found no evidence of Pan after six months of claiming to hear him. In attendance, is also Grover’s girlfriend, Juniper, a dryad. They give him one week to find proof of Pan’s existence. Percy also meets the new swordsman trainer, Quintus, an adult half-blood and his gigantic hellhound pet, Mrs. O’Leary. Percy tells Chiron about how Kelli disappered in flames. Chrion explains to Percy how the more powerful monsters can escape instead of disintegrating.

As Luke‘s forces are gathering and plan to invade Camp Half-Blood, the demigods begin preparations. While playing a deadly game with giant scorpions, Percy and Annabeth discover an entrance into the dangerous Labyrinth. They soon conclude that Luke will try to invade camp through the Labyrinth. Clarisse’s mission from last winter is discovered to had been scouting around one of the entrances in Phoenix, Arizona, where she finds a fellow half-blood, Chris Rodriguez, who’d joined the ranks of the Titans and was driven insane when Luke sent individual troops into the Labyrinth. Clarisse harbors some deep romantic feelings for him.

Annabeth is chosen to the lead the quest to find the workshop of Daedalus, inventor of the Labyrinth and holder of Ariadne‘s string, and consult the Oracle. She’s vague about the last line of the prophecy and breaks the rules by allowing three questers, Percy, Tyson, and Grover to come with her instead of two. Percy receives a mysterious Iris message that shows Nico talking to a ghost adviser, who turns out to be King Minos, and raising the dead by using Mcdonalds cheeseburgers, and coke to get answers to find a way to trade a soul for a soul. Before descending into the Labyrinth, Quintus gives Percy a dog whistle, that when blown, will summon Mrs. O’Leary to him whenever he is trouble. Percy remembers Luke’s gift which was suppose to drag him into Tartarus and says he is not going to use the whistle because Juniper told Percy she saw Quintus snooping out the Labyrinth entrance.

Once in the Labyrinth, they immediately get lost and don’t know which way to turn. They meet Janus, the two-faced god of choices, and Hera, Queen of Heaven and the goddess of marriage. Hera guides them and tells them to seek out Hephaestus, who might have kept track of Daedalus over the ages. They continue their journey through the maze and come out into Alcatraz, where they discover various prisons used to hold Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires (or Hundred-Handed Ones), who were allies to the Olympians during the first war, along with their jailer, Kampê. Tyson meets his hero, the Hundred-Handed One, Briares, and sets him free to discover that he lost his will and confidence for battle. They face Kampê and barely escape. Tyson almost dies against Kampe but Percy hits her with his shield Tyson made him and it was lost for good. Later in the story Kampe is killed.

They soon come across the demonic dude ranch called the Triple G Ranch and meet Geryon and Eurytion, who is an elder son of Ares. Staying there also is Nico the son of Hades. Geryon was paid to let the questers go through, but not Nico. Percy makes a deal that if he cleaned the stables of Diomedes like Hercules did, then Geryon would let his friends go. He succeeds by using the power of the ocean inside him, but Geryon tells him that he didn’t make the deal binding by swearing on the River Styx. Percy and Geryon battle. Percy learns that Geroyon has three hearts and can not defeat him with a sword. He gets a bow and prays to Artemis and Apollo to help him shoot. He succeds and hits all 3 hearts. He sets Eurytion free of his command by killing Geryon. For his thanks, he gives them a silver disk necklace that’ll help locate the god Hephastus. Afterward, Nico summons Bianca’s spirit, who lets him know that Percy wasn’t to blame for her death. Nico decides to remain behind at the ranch, while the others continue.

As they continue their quest to find Hephaestus, they come across the Sphinx, who upsets Annabeth by not having more challenging riddles, instead of just fact questions. They escape the grasp of the Sphinx and discover Hephaestus in one of his forges fixing a Toyota Corolla. He tells them that he’ll help them find Daedalus if they found out whose been using his forge at Mount St. Helens. They agree, but split up along the way when Grover gets a scent of Pan. Tyson decides to go with him, leaving Percy and Annabeth to head to the forge. They discover telekhines (sea demons) there, making a weapon for Kronos. Percy tells Annabeth to escape while she can and she kisses him then departs to report back to Hephaestus.

The telekhines discover Percy and injure him by throwing lava on him. Percy summons all his powers to get rid of the lava and the telekhines, and ends up causing Mount St. Helens to erupt and almost awaken Typhon. He is then sent while unconscious to Calypso‘s island by Hera. Hephaestus arrives and tells him what he wants to know about Daedalus and what he’ll need to guide him through the Labyrinth: Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Calypso offers him to stay, and she tells him her curse; ‘the gods send her a hero that she can’t help but fall inlove with’. Percy later states that the curse worked both ways. He leaves Calypso’s island and heads for camp. Stating that he would be thinking about her for the rest of his life. At camp he learns that everyone thought he was dead. He and Annabeth go looking for Rachel and find her in Manhattan.

