Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Title: Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

Author: J.K. Rowling

Released: July 1998

Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Little does he know that this year will be just as eventful as the last ...even getting there is an adventure in itself! The three firm friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are soon immersed in the daily round of Potions, Herbology, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Quidditch. But then horrible and mysterious things begin to happen. Harry keeps hearing strange voices, sinister and dark messages appear on the wall, and then Ron's sister Ginny disappears...

Rating: 5 Stars

Positives: As always where should I start? There are just so many positives about this book. We meet many new and wonderful characters including Dobby the house elf, Gilderoy Lockhart the absolutely hopeless Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and the manipulative Lucius Malfoy. Each character has their own key qualities and nobody seems to be quite whom they make out they are. 

Then we have the amazing storyline. Who would think that one of the school founders was a Pureblood elitist, and that he'd have a monster buried in the bowels of the school? And of course the true identity of Tom Riddle, the mysterious and charming boy from fifty years ago is a real plot twist. Every time I read this I hope in vain that I've imagined his true identity and that he's actually a really nice guy, but he's not. I won't tell you exactly who he is though because that would ruin everything. 

And there's plenty of laugh out loud moments too. From Ron breaking his wand and it having a string of crazy malfunctions including spells backfiring so that Ron spends an entire day puking slugs to Lockhart removing all the bones from one of Harry's arms this book is bound to contain something that will make you laugh.

Negatives: I've only got one negative and that's purely because I have an abject terror of spiders. Aragog is not funny. It wasn't funny the first time I read the book, it wasn't funny when I saw the film, and it still isn't funny now. The idea of giant spiders the size of small elephants who can talk and like human flesh is just scary. Thanks for the nightmares Rowling. 

Would I recommend this book? Ooooh yes definitely. You'll enjoy it I promise you, especially if you enjoyed the first book.