Book Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Thanks to my GGL, I’m now a Harry Potter fan. I didn’t like the concept when it first came out a few years back. I didn’t like the fact that people were calling it one of the best book series in our time. I didn’t like that it was about kid wizards (seemed like a boring topic). I didn’t like any of it.

However, after reading the third book in the series, I have to say that I’m starting to agree with some of the praise for this series. Reading the Harry Potter books has been extremely enjoyable from the first page through to the last. So on to some points about the book…

I really don’t like Draco Malfoy – he’s a little bitch. In the same respect, I think that Snape has some trickery about him, but for some reason I think that he’s ultimately erring on the side of good instead of evil. But I guess we’ll see in the coming books. The Dursleys are also an ever-constant source of aggravation because they’re such pricks. But I suppose that Rowling has got something good in store for them when the time comes. I’d much rather not read about them at all because they’re slime.

Speaking of family relations, I thought it was great when Sirius Black offered for Harry to come live with him when his name was cleared. Too bad that whole thing was dashed away when Lupin turned into a werewolf and scared everyone on their way back to the castle. Potter, Ron, and Hermione are becoming much more developed characters in this book than in the first two – which is only normal, I suppose. I don’t like that some of the actions and thoughts of the characters are extremely juvenile (but then I remember that I’m reading Harry Potter and ask myself what did I think I was going to get?). For example, the last thing on Harry’s mind should be a Quidditch match when he just found out that his parents were betrayed by Sirius Black (which, as we find out, is untrue).

Quidditch is becoming a little more interesting, though if I hadn’t seen the movies I would have no idea on what actually takes place during the game! Dumbledore is also proving to be a very interesting, very likeable character. The fact that he allows Hermione and Harry to go back in time to save innocent lives (even though that breaks the law), is a nice twist.

I’ve already begun to read the next book in the series and a few pages into it, I can say that it looks like it’ll be as good as the last three! More reviews to come…