Together, they descend into the Labyrinth again, this time with Rachel as their guide, whose eyes are harder to fool since she can see directly through the Mist. They find an underground arena with Luke’s troops in it, being used to entertain a giant son of Poseidon and Gaea, Antaeus. Percy duels against a dracaena, who he easily defeats, and then fights a half-blood named Ethan Nakamura, who he spares in the battle. He then challenges Antaeus to battle and successfully kills him. The monsters begin to overwhelm them and he calls Mrs. O’Leary by use of the dog whistle to help them out. They escape and finally find their way to Daedalus’ workshop to discover Daedalus is actually Quintus. Daedalus had built five bodies for himself over the millennium, by casting his soul into the humanoid automatons. Monsters attack again in his workshop, led by Kelli who has taken Nico captive. He had left the Labyrinth, but he was advised by Minos to return because Minos said Percy and Annabeth would be in danger. It was a trick , because Minos wanted revenge on Daedalus for his treachery and giving the daughters of a rival king the tools to kill him. He reveals that once Nico got the soul, he would use it for himself, and not on Bianca. Percy, Annabeth, Nico and Rachel are able to escape on bronze wings and fly out of Daedalus’s workshop, leaving him to battle the monsters with Mrs. O’Leary.

Rachel convinces a chauffeur to drive them into the city due to her wealthy status and she spots another entrance to the Labyrinth in a museum. Once in the Labyrinth, they come across a tunnel that leads to Mount Tamalpais and the palace of Kronos. Percy can’t help but check it out and discovers the telekhines from Hephaestus’ forge have reforged the weapon for the Lord of Time Kronos, his scythe or sickle. Percy opens the coffin to discover Luke, who looks dead. Ethan, son of Nemesis (a minor goddess), enters with the telekhines and pledges his allegiance to Kronos. That was the last soul Kronos needed to complete his transformating body, and he is resurrected in the form of Luke’s body. Percy and his friends barely escape, and Nico uses his powers to cause the ceiling of the palace to cave in.

They continue on their journey back to New York and begin to sense something ancient and powerful in another tunnel. They find Tyson and Grover, and discover the lost god Pan in a crystal cavern. He wants Grover to tell the world he has died, since his kingdom has faded and that his spirit shall live inside all of them. He leaves Percy, Annabeth, and Rachel cryptic messages about their futures. Pan then dies and the crystal cavern vanishes along with its wonders. They then return to camp, where Luke’s forces have begun the invasion. They’re able to beat them back, with the help of Grover, who creates panic among the enemy forces, but have a few casualties, including Lee Fletcher, a son of Apollo, and Castor, one of Dionysus’s twin sons. After the battle, Daedalus, by order of himself, dies to destroy the Labyrinth.

The Council of Cloven Elders decide that Grover should be exiled and that the search for Pan should continue, but Dionysus returns and outvotes them. Percy hears the last line of Annabeth’s prophecy and is upset to hear that she would Lose a love to worse than death, wasn’t about him as she had thought, but Luke. Percy wants to tell Annabeth that he doesn’t want to be so distant from her, but finds that he can’t. Annabeth decides to stay at camp a while and Percy heads home to celebrate his fifteenth birthday with his mom, Paul Blofis, and Tyson. He gets a surprise visitor in the form of Poseidon, who gives him a sand dollar as a birthday gift. He also gives him a warning that ancient forces are stirring, the great monster Typhon is stirring from his imprisonment under Mount St. Helens due to the Titans’ rising and Percy’s outburst. Poseidon then tells Percy that he is his favorite son. Also, Paul tells Percy that he wants to propose to his mom. Percy plants a moonlace flower on his fire escape that he’d kept from Calypso’s island and finds Nico there. Nico tells Percy that he has some news and a way to beat Luke, but gets distracted when he sees the blue birthday cake. Percy invites him in for cake and ice cream.

Main characters

Percy Jackson: Son of Poseidon Sea god.

Annabeth Chase: Daughter of Athena.

Grover Underwood: Satyr. One of Percy’s best friends. His life’s ambition is to find the lost God of the Wild, Pan.

Tyson: Percy’s Cyclopes half-brother. Claimed by Poseidon as his child. He had been working for his father in the Palace of Poseidon under the oceans, in the Cyclopes Forge.

Clarisse: Clarisse’s scouting mission involved her to enter the Labyrinth near her mother’s house in Phoenix, Arizona. There she finds a fellow half-blood, Chris Rodriguez, who was driven to insanity in the Labyrinth by the ghost of King Minos. She takes him back to Camp Half-Blood and tries to nurse him back to health with nectar and ambrosia. She is found crying, showing this daughter of Ares is in fact capable of love. Dionysus is able to reverse the insanity saying, “He knows about madness.” The two are later seen together, happy and holding hands at the camp fire, singing.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare: A mortal who can clearly see through the Mist. Her father is a wealthy businessman who buys the undeveloped land of the wild and builds developments upon them. She hates her father for doing so and was embarrased to meet Pan, God of the Wild. Percy had previously met her at the Hoover Dam in The Titan’s Curse.

