7.5/10
When everyone first read and loved Harry Potter I ignored it. Not for any particular reason but about 10 years ago I didn’t think I would be into it. Fast forward a decade and I’m now working my way through what I can say already is a children’s classic fantasy series that is up there with The Wizard of Oz and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Harry’s existence with his Muggle uncle and auntie is as horrible as ever and he can’t wait to get back to Hogwarts after speaking to a mini-elf masochist who essentially predicts his doom and travelling in an awesome magic-infused flying car. Upon returning to Hogwarts it’s similar to before, Quidditch lessons, Malfoy being a bit of a tosser, Hermainie loving studying, and the wizarding threesome getting into all sorts of nonsensical antics. A new tutor is introduced this time, Professor Lockhart and I thought he was brilliant mainly due to how awful he was with his tall-tales and celebrity status! This narrative is brimming with ghosts, boys and girls who adore Harry, spiders, and Professor Sprout. The characters are pretty brilliant and I can easily understand why this is adored globally. I didn’t need the continuous info-dumps that reminded me what happened in book one but apart from that there isn’t really anything negative to say. The ending was surprising with a cool twist, a magic hat, a phoenix, a sword, a diary, and a giant snake. I hope you don’t tell me off for these spoilers as I’m sure I’m the only fantasy book reviewer who hasn’t read these yet. I’m loving the adventure so far. These books are what I go to for now when I want no-nonsense, uncomplex awesomeness. Love it.
You and I Books 
Thanks for such an informative review. 🙂
I have to agree with you on the “bring new readers up to speed” info dumps, in that I find them annoying. They are, more often than not, done at the insistence of an editor for the very purpose of keeping a reader who might’ve started the series out of sequence from feeling totally lost; so I understand their necessity. Trust me, though, they are almost as annoying to write as they are to read; this is from personal experience. The trick is to work the info into the story’s natural flow rather than making it a large, single spot recap.
I have yet to read the Harry Potter series (it’s on my to-do-one-of-these-years list), so I don’t know how Ms. Rowling crafted her recaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the HP series! I get what you mean with the info inserts being annoying (because it would be a sin to skip any of the books in the series and the reader should already know all about it). 🙂 Happy New Year!
LikeLiked by 1 person