Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)

by J.K. Rowling

Harry can't wait for his holidays with the dire Dursleys to end. But a small, self-punishing house-elf warns Harry of mortal danger awaiting him at Hogwarts School. Returning to the castle nevertheless, Harry hears a rumour about a chamber of secrets, holding unknown horrors to magicians of Muggle parentage. Now someone is casting spells that turn people to stone, and a terrible warning is found painted on the wall. The chief suspect - who's always in the wrong place - is Harry. But something much darker has yet to be unleashed.

• ISBN10: 0747573611
• ISBN13: 9780747573616
• Publish Date: 4 October 2004 (first published 2 July 1998)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 January 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Edition: Adult ed
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: http://bloomsbury.com/Trade/

Reviews

[celinenyx]

Absolutely fantastic book, as always. This has been my third reread since joining Goodreads.

[alisoninbookland]

The book is still pretty mild but I liked that it started tacking some of the big issues to come primarily the idea of race/blood. One of my favorite things about Harry Potter is the depth of the book. You can read the book superficially as a fun fantasy story. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s how I read the series for the first few times. But when you start digging, you see the thought Rowling put into the books and you appreciate the story so much more. Like I said, blood line is the focus on this story. I definitely appreciated the fact that Rowling explained the different type of blood lines within in the wizard community. Even if you don’t agree with how wizards treat people, you start to understand why there’s animosity within the community. That’s some good world building and the world building makes sense.

In conjunction with that tangent, Chamber of Secrets has one of my many favorite quotes from the series:

“It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

The quote is so perfect and it’s definitely a running theme through the whole series. It doesn’t matter how good (or bad) you are with magic, it matters what you do with that power. Think of Lockhart. He’s a good wizard by technical standards, right? It’s what he chose to do with those powers that made him awful. The fact that the quote is completely applicable to real life is just icing on the cake.

There’s a nice progression into the darker subjects. It’s just a step darker than Sorcerer’s Stone. I guess it’s not as big of a deal now since kids can pick up the whole series and read it back to back but when I originally read the series the gradual descent into darker subjects was perfect. I was a year older each time a book was published (much like the characters) so I grew and matured into each book. That definitely helped me love the stories more. I probably could have handled Deathly Hallows when I was 10 but at 18 I was much more prepared for the story.

Oh Dobby. Yes, he’s not going about saving Harry in best manner but he’s doing the only thing he can do in his circumstances. Besides, his heart’s in the right place and that’s enough. Overall Harry is a pretty likable protagonist but there are many, many times he drives me insane. I know his heart is in the right place and he does make the right decisions but he’s very reckless and impulsive. He’s very quick to jump to conclusions and tries to fix the wrongs. You know that’s a horrible combination. I loved that we got to see more of the Weasley family at the beginning of the book. There was always this very homey feel to them. It’s been there since my first reading of the series. The warm fuzzy feeling I have for them only grows each time I read the books.

The bottom line: A very solid sequel.

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[bumblingbookworm]

This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Bookworm

WHEN I First Read

I first read this in early 2001 - after getting Philosopher's Stone for Christmas in 2000, I begged my parents for the rest of the available books not long after finishing them. I was lucky enough that they caved, and more Harry Potter goodness was delivered straight to my fingertips :)

Check out the rest of my review here!

[adastra]

Still a bit heavy on the Deux Ex Machina, but other than that increasingly brilliant!

[clementine]

I always love reading this series back for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the world is wonderfully-constructed, so easy to become immersed in; every time I read them I discover new details and clues that absolutely delight me. I also really do love seeing how Rowling's writing style developed, as it's clear that she refined it over the years to grow with her aging audience.

I mentioned this in my review of Philosopher's Stone, but the first two books really stand out as the most childish. I think they are fantastic children's books, full of imaginative worldbuilding, brilliant wordplay, and, of course, the beginnings of a complex overarching plot. However, there are certain imperfections that I can't help but notice now as an older, more critical reader.

The characterization is really what's off about the first two books; Rowling seemed to switch gears in terms of how she wanted to present less sympathetic characters around the third or fourth book. This creates some cardboard villains and weird inconsistencies with the later books - which is saying something, since she planned them in such great detail that it's hard to call much of anything in the series inconsistent!

In Chamber of Secret specifically, Lockhart and Malfoy stand out as particularly awful characters. To start with, Lockhart is just so comically awful. This totally works for a children's book, because, let's face it, larger-than-life characters are entertaining! It did bug me, though, because the vast majority of the other characters aren't given this caricature-like treatment, even so early on in the series. Draco, on the other hand, is just inconsistent with how he turns out in the later books. In CoS, he is actively rooting for Hermione to die (!), and disappointed that all the Basilisk's victims survive. I understand being racist (or whatever the pure blood/Muggle born equivalent is), and being elitist, and being a supporter of Voldemort, but it strikes me as particularly unbelievable for a 12-year-old boy to so coldheartedly want his classmates to die. It's downright sociopathic, and we are shown in the later books that Malfoy is far from a sociopath, and is, in fact, an intensely sympathetic character by the end of the series.

Essentially, this is a pretty wonderful book, but not without its faults. I am quite excited to get to PoA, because this is where things start getting darker, better-written, and more meaty. I can never choose if PoA, GoF, or HBP is my favourite, but I am thrilled to re-read them and try to figure that out again!

[mbtc]

Rowling is a great story teller. You can't help but like the main characters and want to know how they are going to make it through the challenges in their story.

[Jyc]

★★★★★ // ron weasley, my mvp.

I remember that I started reading these in Junior High after the first movie came out, which I enjoyed. And I just loved these books that I had to read the first four books, that was how many were out at the time, and I read them all in probably a week. I love the main characters, the plot and it was just an easy read and definitely a page turner.

I would recommend these series of books to anybody.