Nico di Angelo: Son of Hades. Upset that his sister Bianca died, he is slightly psychotic, and attempts to trade Daedalus‘s soul for that of Bianca. He has a sword made of Stygian Iron.

Luke Castellan : Son of Hermes. His body becomes possessed by the spirit of Kronos

Kronos: The youngest son of Oronos and Gaea. Kronos overthrew his father with the help of his mother. He married his sister Rhea, and created the Greek gods. He swallowed his children as they were born to prevent his father’s fate from becoming his own. Rhea hid her son Zeus, and when he was old enough Zeus freed the Cyclopes, who fashioned the Master Bolt. With this and his father’s weapon Zeus cut Kronos into millions of pieces and banished him to Tartarus. Since then, Kronos has been planning his escape and the downfall of the Olympians.

King Minos: Ancient king of Crete, stepfather of the Minotaur and commissioner of the Labyrinth.

Geryon: A being with three torsos, having three hearts, two arms, four armpits. Owner of Triple G Ranch in Texas.

Eurytion: The son of Ares, he is in the employ of Geryon. Percy describes him as “looking as if Father Time had completely jacked out and gone redneck“. He wears a T-shirt that says “Don’t Mess With Texas“.

Daedalus/Quintus: The great inventor of the Labyrinth and son of Athena, who makes five automatons to cheat death, and becomes the new swordsman at Camp Half-Blood under the name Quintus. He has a murderer’s mark on his neck branded by Athena as he killed his nephew Perdix. He owns a Hellhound named “Mrs. O’Leary”.

Juniper: A dryad, Grover’s girlfriend. Named because she lives in a Juniper bush.

Dionysus: The god of wine and director at Camp half-blood, until being recalled by Zeus to check on the Minor Gods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Labyrinth

Adam
First edition cover
Author	Ted Dekker
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Thriller novel
Publisher	Thomas Nelson
Publication date	2008
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 978-1595540072 (first edition, hardback)

Christian Retail Version

There is a version of the book that is sold exclusively to Christian retail stores. This version contains the full novel, plus an extra chapter at the end, making the final chapter number forty-three, and a conversation between Dekker and John Eldredge. The cover has a blue tint with “Adam” in white letters and a red border at the top signifying itself as the Christian retail version.

Plot Synopsis

Daniel Clark is a behavioral psychologist who works for the FBI. For the past 16 months he has been stalking a killer called Eve who kills a young woman during every new moon.Daniel gets killed when he meets the killer face to face, but is resuscitated afterwards. His obsession with getting into the mind of the serial killer and stopping him from killing more innocent woman lands his marriage in divorce. After dying once he thinks he has nothing to lose in tracking down Eve.

Extract from the articles in the book about the life and origins of the killer called Eve: “There is no greater crisis facing humanity than atheism. One hour in the dead of the night with a man that is possessed will shatter the defiance of the staunchest atheist.” “I don’t blame those who don’t believe in Evil; I pity them. The inhabitants of this planet also once thought the earth was flat. It was their lack of experience that failed to inform them of the truth, not any lack of intelligence.” “Destroying all forms of light is Evil’s primary occupation. Its secondary purpose is to do so without being detected. I would say that every human brushes up against the most abject form of evil at least once a day. But they might notice only once every ten years.” “I have seen the face of evil, and if not for the grace of God himself, I would have cut my own throat so as not to face it ever again.” – Father Robert Seymour (Dance of the Dead)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_(2008_novel)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

Deathly Hallows is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever, selling more than 11 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release. The previous record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Half-Blood Prince.^[2] The Deathly Hallows has also been translated into numerous languages, including Ukrainian,^[3] Swedish,^[4] Polish^[5] and Hindi.^[6]

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Pre-release history

For more details on this topic, see Harry Potter fandom.

Choice of title

Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three titles for the book.^[7][8] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling’s website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book’s publishers.^[9] Asked during a live chat as to the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.^[7]

Marketing campaigns

Jacket art of Scholastic (US) edition.

The launch was celebrated by an all-night book signing and reading at the Natural History Museum in London, which Rowling attended along with 1700 guests chosen by ballot.^[11] Rowling toured the USA in October 2007, where another event was held at Carnegie Hall in New York with tickets allocated by sweepstake.^[12]

Scholastic Inc., the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, launched a multi-million dollar “THERE WILL SOON BE 7″ marketing campaign with a ‘Knight Bus’ travelling to forty libraries across the United States, online fan discussions and competitions, collectible bookmarks, tattoos, and the staged release of seven Deathly Hallows questions most debated by fans.^[13]

Scholastic also hosted “Harry Potter Place”—a magical and interactive street celebration at Scholastic headquarters in New York City, where the first U.S. signed edition of Deathly Hallows was unveiled on 20 July 2007. The festivities included 20 feet (6 m) high Whomping Willow, face-painting, wand-making, fire-eaters, magicians, jugglers and stilt-walkers.^[14]

