One way of reading the Harry Potter series is that it is about how to be moral. Harry and his friends learn to recognize what is good in uncertain times, to act selflessly even at great personal risk, and to cultivate all of the classical virtues. Another reading is that the Harry Potter books are about how to be mortal. Harry and his friends learn about the terrible finality of death, the dangers of embracing it, and the equal dangers of denying it. These two themes are the backbone of this seventh and final volume, and the result is a profoundly satisfying book, whose action-packed plot resonates in all the right ways. It’s exactly the conclusion the series has been building towards; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the natural completion to one of the great fantasy epics of all time.

More than this, I’m not going to say—except that I do hope that J.K. Rowling’s next project is The Tales of Beedle the Bard.