This is, of course, the second book in the Harry Potter series, detailing Harry’s second year at Hogwarts and the evolution of his relationship to his friends and the world of magic. Like the first book, I saw the film before making my way to the text. Unlike the first book, however, I found that the book stood up well under its own merits.
Much of the same empty whimsy is still there in the story, but there’s an incremental step towards a more mature perspective that I could happily appreciate. The story is still a bit bare at times (as evidenced by the fleshed out portions of the film), but the silliness slowly but surely gives way to cleverness. The plot itself is less obvious, and more time is spent on the characters than the simple progression from event to event.
That was my main complaint about the first book; every character was defined by a simple set of characteristics. Those characteristics are still in place (sometimes to an unfortunate degree), but enough complication sets in to make things interesting. The setting becomes a platform for exploration of social concepts like racism and fame. It’s all a bit heavy-handed, but given the audience, that’s hardly surprising.
The book is still despairingly thin, and because the story is more complicated, there’s still a shallow aspect to the overall story. The insight into Harry’s thought process is worth the time, however, because this book begins to incorporate much of his personal history into the overall tale. I love serialized storytelling, so I like the effort taken to introduce ideas that will obviously become important later in the series.
The pacing is also better, but in that regard, the film still manages to flesh out ideas that were glossed over in the written prose. As the novels get longer and the complexity emerges, I suspect that will resolve itself. This book is still part of the overall “introduction” phase of the series, after all. If the first novel was the prologue, then this is when the story begins in earnest, peeling back the seemingly whimsical surface to expose the darker layers underneath.
Rating: 7/10
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