J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing British child Madeleine McCann to be made available to book sellers when Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July 2007 and said that she hoped that the posters would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.^[15]

Rowling on finishing the book

Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: “J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007″.^[16] In a statement on her website, she said, “I’ve never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric.” She compared her mixed feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield, “a two-years’ imaginative task.” “To which,” she added, “I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles…” She ended her message, “Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series.”^[17]

When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted to. “These books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now, that they’re all leading a certain direction. So, I really can’t.“^[18] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, “almost as though they are two halves of the same novel.”^[19] She has said that the last chapter of the book was written “in something like 1990″, as part of her earliest work on the series.^[20]

Spoiler embargo

Rowling made a public request that anyone with information about the content of the last book should keep it to themselves, in order to avoid spoiling the experience for other readers.^[21] To this end, Bloomsbury invested GB£10 million in an attempt to keep the book’s contents secure until the 21 July release date.^[22] Arthur Levine, U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series, denied distributing any copies of Deathly Hallows in advance for press review, but two U.S. papers published early reviews anyway.^[23][24]

Online leaks and early delivery

In the week before its release, a number of texts purporting to be genuine leaks appeared in various forms. On 16 July, a set of photographs representing all 759 pages of the U.S. edition was leaked and was fully transcribed prior to the official release date.^{[25][26][27][28]} The photographs later appeared on websites and peer-to-peer networks, leading Scholastic to seek a subpoena in order to identify one source.^[29] This represented the most serious security breach in the Harry Potter series’ history.^[30] Rowling and her lawyer admitted that there were genuine online leaks.^[31] Reviews published in both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times on 18 July 2007 corroborated many of the plot elements from this leak, and about one day prior to release, The New York Times confirmed that the main circulating leak was real.^[30]

Scholastic announced that approximately one ten-thousandth (0.0001) of the U.S. supply had been shipped early  — interpreted to mean about 1,200 copies. One reader in Maryland received a copy of the book in the mail from DeepDiscount.com four days before it was launched, which evoked incredulous responses on the part of both Scholastic and DeepDiscount. Scholastic initially reported that they were satisfied it had been a “human error” and would not discuss possible penalties.^[32] However, the following day Scholastic announced that it would be launching legal action against DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment.^[33] Scholastic has filed for damages in Chicago’s Circuit Court of Cook County, claiming^[34] that DeepDiscount engaged in a “complete and flagrant violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully constructed release of this eagerly awaited book.” Some of the early release books soon appeared on eBay, in one case being sold to Publishers Weekly for US$250 from an initial price of US$18.^[35]

Price wars and other controversies

ASDA,^[36] plus several other UK supermarkets, had already taken pre-orders for the book at a heavily discounted price. ASDA then sparked a further price war two days before the book’s launch by announcing they would sell it for just GB£5 a copy (about US$10). Other retail chains also offered the book at discounted prices.^[37]

In Malaysia, a similar price war brought about controversy regarding sales of the book.^[38] Four of the biggest bookstore chains in Malaysia, MPH Bookstores, Popular Bookstores, Times and Harris, decided to pull Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off their shelves as a protest against Tesco and Carrefour hypermarkets. The retail price of the book in Malaysia is MYR 109.90 (about GB£16), while the hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour sold the book at MYR 69.90 (about GB£10). The move by the bookstores was seen as an attempt to pressure the distributor Penguin Books to remove the books from the hypermarkets. However, as of 24 July 2007, the price war has ended, with the four bookstores involved resuming selling the books in their stores with discount. Penguin Books has also confirmed that Tesco and Carrefour are selling the book at a loss, urging them to practice good business sense and fair trade.^[39]

The book’s early Saturday morning release in Israel was criticised for violating the Sabbath. Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai commented “It is forbidden, according to Jewish values and Jewish culture, that a thing like this should take place at 2 a.m. on Saturday. Let them do it on another day.”^[40] Yishai indicated that he would issue indictments and fines based on the Hours of Work and Rest Law.^[41]

Dedication and Epigraph

On the page, the unusual layout of the dedication resembles the shape of Harry’s scar. It reads, “The dedication of this book is split seven ways: to Neil, to Jessica, to David, to Kenzie, to Di, to Anne, and to you, if you have stuck with Harry until the very end”.

All the books in the Harry Potter series have dedications, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the only one to include an epigraph. It contains two quotes relating to death and friendship. The first quotation is an English translation from Ancient Greek of a passage from The Libation Bearers, by the 5th century BC playwright Aeschylus.^[42] The second quotation is from More Fruits of Solitude (1682) by William Penn, the Quaker author and founder of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.^[43]

Plot

While in the Malfoy Manor, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters plan to ambush Harry Potter when he leaves the Dursley home with the Order of the Phoenix for the final time. Voldemort takes Lucius Malfoy‘s wand, in the hope that it will be able to kill Harry.

