So you just can't wait, can you? After seeing the Harry Potter movie, buying the Harry Potter LEGO, and knowing that you have a full YEAR to wait before seeing the next one on the big screen, you just can't leave that little Wizard alone...you need your fix just like that cracked out Whitney Houston under the viaduct. What to do?
Read the next book, of course! This was my dilemma, and although I've read all four Harry Potter books, I hadn't RE-read them, and after seeing the movie, and knowing the HP story but not quite remembering what came in the next book, I wanted to re-read it. And there's no better time than when you're spending 24 hours in a car over Thanksgiving weekend driving back and forth from Salt Lake City to Cornville, Arizona. With two pregnant women and your brother-in-law Andy.
A lot of people don't like Book Two, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as much as the other four. I've sort of had that feeling too, but then again, for me a BAD Harry Potter book is still pretty darn good. And this one isn't bad, it just doesn't make the tears well up in your baby blues and roll down your cheeks like some of the others do. Dorks.
Chamber of Secrets continues the Harry Potter series while adding a few important elements that will grow more important as time goes on...and adding some that are just plain fun. In no particular order, here are the strong points of the book:
The Weasley family--very early in the book, Harry is saved from the Dursley family by Ron and his brothers. The Dursleys are the Roald Dahl-esque family (Harry's Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin) who Harry lives with when he's not at Hogwarts...and Harry gets to spend his last month of summer holiday with the very poor, very red-headed Weasleys. It was fun to see what a Wizard household is like, and it had me laughing out loud on that road trip several times.
There's a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart...and he's not everything he appears to be. Even though he DOES appear to be a self-obsessed, self-glorifying moron, and he is all of that. By the way, he's being portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the next movie, due out next fall. Lockhart's scenes in the book are very entertaining, and even though Harry and Ron can see right through him, it seems the other teachers and students are falling for the charming Wizard. Interesting, fun character.
The idea of "pure-blood wizards" versus "mudbloods." Mudbloods are those wizards who come from Muggle heritage, like Harry's friend Hermione (her parents are dentists). This will become a larger theme in the books, and I hope they're able to keep it in the movies. We meet Draco Malfoy's father, and if you think Draco's a little b@stard, wait until you meet Dad. The rotten apple doesn't fall far from the tree, let's put it that way.
Dobby the House-Elf--he's a very small creature, who is sort of a slave or indentured servant, and indeed his entire race is in servitude to the wizard world. An interesting idea, but Dobby and his ilk have the potential to be the Jar Jar Binks of the Harry Potter series. He's only in the first and last parts of this book, but has a larger role in later books.
The general storyline of the book is that there are attacks against Mudbloods happening at Hogwarts. These attacks also happened fifty years ago, when the Chamber of Secrets, a mythical room in the gigantic castle, was opened. Back then, someone died. Harry and his friends have to race against time to stop the attacks before someone else dies.
Along the way, Harry will have to confront teachers, his friends, gigantic spiders, and will eventually have to stand on his own to save his life and the lives of everyone at Hogwarts.
There are other themes that are more exciting that are growing in the background of these books, like the fact that Harry can speak Parseltongue--the language of snakes (remember when the Boa Constrictor talked to him in the zoo? Not an isolated incident...). Hagrid's role in Harry's life, and the Hogwarts faculty is also expanded in this book, and we see that his past is more mysterious than previously thought.
The book is a great thriller, and a great mystery, and I had fun reading it again. It will be interesting to see what they have to drop from the book to bring it down to a scant 2 hours and 30 minutes; but I guess I can wait eleven more months to see it...and the accompanying LEGO sets.
Recommended:
