Potter Chamber Secrets Narrated Stephen Reviews Summary

Writing and Storytelling

Pros:

• "The Harry Potter books are well written and easy to read."
• "The character development is amazing."
• "I liked the suspense in this book and how it was wrapped up."
• "The second book in the Harry Potter series contains all of the exciting ingredients which made the first one such a success."
• "The book is very intriguing and left me on the edge on my seat as Harry inched closer to finding out what was happening at Hogwarts."
• "Above all ‘Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets’ is a top story full of imaginative and intriguing scenarios."
• "Just like the first book, the Chamber of Secrets draws the reader into a magical world full of surprises and adventures."

Cons:

• "However I find the book to be not very impactful."
• "There seems to some pages missing from this book as when I advance a page sometimes the scenes are a bit eschewed."
• "So this second book is nearly as poor as the first, with many contrived moments in the plot, unrealistic exaggerations, and unbelievable elements within story details that should have been edited out to make a more satisfying story."
• "It's clear from the beginning of Chamber of Secrets that Rowling will make fat shaming a habit throughout."
• "But in the fantasy genre, any random book published before Harry Potter is likely to hold up much better, and in the mystery genre, any random book from Nancy Drew and similar series is likely to match this one, and deliver a more coherent plot that exceeds it."
• "This book is definitely a bit better than the very badly written first book, but large parts of this second book are still poorly conceived and badly written."
• "The inability to escape what reads pretty clearly as Rowling's disdain for a great many types of people is what made this such a painful read for me."

Characters and Development

Pros:

• "As these kids learn magic, they learn how to mature and grow as human beings as well."
• "Harry is getting a little naughtier and braver, Ron is getting naughtier and funnier, and Hermione, my favorite, is even cooler and wittier than ever."
• "I've grown to love Phoenixae. Fawkes is an amazing creature."
• "I loved seeing an orphaned and bullied main character overcome the past hurts to grow."
• "Harry, Hermione, and Ron's friendship are tested throughout the novel, as they face challenges and obstacles together."
• "The characters are well thought through and developed and left me feeling like I personally knew each character."
• "The characters, so finely drawn that they encourage one to believe they actually exist in real time."

Cons:

• "Three new characters, Professor Lockhart, Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, and Colin Creevey, a 'little first year', are introduced. They are not as interesting characters as Hermonia and Ron."
• "Snape isn’t really important in this story. He’s just the usual bad-tempered potions teacher."
• "However, Hermione isn't in much of this book, which I feel causes it to lack something special to the friendship dynamic."
• "And I found one of the new characters, Gilderoy Lockhart, fairly extraneous to the plot."
• "Many of the plot twists occur precisely because Harry doesn't yet know his way around the wizarding world."
• "I have also heard that many people thought that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the weakest book of all four."
• "To say anything negative about Harry Potter is blasphemy to the legions of fans, so I'll get my two minor gripes with this book out of the way first."

Physical Book Quality

Pros:

• "I purchased it as a used product and was satisfied with what I received."
• "I was super happy to have my own physical copy and start reading this."
• "The book was exactly what I ordered."
• "I was surprised that the condition was as good as it was, considering that it was used."
• "Hard back is the original nicer version that is blue and green with a diamond pattern pressed on."
• "Once having seen the film, all the characters and locations are burnt into your memory."
• "Now that we are finished reading it, the kids are looking forward to watching the movie (a nice reward!) and are especially excited to see Ron spitting up slugs and the encounter with Aragog!"

Cons:

• "The pages are all yellow and it appears and smells like it is really old."
• "It said it was in good condition, but book had no cover and writing all over it."
• "But I went to open the book and quickly realized some of the binding was coming apart.. I was extremely disappointed because I like my books to stay in very very good condition even after I read them."
• "I was expecting a new book and got one that was dingy and 100% not new!"
• "This Prime ebook was 138 pages long. Missing 200 pages from the original."
• "The box it was shipped in however didn't get any packing paper/peanuts."
• "I'm also pretty flarking upset that Hedwig was locked in a tiny cage all summer."