Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (ISBN 978-1408855669, Bloomsbury)

The second Harry Potter book, first published in 1998 in the UK. A little darker than the first one but still quite light in tone. Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger sister goes to Hogwarts for her first year and gets a central role in this story. Some first romantic feelings between Harry and Jenny emerge but it will take quite a bit of ageing of the characters and many pages before these feelings will be allowed to come to fruition. We are also introduced to Dobby the house elf, another important character in the Harry Potter universe. As the title suggests the story evolves around a secret chamber at Hogwarts containing a horrible secret monster. According to legend the chamber was created by Salazar Slytherin and the monster therein can only be controlled by his heir. Ominous messages appear on the walls at Hogwarts and children are attacked by the ‘invisible’ monster. Some end up literally petrified in the hospital wing. All expect the next attack will result in a fatal casualty so if the monster isn’t caught fast Hogwarts will be closed. Harry, Ron and Hermione do the detective work to reveal the monster’s identity and the location of the chamber of secrets. After entering the chamber Harry has to face the monster and its master in a final battle between good and evil. Throughout the book we learn more about the history of Voldemort and his followers and important characters like Dobby and Ginny are developed. Again, like in the first book the succes of Harry isn’t due to his skills as a wizard but because of his friendship with Ron and Hermione. Compared to the first book the story in this second book is more gripping and with a bit more emotional depth being introduced. The character of Harry, Ron and Hermione is developed further so that they get more body and become less childish. Because of this added emotional richness this book is quite a bit better than the first one in my opinion. I will probably not read the first book again but this second one I could still see myself rereading for the fun of it. But only if I had a lot of time on my hands.