20/100: Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

 I am officially done with re-reading the HP books I have already read... all two of them :) But I'm feeling more motivated to continue on with the series so my hopes are high that I will have read the entire series by the end of this year.

I have to say, I liked Sorcerer's Stone better; the story seemed to move quicker and I was more engaged with the storyline. I find it funny because in my opinion, the second book is usually better than the first (case in point: Catching Fire vs. Hunger Games).

That's not to say I disliked Chamber of Secrets, on the contrary, I enjoyed the level of mystery in this book. I thought Rowling injected a kind of whodunnit air to the story with the integral question "who is Slytherin's heir and who opened the Chamber of Secrets." I think this was the main motivator that kept me moving through the pages. On the other hand, I feel like some scenes kind of dragged in places.

Sometimes I put myself in Harry's shoes and think about what I would have done in those situations, as an 11-12 year old. I have to laugh, honestly, because I probably would have peed my pants. I understand that for the purposes of the plot Harry had to begin the series as a pre-teen, but some of the things he finds himself doing feels a little unbelievable to me. I know, it's a fantasy series, the whole point of the genre is that it's not reality, but still...

Ultimately, this series is fun and enjoyable so far. The characters are diverse, the content is clean (unless you find magic, spell casting, and witches and wizards offensive, which I can totally understand), and the plot is compelling. Most of the characters are likeable which is lucky for me because I'm one of those people that truly cannot connect with an unlikable character. Yes, Snape is irritating, but I haven't reached the point yet where I hate him with all my being. I might get burned at the stake for this, but the one character I truly despised in this story was Dobby.

I'm excited for Prisoner of Azkaban because I did like the movie and my sister says this is her favorite book in the series.

Stats:
Completed: Mar 17
Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 341

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