Books I read in Lockdown: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (SPOILERS)
“ Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.” (page 305)
FIRST THINGS FIRST...
CONSIDER CHECKING OUT MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS:
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
Welcome back to my Harry Potter re-read reviews! The Prisoner of Azkaban is no.3 and honestly, not previously one of my favourites. I never found the book particularly memorable and what enjoyment I had of this book was ruined by the film (definitely my least favourite out of the eight)! However, whilst this book is STILL not one of my favourites, I definitely enjoyed it more this time around.
Praises
Firstly, the Knight Bus! I fell in love with the Hogwarts Express for its magic, but the Knight bus for its ridiculousness! Bright purple, triple decked, and with complementary hot water bottles, this is a bus that of course has the audacity to be "scattering bushed and bollards, telephone boxes and tress" (page 43) showing no regard for the muggle streets. This bus is by far the most amusing of the forms of wizard transport that Rowling creates.
Lovable Hagrid still continues to provide the comic relief in this book, with his forgetfulness and desperate wish to protect Harry; one minute laughing and joking, the next freaking out that Harry is outside the castle and roaring his " WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN' EH?" (page 128) at him for coming to visit.
There is a really stark contrast between dark and humorous in this book. This starts early on with Harry's poignant line which provides the most foreshadowing for the whole plot, "Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?" (page 78). This is a sad line, but also one that raises a chuckle - mainly because you know that Harry, Ron and Hermione will end up involved somehow!
Following the initial injection of humour however, it quickly becomes apparent that the series is taking a darker turn from this book onward with the introduction of the 'Dementors of Azkaban'. The series is beginning to mature and get deeper in subtext. The previous books have had scary creatures (dragons, the basilisk etc) but never a hooded, faceless, rattling soul sucker who "infest the darkest, filthiest places; glory in decay and despair" (page 197).
There is also some really dark emotional aspects of the Dementors and this book - Harry hearing the screaming, pleading voice of his mother just moments before her death is very raw and haunting. Harry's desperation to avenge Sirius and then Wormtail (Pettigrew) for the death of his parents shows how deeply he has been affected by being orphaned, raised by neglectful relatives and his deep desire to understand the reasons they died. It is heartbreaking to read such passionate desire for revenge in a young boy of thirteen; "'HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!' Harry roared, and with huge effort he broke free of Hermione and Ron's restraint." (page 361)
Criticisms
There is one major plot hole in this book that is a finite detail, but really frustrates me! Fred and George gift Harry the Marauder's Map in 1993, claiming to have had it since their first year (1989) therefore it makes no sense at all that they would not previously have noticed that Scabbers was labelled as Peter Pettigrew on the map when he would have been in the same location as Ron majority of the time, including the common room, dormitory and Ron's bed!
My other criticism of this book is that it is somewhat slow and the plot does not really become gripping until the end when they discover the truth about Sirius and go back in time to save him. Apart from that, most of this book just details creatures such as Buckbeak the Hippogriff and lots of Hogwarts classes such as Divination. This is not a bad thing necessarily, as this book provides lots of needed details about the wizarding world, but there is a very limited plot for around the first half of the book. This prevents me from giving the maximum star rating, but it's still a phenomenal book!
This book is definitely worthy of its 4 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The fourth installment of my Harry Potter reviews will be next week so I really hope to see you there, for my review of the Goblet of Fire. I hope you enjoyed this post and I would love to interact in the comments with anyone who has any views on the book, or on my review. Thank you everyone for the amazing support I've had on this blog so far! xx
** all quotes and page numbers mentioned in this post are in reference to J.K. Rowling, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2014) ISBN 978-1-4088-5591-1
FIRST THINGS FIRST...
CONSIDER CHECKING OUT MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS:
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
Welcome back to my Harry Potter re-read reviews! The Prisoner of Azkaban is no.3 and honestly, not previously one of my favourites. I never found the book particularly memorable and what enjoyment I had of this book was ruined by the film (definitely my least favourite out of the eight)! However, whilst this book is STILL not one of my favourites, I definitely enjoyed it more this time around.
Praises
Firstly, the Knight Bus! I fell in love with the Hogwarts Express for its magic, but the Knight bus for its ridiculousness! Bright purple, triple decked, and with complementary hot water bottles, this is a bus that of course has the audacity to be "scattering bushed and bollards, telephone boxes and tress" (page 43) showing no regard for the muggle streets. This bus is by far the most amusing of the forms of wizard transport that Rowling creates.
