I have surprised myself by warming to the Harry Potter books. I felt that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling had greater depth to it than the previous books ... maybe that's natural and right in books where the characters age by one year each time. There is no getting away from the fact that this is a good story - with this third installment, the characters are familiar and there isn't too much time required anymore to set the scene. This means that the book starts at a run and maintains its pace pretty much the whole way through. Harry, once again, gets into trouble at his aunts and uncle's home and flees after he inflates his aunt like a balloon. He is surprised to find that instead of being banned from his beloved Hogwarts for practising magic out of the school boundaries, he is welcomed back and those in charge are being very protective towards him. On the train back to school, Harry encounters The Dementors - he goes weak, hears screaming and eventually slips into unconsciousness. It turns out that these are the guards at Azkhaban - the dreaded prison of the magical world. They suck the joy out of everyone around them. They are on the hunt for an escaped prisoner - Sirius Black - who, Harry is told, helped to kill his parents and who is now after him. But, as always, things are never as simple as that! As Harry and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, start their new school year, the action really gets going and keeps going - including a werewolf, a hippogryff and a smidgen of time travel. If I hadn't already seen the film, I think there would have been some super twists and turns in this book. And you know what, I am actually looking forward to the next installment!
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: Free - borrowed the ebook from my local library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook
No comments:
Post a Comment