Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

First Line: “Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.”
 

Romance: 0/5
 

Profanity: 0/5
 

Violence: 2/5
 

Parental concerns: There is use of magic. A girl has a “crush” on her teacher; the crush is never referenced as such, but the girl is teased because of it. Another girl "likes" an older boy and is widely teased because of it. A young man is said to have a girlfriend and is said to have kissed her. There is some use of words like Blimey.
 

Recommended age: 10+
 

Harry Potter’s second year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry is approaching—albeit a bit slowly, as he’s stuck in the stuck-up Dursleys’ house for the summer, waiting and wishing for Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger’s letters. Then, during a dinner party thrown by the Dursleys (to which Harry is not invited), a strange house elf called Dobby arrives in Harry’s bedroom and insists that Harry cannot return to Hogwarts this year . . . or something bad will happen. And once Harry gets back to Hogwarts, Dobby’s warning is eerily accurate . . . Draco Malfoy is the Slytherin Quidditch team’s new Seeker, students start getting paralyzed, and Harry is hearing strange voices in the walls. . . .

Well, I read the entire second installment of Harry Potter in one day. Aren’t you proud of me? It’s only 341 pages, so my triumph wasn’t astronomical, but I was rather proud of myself. And annoyed because I didn’t finish any homework Friday. And even more annoyed because I didn’t order The Prisoner of Azkaban soon enough. Well, enough about that. . . .

Obviously, if I read it in one day, I loved it. Still—and staunch Harry Potter lovers will probably very much dislike me for this—I feel as though there’s something missing from Rowling’s writing. Perhaps I’ve just read too much—too many mysteries especially—but I find it quite cliché that at the end of every book there’s this sudden encounter with this scary dude who’s trying to kill Harry (always at the end of the school year, too . . .). I realize I’m ignorant on Harry Potter, and I also know that the series is supposed to get extremely complicated as the books go on—I just suppose that books which seem more directed towards younger people than I aren’t my favorites. As for the “mystery” (since, if you don’t  know it, Harry Potter is laid out in a mystery-ish format), I didn’t guess it. . . . Which is pretty good, considering how many mysteries I’ve read/watched. Character development? Hmm. I didn’t really see much of it here, but because it’s a series, I won’t harp on that. I’m fairly certain that the characters will develop a lot more as they get older.

Rating:

{Don’t know what on earth a Nimbus Two Thousand and One is? Read the books!}