peterme's Full Review: J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of A...
I don't get it.
This is the first Harry Potter book I've read, and, judging by the reviews here, it's typical (and, perhaps, superior) to the previous ones.
However.
Considering the unbelievable hype, I'd gone into this expecting something akin to the classics, a clever tale with many levels so children and adults can enjoy. Instead, we get a plodding, uninspired, and witless tale. The story's creaky premise (with the cliched bad Aunt and Uncle, the cliched snotty Percy, the cliched bully) provides the foundation for a series of uninteresting "adventures."
Rowling's writing is chaotic and unfocussed--events tumble one after another, disconnected and with no momentum.
This book pales to almost clearness in comparison to Roald Dahl's deliciously wicked _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ and delightfully fantastic _James and the Giant Peach_, Norman Juster's brilliantly punny _The Phantom Tollbooth_, Madeleine L'Engle's amazingly cosmic _A Wrinkle in Time_, E.B. White's poignantly charming, _Charlotte's Web_, and the granddaddy of English kiddie lit, _Alice in Wonderland_. Get those instead.
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