Meanwhile, Harry disposes of things he would not need, as he does not plan to go back to study at Hogwarts – notably, his Quidditch robes. Indeed, Harry would not have this year an occasion to play Quidditch; however, on three key occasions – getting hold of the Hufflepuff Cup and the Ravenclaw Diadem, and during the final fight with Voldemort – the “unerring skill of the Seeker” would be vitally useful to him in snatching an object out of the air.

Members of the Order of Phoenix are ambushed by Death Eaters as they attempt to escort Harry from the Dursleys’ to a safe house by broomstick using decoys. Harry’s wand, seemingly of its own accord, countercurses Voldemort when Harry is attacked, allowing him to narrowly escape. Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody are killed, and George Weasley loses an ear.

The trio go to the Burrow where Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrives to give Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger bequests from Albus Dumbledore‘s will. Ron receives the Deluminator, Hermione is left a children’s book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Harry inherits Godric Gryffindor‘s Sword and a Snitch, bearing the mysterious phrase “I open at the close”. The Ministry claimed the sword to be “an important historical artefact”, however, and kept it.

At Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour‘s wedding reception, a Patronus, conjured by Kingsley Shacklebolt arrives, announcing that the Ministry of Magic has fallen under Voldemort’s control, and that Ministry officials, and Death Eaters are on their way to The Burrow at that moment. As the wedding dissolves into chaos, Death Eaters approach, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione disapparate to Tottenham Court Road, where they hide in an empty cafe to plan their next move. However, the Death Eaters find them there and they narrowly escape. They eventually find and take refuge in 12 Grimmauld Place.

While at Grimmauld Place, Harry deduces that Sirius Black’s brother Regulus was the “R.A.B” who removed the Locket Horcrux from the sea cave.^[HP6] Hermione recalls seeing a locket whilst cleaning the house, and they discover that the house-elf Kreacher had stolen the locket from the items to be thrown out. Kreacher tells them that he had placed the Locket Horcrux in the cave as ordered by Voldemort, and Regulus later died after retrieving it and deceiving Voldemort. With the help of Kreacher and Mundungus Fletcher they learn that the locket is now in Dolores Umbridge‘s possession. The trio successfully infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and recover the locket. However, Grimmauld Place is compromised when they return, forcing them to flee to the countryside.

The trio begin to travel the country, looking for Horcruxes and the means to destroy them. Overhearing a discussion between Griphook the goblin, Dean Thomas, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, and Gornuk (another goblin), the trio learn that the Sword of Gryffindor that is held at Hogwarts is a fake. Harry decides to find the real sword that can destroy the Horcruxes; some time after this Ron and Harry argue over Harry’s lack of a plan, after which Ron abandons the group. Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric’s Hollow, as well as Harry’s old house. While looking at the house, Harry and Hermione are beckoned by Bathilda Bagshot into her home. Knowing something is not right, Harry follows her upstairs, where she transforms into Nagini. Voldemort himself appears almost immediately after. Hermione casts a Blasting Curse that ricochets around the room, facilitating their escape, but also irreparably damaging Harry’s wand. When Voldemort realises they have escaped him, his fury is so strong that Harry is forced to see Voldemort’s memory of the night he had killed Harry’s parents, leading Harry to fall unconscious.

Hermione apparates Harry to the Forest of Dean. While he is on watch, a silver doe-shaped Patronus leads Harry to an icy pond containing the real Sword of Gryffindor. As Harry dives into the freezing water to retrieve it, the locket Horcrux starts strangling him. Ron, who was guided back to the pair by the Deluminator that Dumbledore gave him, saves him. Ron recovers the sword and destroys the locket with it. Ron warns that Voldemort’s name is now Tabooed: speaking it reveals the speaker’s location to Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

The mysterious recurring symbol is revealed to represent the legendary Deathly Hallows.

The trio learn from Xenophilius Lovegood that the symbol they have encountered represents the three Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. Xenophilius tells them about the Deathly Hallows and the story of the Three Brothers who each took respective “gifts” from Death. When pressed about Luna’s absence, Lovegood admits that Death Eaters abducted her. Hoping for Luna’s return, he has alerted Death Eaters of the trio’s whereabouts, but the trio escape. Shortly after this escape, Harry figures out that the Invisibility Cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows.

Soon after, Harry accidentally uses the name of Voldemort, and the trio are captured by a gang of Snatchers, led by one of Voldemort’s followers and taken to Malfoy Manor, where they join the imprisoned Luna, Dean, Ollivander, and Griphook. Finding Gryffindor’s Sword among the trio’s possessions, Bellatrix Lestrange fears they have broken into her Gringotts vault, and tortures Hermione for information. Help arrives in the form of Dobby, who apparates into the cellar and rescues Luna, Dean and Ollivander. This attracts the attention of Lucius Malfoy, who summons Wormtail to the cellar to check on the prisoners. As he enters the cellar, Harry and Ron attack Wormtail.^[HP4] Harry reminds Wormtail of his life debt after Harry saved his life.^[HP3] Wormtail hesitates and is subsequently strangled to death by his own silver hand for his betrayal. Harry and Ron rush upstairs to rescue Hermione; Ron disarms Bellatrix and Harry takes Draco Malfoy‘s wand. Dobby reappears, and they disapparate to Bill and Fleur Weasley’s cottage; Dobby is struck by a knife during the escape, and dies afterwards. Voldemort, having been alerted to Harry being captured, arrives at Malfoy Manor almost immediately after Harry escapes and tortures the remaining Death Eaters. He then leaves them, goes to Hogwarts, and takes the Elder Wand from Dumbledore’s tomb.

