Book Review - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I should have got this done for yesterday but since I fell behind earlier this week with my Favs Fortnight posts I'm now trying to play catch-up even though my capacity to write coherent reviews is probably a bit dented after the two behemoth reviews of *last* Friday and Saturday :P. The next two should be much shorter since I've not got time today to write loads.

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J.K. Rowling
Date: 26/9/2010 PM (re-read)
Source: Bought
Description: Harry Potter is a wizard. He is in his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's always a relief after summer with the Dursleys, however, Harry doesn't realise that this year will be just as eventful as the last two! The atmosphere at Hogwarts is tense. There's an escaped mass murderer on the loose, even the Muggles have been warned. The sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school and Harry, Ron and Hermione rapidly discover why all witches and wizards live in fear of being sent to Azkaban. Lessons, however, must go on and there are lots of new subjects in third year - Care of Magical Creatures and Divination among others. Plus the delights of Hogsmeade, the only village in the UK entirely populated by the magical community. (Description taken from Amazon.co.uk)


Review:
Well since there is very little that I can actually say about this series that you won't already know or have thought yourselves I shall keep this very brief and merely outline why this particular book in the series was the one I chose to include in my Favs Fortnight.


Ok first off I have to mention the slightly pragmatic reason that was because this was a lot smaller than Goblet of Fire (another of my favs) and so easier and quicker to re-read. I could have probably re-read GoF if I wanted but as this comes before it I thought it more appropriate to read my original favourite out of the series.


After Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets the third book was just so brilliant (sheesh do I overuse that word). There's finally a little ray of hope for Harry that his family life might not be so hellish in the future and I just loved the new subjects that Harry, Ron and Hermione got to study in their third year, although I would have liked it more if we could have got to see some of Hermione's Ancient Runes & Arithmancy classes cos they sounded so awesome (but alas since the books are always from Harry's POV that was never going to happen).

This book was also a good deal darker and more complex than the previous two and bugger me if the Dementors are not some of the most chilling monsters I've ever come across in children's fiction - heck knows how my 8 year self dealt with this potential nightmares this book could cause to someone that young (I have no memories of my immediate feelings after finishing it for the first time). We also learned some very interesting things about Harry's father when he was at school. Sirius and Lupin became two of my favourite characters *why Jo why?!?* although for years until I saw the actual third film (which at the time I hated) I always read Sirius as Sirus without the "i". No idea why but I did.

Prisoner of Azkaban was my overall favourite of the first three books and it's still one of my top 3 books out of the whole series (the other two being Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix). It's sort of the last book where things are going reasonable well for Harry and there's still a smidgen of good in the world before everything gets progressively darker from the start of Goblet of Fire. I find it impossible to call either of the last two books my favourites even though I do love them, I just can't entirely forgive J.K. Rowling for Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Hedwig and Colin Creevey (pain in the arse that he always was to Harry he was still only 16).

So there you go, my rather spare thoughts on the 3rd in a series I'm sure I'll never tire of re-reading even long after I've finally given up hope of receiving my letter to Hogwarts :P (oh come on you can't fool me, I know you're all still waiting too)

My Rating: 5 out 5 Stars


So which Potter book is *your* favourite? Tell me in the comments or link to your own review :)
Well gotta dash now as dinner is calling my name *om nom nom*
LadyV