Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Inhoud

Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Little does he know that this year will be just as eventful as the last...

Bespreking

A worthy follow-up

After a long summer with the horrible Dursleys, Harry Potter is all set to get back to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to start his second year in learning how to become a wizard. But the Dursleys are not very cooperative: they want to keep Harry away from all that magical and 'dangerous' stuff. Magic is not for Muggles, and that is all they believe in. So, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and horrible cousin Dudley Dursley try everything to keep him locked away. But luckily Harry still got friends who will surely try to rescue him. This year at Hogwarts, though, is not going to be a quiet one. Harry is made fully aware of this when he receives a message one night from Dobby, a strange little impish creature. Dobby's warning is plain but clear: "Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts!"

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the sequel to the Philosophers Stone and can still stand upright after a comparison with its predecessor. Immediately following the grand opening sequence it does tend towards some sort of repackaging of scenes already seen in the first book, but this is only a minor defect. When the real story starts to unfold it becomes clear that Rowling has not yet lost her touch of weaving a complex mystery. Again she succeeds in slowly connecting all seemingly unrelated plot elements into one superb finale that can only leave the hooked reader completely amazed.

The new character Gilderoy Lockhart tends to be a bit over the top, but this is easily compensated for by introducing poor Dobby, the house elf. I will love to see Dobby getting a bigger role in the next episode. Personally I find it a pity that Professor Dumbledore became a serious character, where in the previous book he had a more absent-minded nature and as a consequence was just more fun.

Minor flows set aside this book is a worthy follow-up that will keep you hooked until the end. If, that is, the child in yourself is still alive and kicking.