At the cottage, Ollivander confirms the Elder Wand’s existence and says that a wand can transfer allegiance if its owner is defeated or disarmed. Ollivander adds a caveat: although the Elder Wand is unbeatable, its master is not. Bellatrix’s behaviour convinces the trio that another Horcrux is hidden in the Lestrange vault. Aided by Griphook, they penetrate Gringotts’ defences and retrieve Hufflepuff’s Cup, although they lose the sword to Griphook in the process. The trio escape Gringotts on the back of a guard dragon. Voldemort is then informed of the theft of the cup, and realises that his Horcruxes are being destroyed; through his mental connection to Harry, he unintentionally reveals that another Horcrux is hidden at Hogwarts.

In Hogsmeade, Aberforth Dumbledore is able to smuggle the trio out of Hogsmeade and into Hogwarts. Harry alerts everyone in Hogwarts of Voldemort’s imminent arrival. Luna Lovegood suggests that the fifth Horcrux could be Ravenclaw’s lost diadem. Harry recalls seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement when he hid his Potions book there the previous year. Meanwhile, Hermione destroys the Cup Horcrux with a basilisk fang. Various allies of Harry gather in the school, where the Battle of Hogwarts commences. In the Room of Requirement, Ron mentions that the house elves are still in the kitchens and in danger, whereupon Hermione runs over to Ron and kisses him.

While the trio are in the Room of Requirement, Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle attack them. Crabbe mishandles the powerful Fiendfyre spell, killing himself and destroying the diadem, but the others escape unharmed.

During the battle, several of the Weasley brothers are duelling members of the Ministry of Magic. Percy and Fred are duelling the corrupted Minister Pius Thicknesse, when an explosion rocks the corridor, shattering one wall and killing Fred instantly.

Harry catches a glimpse of Voldemort’s mind again, and it leads the trio to the Shrieking Shack. Here they witness Voldemort kill Snape, believing it will make him the Elder Wand’s master. Voldemort leaves the Shack, and the trio approaches the dying Snape. As Snape dies, he gives his memories to Harry that prove Snape’s loyalty to Dumbledore, motivated by his lifelong love for Harry’s mother Lily. After being cursed by Gaunt’s Ring Horcrux, a doomed Dumbledore had ordered Snape to kill him at a strategic time, sparing Draco from carrying out Voldemort’s order to murder him. The memories also reveal that Harry himself is a Horcrux; he must die in order to destroy Voldemort.

Resigned to death, Harry leaves to go to Voldemort’s camp in the Forbidden Forest, and meets Neville Longbottom, whom he asks to kill Nagini if he gets the chance. Along the way, he realises that the Snitch holds the Resurrection Stone inside it, and is able to retrieve it, whereupon he summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black and the recently killed Remus Lupin, who accompany him to Voldemort’s camp. Voldemort then casts the Avada Kedavra curse at Harry.

Awakening in an ethereal place that looks to him like King’s Cross station, Harry is unsure whether he is alive or dead. Dumbledore appears and explains that Voldemort’s Horcrux within Harry has been destroyed. He says that just as Voldemort cannot die while his soul fragments remain, Voldemort cannot kill Harry because he used Harry’s blood in his resurrection^[HP4]. Voldemort’s killing curse instead destroyed the unknown fragment of Voldemort’s own soul that lay inside Harry. Harry glimpses a representation of Voldemort’s true self: a weeping, deformed child whom Dumbledore describes as “beyond any of our help.” Harry is then given the chance to return to the battle, being advised that he could possibly end it once and for all.

Harry revives, but feigns death. Voldemort orders Narcissa Malfoy to check Harry. Doing so, she realises that Harry is alive, and she asks him very quietly if her son Draco is still alive, to which Harry whispers yes. Narcissa, no longer caring about anything but her son, lies to Voldemort, telling him that Harry is dead. Harry is carried to Hogwarts as Voldemort’s trophy by the captured Hagrid and is displayed to agonised supporters gathered in the school entrance hall. When Neville Longbottom defies an invitation from Voldemort to join the Death Eaters (due to his pureblood status), the Sorting Hat is thrust onto his head and set aflame.

