Linda's Dreamwidth Blog

Next review/recap! Chamber of Secrets, of course.

This was an interesting one. CoS was always a bit the redheaded stepchild of the series to me, the one I had to get through to get to the good parts (i.e. PoA :p). The plot always seemed so inconsequential to me since the whole Chamber/basilisk/diary thing would never be mentioned again - of course, I had no idea I had to wait for HBP for that! So CoS is always "the one that got good when HBP came out , haha. *
What surprised me this time around is how much this one deepens out the world and how much is set up for later books, but we had no idea at the time. Mudbloods, Azkaban, Horcruxes, Lucius Malfoy and the School board, Cornelius Fudge being ineffectual, Tom Riddle, house elves, and of course the Vanishing Cabinet. It all shows up here first but it didn't get important until way later. Jo basically distracts us with Lockhart's antics. :p (And even HE shows up again later on!) So yeah, this was pretty enjoyable to read.



* Also, it put me in mind of the theory that the seven books are mirrors of each other. PS and TDH reflect one another being the opener and the closer, CoS and HBP complement one another with the Horcruxes and the.... Slytherinness of it all, PoA and OotP reveal more about the Potters and their friends, and Azkaban and its prisoners play a huge part (ánd it's the beginning and end of Sirius). GoF is the pivot, the middle point, and it fits that it has a plot that doesn't really come back later (the Triwizard Tournament) but also opens up the wizarding world to us ánd it's where the overarching plot of the later 3 books start, the "we're not in Kansas anymore moment. It's pretty neat.

Before we begin there's something else I want to share. I first read PS and CoS on holiday with my parents. Actually, that's not entirely true. I mentioned before that my brother first got into HP because his teacher read it to him at school. My aunt tried to get me into HP too but I resisted because they books sounded dumb. My mom wanted to buy the books but she could only find the second one; the first one was flat sold out (I think the third one had only been released a coupe of months before; it was the year GoF came out). I tried to read CoS first but I couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I bought the first one myself, and we took both books on vacation to France.
I finished PS with CoS lying next to me, so I could immediatey continue. Jo had completely fooled me with her Quirrel twist (I was so angry that it wasn't Snape!) and I was DETERMINED that she wouldn't fool me again.

So naturally I was absolutely sure Lockhart had opened the Chamber.

I mean, it made sense! Last time it had been the least likely candidate, Lockhart was an obvious fool and it would be ridiculous that he would open the Chamber. Therefore, it was obviously him!

Of course, Jo kicked my ass once again and I had to bow down to her genius plotting. :p

Anyway, while on vacation my parents had brought art supplies and my brother and I spend rainy days drawing. Of course, being the budding HP freak that I was, I drew a lot of HP stuff. Thankfully, I saved most of my drawings, so when I started the reread project I decided to look for my original HP drawings. And I found them! So here they are. My very first drawings I made when I had JUST finished the first two books.

( Drawings! )




Anyway, without much further ado, here are my reactions to Chamber of Secrets! 

( Chamber of Secrets recap )