Every Harry Potter Book Ranked From Worst To Best

3. The Deathly Hallows

10 years after it started, the Harry Potter series came to an end with the seventh and final book. Well-established as the biggest book series of all-time by this point, with legions of diehard fans, could J.K. Rowling possibly end it in even just a satisfactory manner?

No... she could end it in an immensely satisfying and wholly wonderful manner instead.

The book does have some issues: the bits were Harry, Ron, and Hermione are travelling around and camping are pretty sluggishly paced, especially when Ron departs, and it's a shame to miss out on a last slice of classic Hogwarts time. Some of the big deaths also feel a little rushed over in the heat of battle, especially Hedwig's.

All that pales in comparison, though, to how greatly Rowling weaves together strands from the entire series, with serious amounts of payoff. It's fascinating - and scary - to see the state of the wizarding world at this time, with just a small resistance left and Voldemort operating more openly.

The bigger beats of the book are all expertly struck, with various escapes - the multiple Harrys, Malfoy Manor, Gringotts - each of which is more of a thrill-ride than the last, but there are lots of notable smaller moments too.

Most of the characters get to play their part, Dobby's death is devastating, Neville's rise to true hero is completed, Ron and Hermione finally realise their feelings, and we get the incredible reveal of the Deathly Hallows. Even with that, Harry sticks to his path - and Dumbledore's path - of the Horcruxes, which brings us to the series' denouement: the Battle of Hogwarts. The wizarding world at war, it's an epic battle like the books had never delivered before, the kind we'd dreamed of seeing, and ends in spectacular fashion.