Books From My Younger Days: Rereading The Chamber of Secrets

I’m continuing my trek through books I read in my younger days and this week I am going back over Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.  This is the second in the Harry Potter series, if you didn’t know, and continues to be a light-hearted tale of three friends as they grow in their pursuit of a magical education.  

This year at Hogwarts, we see a mystery begin to build as students (and a ghost and cat) are found petrified by a mysterious foe and rumors of the Chamber of Secrets begin to circulate.  With an apparent unstoppable force attacking the students, Hogwarts threatens to close the school so Harry, Hermione, and Ron set out to solve a mystery in order to prevent the demise of Hogwarts, and potentially, more students.

While, again, this is a young adult novel and the story can sometimes move quickly or pieces fit together a little too neatly, but it’s still as enjoyable now as it was when I was younger.  Again, as I stated in the previous review, I love the world that Rowling has built and it’s not always easy to do for a writer. Sometimes in a novel we get characters we love and an okay story or there are times when a great story seems to carry weak characters.

I think Rowling does a great job of mixing these two in that you care about the characters and the story.  You want to follow both the story and our friends as they traverse the challenges dropped into their lives.  While I know this series has been one of the most popular in the world, and me going over it isn’t introducing anyone to something new, I do hope that those who’ve never experienced the series will take the time to do so and, maybe, if you’re a fan, take the time to escape into the wizarding world once again.