Review of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sits rather awkwardly in the crossroads between the juvenile read that was The Philosopher's Stone and the steadily more sophisticated series that was to come.
Certainly we get a more directed plot in this book than we did in Philosopher's Stone (which was more of a jaunty tour of Hogwarts than anything else)but there are times when the characters behave in a manner that simply defies adult logic... and it works.
This is certainly not the end of the world. After all the target audience is young and the logic will probably seem sound to them. But re-reading this and knowing what is to come, the notion of Harry and Ron hiding in a cupboard, listening to the teachers and knowing the location of the Chamber of Secrets... but not sharing it... is a little bizarre.
I am still impressed though by the …
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sits rather awkwardly in the crossroads between the juvenile read that was The Philosopher's Stone and the steadily more sophisticated series that was to come.
Certainly we get a more directed plot in this book than we did in Philosopher's Stone (which was more of a jaunty tour of Hogwarts than anything else)but there are times when the characters behave in a manner that simply defies adult logic... and it works.
This is certainly not the end of the world. After all the target audience is young and the logic will probably seem sound to them. But re-reading this and knowing what is to come, the notion of Harry and Ron hiding in a cupboard, listening to the teachers and knowing the location of the Chamber of Secrets... but not sharing it... is a little bizarre.
I am still impressed though by the number of elements that will be important in the later books are set up this early on. And there's certainly much more of a sense of fear in this book than in the first (where no one really ever felt they were at any risk).
Our trinity of characters are established firm friends now and it's good to see them stretch a little beyond the roles they had in the first book. The secondary cast expands a bit as well, though I did think that Neville got short shrift in this one.
And of course we're still at the point in the series where it remains focused for the entire book rather than meandering in the middle as happened with some of the later installments. Pretty much everything that happens here is relevant to the plot in some fashion.
