after all these inconsistencies and, worst of all, these horrible, random deaths (random in a narrative sense, mostly, which was not necessary, imo), it's like being poked with a needle over and over again to hear people swoon about it and say that DH was their favourite book in the series. I mean - OMG! Did you READ PoA?
I still think the series up to OotP at least, but possibly even including HBP is a masterpiece of writing. There are flaws in it, but there has never before been such a lifelessness in them as I perceived in Deathly Hallows.

Thank YOU! "Lifeless" is a very good word to describe DH, in my opinion, and I, too, feel the need of moral support. It was actually painful to me to even look at a Potter book for the first couple of weeks after I finished DH; that book wrecked the series for me, and it's really only because of my sister (founder of the gringotts grrls) and also a few of my fellow Snape fans on livejournal that I am still in the fandom. And what's most frustrating is that, as you say, up to OOTP, we really seemed to have a possible classic on our hands - a series that would have been up there with Lloyd Alexander, at any rate. No longer. And that's a shame. What really makes me sad about DH is that it - and therefore the series as a whole - could have been so much more.

Glad you liked the essay.