Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

As part of Modern Mrs. Darcy’s reading challenge, I was tasked to read 3 books from the same author. As I explained in my post about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I chose JK Rowling as my featured author. Last night, I just finished reading Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. This book was as entertaining as the first book of the series.

As I look for books to read, they have to be either informative or entertaining. So far, I have been entertained by everything I have read or watched regarding the Harry Potter series. As I have started to read the series, I have been focusing on how JK Rowling writes her fiction. I am fascinated how is she crafts her stories in terms of characters, scenes, location, dialogue, as well as how she carries these elements from one book in the series to another.

Since this is the second book in the series, I was struck by how she referred to elements in the first book to create that sense of continuity. Having never written a serious piece of fiction, I am curious on how one goes about keeping all these elements in play because I do have an interest in one day trying my hand  at a fiction piece.

I had borrowed this particular book from the library. It is the first book that I have read for pleasure from a library in roughly 40 years.

The one part of the book that I was a little disappointed in was actually the climax when Harry met up with his adversary. I felt that this was a little underdone and wish there was more suspense in that part of the book. Otherwise, I was very pleased with the book. In only a few sessions, I was able to read it. I look forward to reading more of the series and comparing the books to the videos.

Speaking of videos, here are some my observations how they differed from each other. After finishing the book, I watched the video, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. While the video closely followed the book, the video did deviate slightly. The video took some liberties with the car ride to Hogwarts—adding some action where there was none. It also omitted the initial scene in Mr. Borgin’s business and the dueling matches where Hermoine picks up the piece of hair.  The video also left out the entire deathday scene. Other scenes varied slightly from how they were depicted in the book.

Having finished two books, I am really appreciating the small details that seemed to be glossed over in the video. These small details help to provide more context to the story. On the other hand, the videos are able to show a world in more detail than could be described in the book.

I thought Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets was well written and quite entertaining. I am looking forward to reading more of this series. If you are looking for something fun and lighthearted to read, I would recommend this series.

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