Closet Confidential

 

The second book in the JK Rowling series about a adolescent, orphan wizard named Harry Potter gets started shortly after his twelfth christmas at the end of July. Harry lives with his mother’s sister Petunia and her husband and son, Vernon and Dudley Dursely on a relaxed street in Surrey.

However, Harry is not as normal as the rest of his family, and from September until June he lives in a huge hidden castle somewhere in England called Hogwarts. Hundreds of more boys and girls live at Hogwarts too, where together they are all learning magic. Some of them are from wizarding families, whilst others grow up being aware of nothing of the awesome world and see letters on their eleventh birthday revealing to them that those strange abilities they’ve always had are in fact impotent magical powers.

It is Harry’s second year at Hogwarts and there he has two very close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a full blood wizard and muggle born severally. After the shocks of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, where he discovered that the man who murdered his adults is living, albeit a kind of half life, draining the life from others, and trying to find a way to return himself back to his full fitness and power. This man’s name is Lord Voldermort.

In the second book we start off to gain an insight into Voldermort, as Harry, without realising it, drifts into the memories of his nemesis through an enchanted diary. Harry is not the first person to possess Voldermorts memories however, in fact Ron’s younger sister Ginny, who is in her to begin with year at Hogwarts, has been pouring her heart out into the pages of the diary for months and the diary, disguised as a caring ear to Ginny, has been employing her life to turned out to be more and more powerful himself. As Voldermort’s power has grown he has used Ginny to unleash a deadly terror upon Hogwarts, an unknown killer that seems untraceable and leaves his victim’s paralyzed by fear.

Harry meanwhile, begins to hear ominous voices, voices only he can hear and strange messages begin developing across the school proclaiming that any student not a full-blood wizard will die and that the “Chamber of Secrets” has been re-opened.

Together, Harry, Ron and Hermione begin to investigate, trying to discover what the Chamber of Secrets is, and what could possibly be attacking the students. Whilst in one of the memories locked in the diary Harry learns that his part giant teacher and friend, Rubius Hagrid, was expelled from Hogwarts as a child for keeping a dangerous animal on the grounds. To Ron’s horror the two boys discover that the monster was a giant, man-eating frying pan, but even worse that he is not the one who has been targeting the students.

Eventually Hermione is found paralyzed on her way back from the library and a student is dragged into the Chamber of Secrets as one final sacrifice to the huge before Voldermort can finally be returned to full strength.

Harry finds himself, separated from Ron and their brain-washed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who had accompanied him, in the caverns down below the school and facing a huge, deadly snake, with not anything but his wand and a tattered old hat.

This book is more of a mystery than its predecessor; with a real air of intrigue and uncertainty about it. Yet it finds itself in a slightly awkward position, somewhere between childhood innocence and naivety and darker teenage horror. In many spot it seems a bit obvious and ham-fisted, Rowling seems to have opted for stereotypes rather than originality in these monsters and it makes it all a little planned.

Unfortunately this is inescapable and dulls the love affair and interest of the book, in many ways this book came too soon, when the dark side of the magical world was still too undefined for readers for it to truly be explored to the magnitude that it needs to be for this story. Yet it is a inevitable part of the series and must be read in order to grasp the following five books.

 

In many ways the Chamber of Secrets opens doors to areas of the Harry Potter series that will become hugely important later on, ideas about Voldermort’s past and his soul and even his choice to hunt Harry begin to take shape and long term relationships are hinted at.

However, when it comes down to it The Chamber of Secrets is most definitely the weakest of all the Potter books, the story line is foreseeable and the newly introduced character types are pretty stereotypical and just add to the mentioned predictability.

The books best asset is the stuff with Lord Voldermort and Tom Riddle, the finale in the Chamber of Secrets is far better than the rest of the book; which sounds to exist largely of ridiculous filler moments, like an incident with a cat hair and some polyjuice potion, rather than slowly gathering advise throughout the story to build to a climax. It is a shame that much more time isn’t devoted to Tom Riddle and the mysteries of Voldermort’s past, but that is reserved for later on in the series. Without it however, this book sits more in the thriller/mystery section, even with  its fantastical elements, and even seated there it’s not the best book on the shelf.

 

It does have its positive points, of training course, as the characters develop and the mysterious and fascinating magical world is built upon, getting stronger with whatever word. Where in the first book everything is new the second book builds on the already established understanding and really sets up the rest of series.

And, as with all the Potter books, it has a fantastic main character base, which make the whole read bearable and even enjoyable, ridiculous over-the-top incidents with flying cars and falling pudding can even be forgiven thanks to the humour of Ron Weasley and the irate absuridity of Vernon Dursely; not to mention it being the first time we make the wonderful house elf, Dobby. harry potter and the chamber secrets

All in all, not the best Potter book, primarily if you don’t like spiders and snakes, but it’s pretty easy to get through and will absolutely whet your appetite for the relax of the series.