Lovable Hagrid still continues to provide the comic relief in this book, with his forgetfulness and desperate wish to protect Harry; one minute laughing and joking, the next freaking out that Harry is outside the castle and roaring his " WHAT D'YEH THINK YOU'RE DOIN' EH?" (page 128) at him for coming to visit.
There is a really stark contrast between dark and humorous in this book. This starts early on with Harry's poignant line which provides the most foreshadowing for the whole plot, "Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?" (page 78). This is a sad line, but also one that raises a chuckle - mainly because you know that Harry, Ron and Hermione will end up involved somehow!
Following the initial injection of humour however, it quickly becomes apparent that the series is taking a darker turn from this book onward with the introduction of the 'Dementors of Azkaban'. The series is beginning to mature and get deeper in subtext. The previous books have had scary creatures (dragons, the basilisk etc) but never a hooded, faceless, rattling soul sucker who "infest the darkest, filthiest places; glory in decay and despair" (page 197).
There is also some really dark emotional aspects of the Dementors and this book - Harry hearing the screaming, pleading voice of his mother just moments before her death is very raw and haunting. Harry's desperation to avenge Sirius and then Wormtail (Pettigrew) for the death of his parents shows how deeply he has been affected by being orphaned, raised by neglectful relatives and his deep desire to understand the reasons they died. It is heartbreaking to read such passionate desire for revenge in a young boy of thirteen; "'HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!' Harry roared, and with huge effort he broke free of Hermione and Ron's restraint." (page 361)
There is also some really dark emotional aspects of the Dementors and this book - Harry hearing the screaming, pleading voice of his mother just moments before her death is very raw and haunting. Harry's desperation to avenge Sirius and then Wormtail (Pettigrew) for the death of his parents shows how deeply he has been affected by being orphaned, raised by neglectful relatives and his deep desire to understand the reasons they died. It is heartbreaking to read such passionate desire for revenge in a young boy of thirteen; "'HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!' Harry roared, and with huge effort he broke free of Hermione and Ron's restraint." (page 361)
Criticisms
There is one major plot hole in this book that is a finite detail, but really frustrates me! Fred and George gift Harry the Marauder's Map in 1993, claiming to have had it since their first year (1989) therefore it makes no sense at all that they would not previously have noticed that Scabbers was labelled as Peter Pettigrew on the map when he would have been in the same location as Ron majority of the time, including the common room, dormitory and Ron's bed!
My other criticism of this book is that it is somewhat slow and the plot does not really become gripping until the end when they discover the truth about Sirius and go back in time to save him. Apart from that, most of this book just details creatures such as Buckbeak the Hippogriff and lots of Hogwarts classes such as Divination. This is not a bad thing necessarily, as this book provides lots of needed details about the wizarding world, but there is a very limited plot for around the first half of the book. This prevents me from giving the maximum star rating, but it's still a phenomenal book!
This book is definitely worthy of its 4 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐
** all quotes and page numbers mentioned in this post are in reference to J.K. Rowling, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2014) ISBN 978-1-4088-5591-1
Love this, complete agree with the scabbers plot hole, glad i'm not the only one who noticed it!xx
ReplyDeletethank you so much xxx
DeleteGreat review! I've read this but I can't remember the book very well although I've seen the film hundreds of times. It's definitely one of my fave HP's as I love the storyline. Interesting about the Scabbers thing!
ReplyDeleteJenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
Thank you so much!!! It's not my favourite but the storyline is good!!xx
DeleteI read the Harry Potter series for the first time a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a great deal! Recently, I've been rediscovering them through a podcast entitled "Potterless". It's so funny and interesting at the same time. I'd love to ready Harry Potter again one of these days.
ReplyDeleteI love podcasts about Harry Potter - I've discovered so many interesting things that way!! I would definitely recommend a re-read; personally I always find new things I never noticed before and enjoy them more and more every time ! xxxx
DeleteI've loved Harry Potter since the books first came out! It's always magical to reread old books and get transported to the wizarding world :) The Knight Bus has always been a favorite of mine and my mom's!
ReplyDeleteFor me it's the one series I will spend my LIFE re-reading!!! I love the Knight bus so much, second only to the Hogwarts Express of course! :) xxx
DeleteThe Prisoner of Azkaban isn't one of my favourite of the movies but I loved the book so much more and it was one of my favourites in the series :-)
ReplyDeleteSarah x
The book is definitely a LOT better than the movie. Even the effects and overall look of the film are a bit strange. There's so many amazing things in the book that would have made the movie a lot better if they were included. xxx
Delete