The second book in the J.K Rowling series about a young, orphan wizard named Harry Potter begins just after his twelfth birthday. Harry lives with his mother’s sister Petunia and her hubby and son, Vernon and Dudley on a quiet street in Surrey.
However, Harry is not as ordinary as the rest of his family, and for almost 1 year he lived in a huge hidden castle somewhere in England called Hogwarts. Hundreds of other lads and lassies live at Hogwarts too, where together they are all learning magic. Some of them are from the families of the wizards, while others grow up knowing nothing of the magic world and receive letters on their 11th birthday telling them that those weird skills they’ve always had are in fact weak magical powers.
It is Harry’s second year at Hogwarts and there he has two very close friends Ron and Hermione, a full blood wizard and muggles born respectively. After the jolts of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, where he discovered that the man who murdered his parents is alive, although a kind of half-life, draining life from others, and looking for a way to return himself back to his full health and power. This man’s name is Voldemort.
This book is more of a covert than its predecessor; with a real air of plotting and uncertainty about it. Yet it finds itself in somewhat awkward position, somewhere between childhood innocence and simplicity and darker teenage horror. In many places it looks clear, Rowling seems to have opted for typecasts rather than novelty in these monsters and it makes it all artificial.
The book best asset is the stuff with Lord Voldemort and Tom Riddle, the ending in the Chamber of Secrets is much better than the rest of the book; which seems to exist mostly of ridiculous filler moments, like an incident with a cat hair and some poly juice potion, rather than gradually collecting information thru the story to build to a climax. It is an embarrassment that more time isn’t devoted to Tom Riddle and the secretes of Voldemort’s past, but that is kept for later on in the series. Without it however, this book fits more in the thriller or mystery section, despite its fantastical elements, and even fitted there it’s not the best book on the shelf.
It does have its optimistic facts, of course, as the characters grow and the mysterious and enthralling magical world is built upon, getting resilient with every word. Where in the first book everything was fresh, the second book forms on the already established understanding and truly sets up the rest of series.
On the whole, not the best Harry Potter book, particularly if you don’t like spiders and snakes, but it’s pretty simple to get through and will certainly stimulate your appetite for the rest of the series.