cimorene

"Our feeling is that once a book is offered up for sale at any public, retail outlet, and we purchase a copy legally and openly, we are free to review it," a spokeswoman said.

[...]

"We took great care not to give away the ending, nor to give away significant details about who lives and who dies, confining our review -- which, incidentally, had extremely high praise for both this final book and the entire series -- to broader-brush assessments of the tone and the writing."

In the review, writer Michiko Kakutani gives away some plot details, including roughly how many characters die and what "deathly hallows" means, but does not leak the big secrets.

Oh, fuck you, New York Times. You knew it wasn't legally for sale and you spoiled crucial plot points of the most anticipated book in decades in a high-profile international publication with thousands of readers who would expect no such thing. It was petty and extremely tacky. At least if a tabloid had published it, there'd have been some kind of "Spoilers inside" warning on the cover.

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