3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

*Note: The Harry Potter books are cheating, to which I'll fully admit. For my rationale behind why I'm reviewing them now, go here.

It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our
abilities.

It's summer again in Little Whinging when we open Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry is once again at his aunt and uncle's house, having a generally wretched time of it. The first few pages are deceptively repetitive; this early in the series, Rowling still seems to be writing a typical YA series, in which she has to re-introduce the central character and situation, as if for those young readers who entered the series on the second book. It's possible, I suppose, but I can't imagine ever beginning a series with the second book. A travesty. Anyway, Rowling catches the reader up to speed, reminds us that Harry is a wizard, and relates the hatred that he receives from his extended family. It is also Harry's birthday, a trope repeated from the first book and which will continue through each book of the series. The adult reader might tire of the exhaustive introduction, but Rowling gets rolling pretty quickly, and The Chamber of Secrets begins and becomes a book unto itself.

Harry is visited at his aunt and uncle's house by the strange creature, Dobby, a masochistic house-elf who tries to warn Harry of impending doom should he return to Hogwarts. Instead, Dobby succeeds in getting Harry into deep trouble with his aunt and uncle, and Harry is locked in his room for what might be eternity. Luckily, a set of Weasleys (always handy in a pinch) show up in a flying car to spirit Harry away to the Weasley household called the Burrows. Rowling seems to revel in Harry's delight at the Weasley house, and her detail in this chapter is really fantastic; Harry wants to live with the Weasleys, and so do we.

It doesn't take long for the year at Hogwarts to begin, and it's marked with various mishaps along the way. The central danger, this time, is that students keep showing up "petrified" (frozen), and it is soon revealed that the mysterious "Chamber of Secrets" has been opened. The main questions that drive the plot, thereafter, are relatively simple: What is the Chamber of Secrets? Who lives there? Who opened it? And how to stop the repeated attacks?

What's wonderful about this book is that it gives Rowling a chance to stretch her plot-legs. Where the first book, as mentioned in the last review, was relatively episodic, Chamber of Secrets carries a much more traditional plot structure, and Rowling strings it along beautifully, allowing thread after thread to join the plot until they all culminate in the final scenes down in the Chamber of Secrets. Here, too, Rowling also starts setting the groundwork for later books in the series, keenly aware of what pieces need to be established well ahead of time. She spends a great deal of time establishing the conflict between "pure-bloods" and "Muggle-borns," or "mudbloods," which is suitable considering the gradually increasing age of both her characters and her auidence.

The joy of reading these books again is partly in discovering how carefully Rowling planned the series. Lines that might otherwise be throw-aways, and objects that might only be cursory, carry much more weight in light of the events of the final books. The sword of Godric Gryffindor makes its first appearance, along with the line that only a true Gryffindor could summon the sword; Dumbledore confides that Voldemort, when he cursed Harry, transferred some of his own power to Harry; Harry warns Dobby never to try to save his life again. These are the small gems that make a re-read of these books worthwhile.

Additionally, Rowling continues to emphasize the value of intangible qualities in the battle between good and evil. In the first book, Harry was saved from Voldemort by the effect of his mother having given her life for him; in this book, Harry wins the day through loyalty. As the series progresses and Harry becomes more skilled, his victories become more complex, but Rowling maintains the idea that strength of character is the most important "skill" you can obtain. Indeed, in Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore voices just this theme when he says that our choices and not our abilities show who we truly are.

Sure, the book isn't perfect. The framework of every book progressing over the school year begins to wear a bit, as we start to wonder when Harry, Ron, and Hermione (or the powers that be) will realize that all the exciting stuff happens the last week of school. It also seems a little neat that, once again, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all play their essential role in solving the mystery and saving the day. What's heartening, however, is the knowledge that Rowling begins to eschew these easy structural conventions as her novels and themes become more complex, and so I'm willing to put up with them, at least for the first few novels.

Next up: The Prisoner of Azkaban.