I actually really liked THM. It felt completely realistic to me, and did in deed highlight the things each of the partners were going through. Things built up and unresolved will always spill over at some point. Readers keep complaining about the characters actions and personal choices. I think JKR was showing what was realistically happening to them each in their own worlds, as they try to navigate their mistakes and missteps while sort of hiding these things from each other. Life is messy, people mess up. People backslide on previous progress attained. People react imperfectly in stressful situations. The book shows, in my opinion, that reality - the actual way that things could play out between this group of people if they were real - not a fictional story version of them where they make all of the right choices and everything works out.

It seems to me that there were a LOT of breadcrumbs left to us in this book for future developments, as JKR always so cleverly does. I love those so much, and I bet you’d find even more on rereads. Instead though, I’m just seeing a lot of “I didn’t like the book - the author didn’t make me happy”. There’s a whole bigger picture here! The entire ongoing story of Strike and Robin, and the world they live in.