Hi!
I’m back with another totally-English review and today we get back Rowling’s magic world ⚡️
Title
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Author
J. K. Rowling
Date
2014 (first published 1998)
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Series
Harry Potter Saga
Format
Paperback
Pages
360
Harry Potter’s summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors – and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone… Dobby’s sinister predictions seem to be coming true.
After getting back to the Dursley for his summer vacation, Harry finds himself alone and maybe forgotten by his friends Ron and Hermione. He thinks that they have cut every tie with him because they don’t really like him, but what Harry doesn’t know is that, behind his friends’ disappearance, there is Dobby’s work, a house-elf who tries to keep Harry away from going back at Hogwarts for his second school year. Thanks to a flying Muggles’ car and to the Weasleys, Harry’s school year starts without too many incidents, even if Voldemort is around Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, ready to take Harry’s life once again.
There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.
As for what I’ve written about the first book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), I’ve loved every page of this second volume, because J. K. Rowling creates a whole world full of magic, friendship and adventure which cannot but conquer the reader. Every turning point, or information given about Hagrid’s past or the attacks towards wizards and witches with Muggle parentage, just shows how much funny, twisting, challenging and amazing can be a school year spent at Hogwarts, even while facing difficulties and threatening terrors. There are, as a linguistic trickery, many references to British culture (such as Dumbledore’s phoenix called Fawkes, as Guy Fawkes!!) which, I believe, are the most amazing aspect of this novel, because they challenge us to find the real meaning of this story behind the surface. Thus every little or major detail given throughout all the book is a sort of puzzle for the readers’ minds, as well as it is the real nature of a young man called Tom Riddle, a riddle which keeps us company until the end of the story, when we discover how much puzzling can be a fantasy novel written and thought for children.
I simply can’t wait to read the next books, even if I already know the story and I’ve read them in their Italian edition. Unfortunately, I’ve had to stop buying new book, so Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban must wait until I’ve read all the books I’ve collected on my shelf 😢
Next time we’ll talk about a Classic: Dracula by Bram Stoker!!
See you soon Federica 💋