04.May.2008 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Just finished the third Potter! I’m not gonna worry about spoilers in any of my HP reviews since I assume the whole world has known everything about it.

I thought Rowling was very good at building up the climax. I went leisurely for about 3/4 of the book, then dashed through the last 1/4 in no time at all, because that’s where things are resolved. Even though I knew the formulae already by now (the bad guys are never really the bad guys and the good guys could be the bad guys), the background story that’s revealed near the end was still extremely satisfying, and lots of details unpredictable.

Again, I watched the third movie when it was out in cinema, and I totally forgot about all the details. So even I knew from the movie that Sirius Black would be the good Harry’s uncle/godfather and the rat was the bad guy (those were the few things that I remembered from the movie), I still read the whole book thinking that Black was the bad guy and I couldn’t predict who/what the rat was (or if there was a real rat or just someone transformed into a rat).

Apart from that, I thought I found the reason why HP is so popular. It’s the same reason why Doraemon is so popular. It’s all about the imaginary magical details that everyone wishes they had in real life. Wouldn’t it be so much fun to go to a witchcraft and wizardry school to study magic? Or to have a door that could open up to any place you want? *sigh*

Can’t wait to go to the next book. I actually miss everyone when I finished reading the book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 [Excellent]
Plot is getting more interesting. Better than the last book.

First line

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.

Last line

Harry set off towards the station exit, Hedwig rattling along in front of him, for what looked like a much better summer than last.