Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Chamber of Secrets is the second book in the Harry Potter series of novels written by J.K. Rowling. It was published in 1998. It is set in the kids' second year at Hogwarts. This novel introduces some new characters, including the fan-favorite Dobby the house-elf, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Guildory Lockhart. It also expands Ginny Weasley's role as she is now a first-year at Hogwarts. And, of course, the novel moves the Harry vs. Voldemort storyline along, providing more of Voldemort's back story, including some of his early life. The crux of the story is that there is something connected to a Chamber of Secrets, which has been opened after 50 years, attacking students at Hogwarts.  The attacks threaten to close the school, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione try to solve the mystery.

The book is a bit darker than the first novel, but given that it is only the second book in a series intended to mature as the children who would read it aged, it is definitely not as dark as the later books become. Basically, Rowling intended that kids who read the book would be about the same age as the characters as the series went along, so about 11 when reading the first novel and 17-18 by the time they read the final book. So, while kids must be old enough to handle the characters being hurt and understand the concept of death, the subject matter is not too dark for most kids around 10-13 years old. And, of course, the book series is written well enough that an adult can easily enjoy it.

The hardcover version of the book is about 340 pages long, making it slightly longer than the first novel, but not much. It is a fairly quick read for anyone who reads a lot and has good reading comprehension skills. For those who have only seen the movies, this, along with The Sorcerer's Stone, is the book with the least amount of material cut out in the movie adaptations. As the subsequent books got longer, entire plotlines had to be removed. In this novel, while some things were pared down a bit in the movies, the vast majority of the story made it in. 

Overall, the book is very good, and is definitely not "just a kid's book". Like many good coming-of-age stories from the fantasy genre, it uses fantasy elements as metaphors for the experience of growing up and ties the difficulties of growing up into a world of magic. And, it is a story that holds up well even twenty-some years after it was written, and will probably continue to do so years from now.