Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Two nights ago I finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it all over again. My first memory of reading this book was when I was on some summer vacation with my dad, stepmom and half siblings. I specifically remember reading the part where Harry first hears voices; it scared me a little! I thought it was creepily fun, him hearing "LET ME RIP YOU, LET ME TEAR YOU..." and not finding out who or what it was that was going to do the ripping and tearing. I remember saying out loud to my stepmom, "This is scary!" I feel like we were parked outside of a farm-type place with a white wooden fence, but that setting doesn't fit with where we usually went for vacations, which is Montauk. Maybe we were at the house of a family member of my stepmom and I have the memory confused?
So I was hoping there would be a bit more magic spells in this book, something which was lacking in SS that both surprised and disappointed me. CoS didn't deliver too much more in that department, although the chapter "The Dueling Club" was really fun to read. I though, Finally! Spells cast in a situation that doesn't cover a major plot point, and even better, it was students battling each other! I wonder if this chapter is what people are thinking of when they say Half-Blood Prince mirrors CoS because Harry and Malfoy duel in both books. J.K. Rowling also dropped a nice hint about Snape being a Legilimens, when she says that Harry gets the feeling he can read minds (one of the earlier chapters), so more forward-thinking there.
It also seemed to me that we got more magical background on things. Other classes were mentioned, such as Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies. We were in Herbology a lot, with Hufflepuffs, who were merely mentioned before, and there just seemed to be more secret passages, hallways, and tapestries that led places, not to mention bathrooms (or at least A bathroom). Unfortunately Quidditch, which was off to a great start in this book, promptly died when Hermione was attacked and was never mentioned again. But, even a bit of the outside magical world came in; Ron and Harry read an article from the Daily Prophet, the Ministry of Magic is mentioned multiple times, and we even see Cornelius Fudge...I thought he showed up for the first time in book 3, so that was interesting. "The Deathday Party" in particular was a chapter that felt almost new to me, as many things happened that did not make it into the movie, and these were very background-y and non-important things: Filch is a Squib, more on Nearly Headless Nick and the Headless Hunt, the nature of ghosts in general ("eating" rotten food, for example).
And I have to say, I kind of loved Gilderoy Lockhart as a presence in this book. I hated the character himself, of course, but he is written to be so perfectly moronic and awful, I really enjoyed having him around to hate. I think he's the first example in the series of a character you hate but not because he's a bad guy. You could argue that Snape is this also, but he behaves really vile-ly towards students that he counts as kind of bad, plus at this point we don't know about him yet; don't get me wrong, I love Snape, but later-on Snape. Lockhart really isn't evil, but he's so deluded about the real world, so self-centered and insulting towards other people in the same breath...he's great! This quote was hilarious:
"But when I was twelve, I was just as much of nobody as you are now. In fact, I'd say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!...I know, I know - it's not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have - but it's a start, Harry, it's a start." It makes you want to laugh in his face and punch him in it at the same time. Great comedic relief to the truly scary stuff going on in this book.
On that note, this book was a lot more serious. You really get the sense that students are in danger, that there's this lurking monster that killed before at Hogwarts and intends to kill again. We were also introduced to the horror that is Aragog and all his creepy offspring (I was really paranoid about arachnid visitors in my room while reading that chapter), and even Voldemort is a bit more scary than in SS, as he has his own body, so to speak, and Harry has to battle him a bit more than in the last book.
Overall, I felt this book had more variety, in terms of characters and the goings-on at Hogwarts itself, and was just more rich than SS...makes sense, seeing as it's a longer book. Loved the first few chapters with the Weasleys; I love Mrs. Weasley! She's so fire-y; they did a really good casting for her in the movies with Julie Walters, she's exactly what I imagine Mrs. Weasley to be like in my head. Could do with some more Dumbledore, he's still just showing up to explain things. I can't wait to read Prisoner of Azkaban, I've been saying since forever that it's my favorite book,and I want to be proved right!
So I was hoping there would be a bit more magic spells in this book, something which was lacking in SS that both surprised and disappointed me. CoS didn't deliver too much more in that department, although the chapter "The Dueling Club" was really fun to read. I though, Finally! Spells cast in a situation that doesn't cover a major plot point, and even better, it was students battling each other! I wonder if this chapter is what people are thinking of when they say Half-Blood Prince mirrors CoS because Harry and Malfoy duel in both books. J.K. Rowling also dropped a nice hint about Snape being a Legilimens, when she says that Harry gets the feeling he can read minds (one of the earlier chapters), so more forward-thinking there.
It also seemed to me that we got more magical background on things. Other classes were mentioned, such as Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies. We were in Herbology a lot, with Hufflepuffs, who were merely mentioned before, and there just seemed to be more secret passages, hallways, and tapestries that led places, not to mention bathrooms (or at least A bathroom). Unfortunately Quidditch, which was off to a great start in this book, promptly died when Hermione was attacked and was never mentioned again. But, even a bit of the outside magical world came in; Ron and Harry read an article from the Daily Prophet, the Ministry of Magic is mentioned multiple times, and we even see Cornelius Fudge...I thought he showed up for the first time in book 3, so that was interesting. "The Deathday Party" in particular was a chapter that felt almost new to me, as many things happened that did not make it into the movie, and these were very background-y and non-important things: Filch is a Squib, more on Nearly Headless Nick and the Headless Hunt, the nature of ghosts in general ("eating" rotten food, for example).
And I have to say, I kind of loved Gilderoy Lockhart as a presence in this book. I hated the character himself, of course, but he is written to be so perfectly moronic and awful, I really enjoyed having him around to hate. I think he's the first example in the series of a character you hate but not because he's a bad guy. You could argue that Snape is this also, but he behaves really vile-ly towards students that he counts as kind of bad, plus at this point we don't know about him yet; don't get me wrong, I love Snape, but later-on Snape. Lockhart really isn't evil, but he's so deluded about the real world, so self-centered and insulting towards other people in the same breath...he's great! This quote was hilarious:
"But when I was twelve, I was just as much of nobody as you are now. In fact, I'd say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven't they? All that business with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!...I know, I know - it's not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have - but it's a start, Harry, it's a start." It makes you want to laugh in his face and punch him in it at the same time. Great comedic relief to the truly scary stuff going on in this book.
On that note, this book was a lot more serious. You really get the sense that students are in danger, that there's this lurking monster that killed before at Hogwarts and intends to kill again. We were also introduced to the horror that is Aragog and all his creepy offspring (I was really paranoid about arachnid visitors in my room while reading that chapter), and even Voldemort is a bit more scary than in SS, as he has his own body, so to speak, and Harry has to battle him a bit more than in the last book.
Overall, I felt this book had more variety, in terms of characters and the goings-on at Hogwarts itself, and was just more rich than SS...makes sense, seeing as it's a longer book. Loved the first few chapters with the Weasleys; I love Mrs. Weasley! She's so fire-y; they did a really good casting for her in the movies with Julie Walters, she's exactly what I imagine Mrs. Weasley to be like in my head. Could do with some more Dumbledore, he's still just showing up to explain things. I can't wait to read Prisoner of Azkaban, I've been saying since forever that it's my favorite book,and I want to be proved right!