Grawp, the centaurs, and the giants add to a sudden disturbance caused by reinforcements from Hogsmeade residents and students’ families yelling war cries as they spill over the walls of the school. Neville then pulls off the Sorting Hat, draws Gryffindor’s Sword from it, and decapitates Nagini with a single stroke, destroying the final Horcrux. Harry moves around under his Invisibility Cloak and lends aid throughout the ensuing battle, as his supporters rally to defy Voldemort and the Death Eaters one last time. More reinforcements arrive in the form of the house-elves of Hogwarts, whipped into a fighting frenzy by Kreacher, they attack the Death Eaters with knives. Eventually, the battle pares down to Voldemort simultaneously dueling Professors McGonagall and Slughorn, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt. Likewise, Bellatrix Lestrange engages Hermione, Luna, and Ginny in a fight, both battles taking place in the Great Hall before all the fighters. Having learned of Fred’s death, Mrs. Weasley is enraged when a killing curse misses Ginny by inches, and gets the girls out of the way to duel with Lestrange herself. Initially, Lestrange is taunting and derisive, but during the duel is matched in intensity spell for spell by Mrs. Weasley. Bellatrix threatens to kill Mrs. Weasley, then the rest of her family, which pushes Molly over the edge; Molly finally overpowers Bellatrix with a curse that hits Lestrange square in the chest, killing her. Furious at losing his most loyal servant, Voldemort blasts his opponents off their feet. Harry casts a Shield Charm to prevent Voldemort from harming Mrs. Weasley. Then, knowing that he is the Elder Wand’s true master, Harry finally takes off the Invisibility Cloak and confronts Voldemort, calling him by his Muggle name, Tom Riddle. Unable to get Voldemort to even try feeling remorse, which could possibly have saved him, Harry informs Voldemort that when Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower, ^[HP6] he unknowingly became the Elder Wand’s master; this allegiance was then transferred to Harry when he won Draco’s wand at Malfoy Manor. Voldemort then casts another Killing Curse at Harry, but the Elder Wand’s allegiance prevents it from harming its Master, and the spell rebounds off Harry’s disarming spell, killing Voldemort, and leaving Harry victorious.

Among the fatalities are Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and fifty other people who died fighting the Death Eaters, as well as Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. Harry accepts thanks from his supporters and helps to comfort the grieving. He slips away to the Headmaster’s Office and is greeted by thunderous applause from the previous Headmasters’ portraits. With the help of Dumbledore via his portrait, Harry decides that the Elder Wand should be returned to Dumbledore’s tomb, where its power will be extinguished if he (Harry) dies undefeated, that the Stone will be left and forgotten in the Forbidden Forest, and that the Cloak would continue to be a Potter family heirloom. Before returning the Elder Wand to the tomb, Harry uses it to repair his own wand, which was previously thought to have been irreparably damaged. He then looks forward to sleeping in his bed in Gryffindor Tower, wondering if Kreacher would bring him a sandwich there.

Epilogue

Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron married Hermione and has two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King’s Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy and his wife are also there with their son, Scorpius. Harry’s godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Victoire Weasley (Bill and Fleur’s daughter) in a train carriage. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and remains friends with the two families. The book ends with these final words: “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.”

Rowling’s commentary and supplement

In an interview,^[44] online chat,^[7][45] the Wizard of the Month section of her website, and during her 2007 U.S. Open Book Tour, Rowling revealed additional character information that she chose not to include in the book. The first bits of information were about the trio and their families, starting with Harry.

She said that Harry became an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and was later appointed head of the department. He also kept Sirius’s motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after the destruction of Voldemort’s soul fragment within him. She also said that Ginny Weasley played for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, then leaving to establish a family with Harry, and later became the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Ron Weasley worked at George’s store for a time, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, and then joined Harry as an Auror. Hermione found her parents in Australia, and removed the memory modification charm she had put on them for safety. Initially, she worked for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves. She later moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and assisted in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. She was also the only member of the trio to go back and complete her seventh year at Hogwarts. Rowling then went on to explain that Dumbledore’s relationship with Gellert Grindelwald extended beyond mere friendship; indeed, Rowling has revealed that “Dumbledore is gay, actually”,^[46] and harboured romantic feelings for Grindelwald.^[47] Next, Rowling revealed the fate of Voldemort. After his death, he was forced to exist in the stunted form Harry witnessed in the King’s Cross limbo, as his crimes were too severe for him to become a ghost.

Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters, starting with the Weasleys. George Weasley continued his successful joke shop. George married fellow Quidditch player Angelina Johnson and had two children: a son named Fred, in memory of his late twin brother, and a daughter, Roxanne. Next, Rowling proceeded to explain Luna Lovegood‘s future, saying that she searched the world for odd and unique creatures. She eventually married Rolf, a grandson of the famed naturalist Newt Scamander,^[45] writer of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. They have twins called Lorcan and Lysander. Her father’s publication, The Quibbler, has returned to its usual condition of “advanced lunacy” and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.

Rowling then gave briefer histories on some more of the minor characters, as follows. Draco Malfoy‘s wife, Astoria (or Asteria), was the younger sister of his Slytherin classmate Daphne Greengrass. Percy Weasley married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters, named Molly and Lucy. Firenze was welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledged the virtue of his pro-human leanings. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns. Cho Chang went on to marry a Muggle.^[48] Viktor Krum found love in his native Bulgaria.^[49] Neville Longbottom became professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and married Hannah Abbott, who became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.^[50] Bill and Fleur Weasley had a total of three children, a younger son named Louis, and two daughters, named Dominique and Victoire.

Rowling also revealed further transformations in the wider wizarding world as follows. Kingsley Shacklebolt became the permanent Minister of Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, Azkaban no longer used Dementors. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also instrumental in reforming the Ministry.^[7] At Hogwarts, Slytherin House became more diluted and no longer held the title as the pure-blood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingered.^[7] Voldemort’s jinx on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position was broken with his death, and there was a permanent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher stated. Harry also is said to come to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class to lecture several times a year.^[44] Lastly, Rowling says that a portrait of Snape, who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, had not appeared in the headmaster’s office, as he had abandoned his post. Harry then ensures the addition of Snape’s portrait, and publicly revealed Snape’s true allegiance.^[7]

Critical reception

The Baltimore Sun‘s critic, Mary Carole McCauley, praised the series as “a classic bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tale.” She noted that “[b]ook seven… lacks much of the charm and humor that distinguished the earlier novels. Even the writing is more prosaic”, but then observed that given the book’s darker subject matter, “how could it be otherwise?”^[51]

Reviewer Alice Fordham from The Times writes that “Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable.” Fordham concludes, “We have been a long way together, and neither Rowling nor Harry let us down in the end.”^[52]

By contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor says that while “There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from its brilliantly realised magical world to its multilayered narrative,” however, “A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry doesn’t change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not just inevitable, but hollow.”^[53]

Stephen King criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.^[54] He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book, but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the writing style disappointing, he felt it had matured and improved. He acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult, and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.

In the 12 August 2007 New York Times, Christopher Hitchens compared the series to World War Two-era English boarding school stories, and while he wrote that “Rowling has won imperishable renown” for the series as a whole, he also opined that her “repeated tactic of deus ex machina has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue”, that the mid-book camping chapters are “abysmally long” and that Voldemort “becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain.”^[55]

Speed-reading world champion Anne Jones read the book’s 199,900 words in 47 minutes and 1 second. She said, “Without being too critical, the plot does seem to be a bit complicated, but I would not change a word. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows is a real page-turner.”^[56]

Time magazine’s Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #8, and praising Rowling for proving that books can still be a global mass medium. Opining that the book is “dense with Rowling’s ruling themes: love and death”, Grossman compared the novel to the earlier books in the series thus: “This isn’t the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling’s abiding thematic concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face of death.”^[57][58]

Translations

Main article: Harry Potter in translation

Because of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ worldwide fame, it has been translated into many languages. The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on 25 September 2007 (as Гаррі Поттер і смертельні реліквії).^[3] The Swedish title of the book was revealed by Rowling as Harry Potter and the Relics of Death, following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words “Deathly Hallows” without having read the book.^[4] The first Polish translation was released on 26 January 2008^[5] with a new title: Harry Potter i Insygnia Śmierci – Harry Potter and the Insignia of Death.^[59] The Hindi translation “Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe” (हैरी पॉटर और मौत के तोहफे) translated as “Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death” was released by Manjul Publication in India on 27 June 2008.^[6]

Film adaptations

A two-part film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is planned, with David Yates, who directed the preceding two films, directing both parts. Part I is slated for release on 19 November 2010, and Part II in May 2011. ^[60][61] The script was delayed as Steve Kloves was not able to start working on it until the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike had ended.^[62] Filming begins in February 2009 and will last for a year.^[63] Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson will reprise their roles as Harry, Ron and Hermione,^[64] respectively, while Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis, Helen McCrory, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Isaacs, Miriam Margolyes, and Julie Walters have confirmed they will reprise their roles as Bellatrix Lestrange, Mad-Eye Moody, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Narcissa Malfoy, Rubeus Hagrid, Lucius Malfoy, Pomona Sprout, and Molly Weasley, respectively.^{[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]}

John Williams, who composed the scores to the first three films, has expressed interest in returning to score the films.^[73]

Editions

Stack of the Scholastic version displayed at Comic Con 2007.

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, etc.)

• ISBN 0-7475-9105-9 Hardcover
• ISBN 0-7475-9106-7 Hardcover (adult edition)
• ISBN 0-7475-9107-5 Hardcover (special edition)
• ISBN 0-7475-9583-6 Paperback
• ISBN 0-7475-9582-8 Paperback (adult edition)

Scholastic (United States, etc.)

• ISBN 0-545-01022-5 Hardcover
• ISBN 0-545-02937-6 Deluxe Hardcover
• ISBN 1551929767 Hardcover
• ISBN 1551929783 Hardcover (adult edition)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows