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Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 7/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: July, 2006
Summary: For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys' dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.
As it turns out, Harry isn't punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected?
Review: I never thought I'd say this, but I was actually disappointed with this one. It used to be that PoA was my favourite Harry Potter book, but I discovered that listening to it, rather than reading it myself forced me to go slower, and really pick up on all the things that I didn't like about the book. Like Hermione being totally insensitive to Ron (I'd've been pissed at her too!). Like Snape being utterly unfair and totally hysterical. Like the Ministry of Magic being incredibly unjust. Sirius never got a proper trial the first time around, and then when he escaped and people - children and a warewolf granted, but still people - claim that he's innocent, nobody cares, and he's just going to get kissed by a dementor anyway? I just got really, really annoyed. Fudge INFURIATED me, and Snape (whom I usually love to hate, but not so much any longer) wasn't much better. Bah! I don't think I can place HP among my favourite books any longer. I'm still looking forward to book 7, but in general, I've come to realize I prefer fanfics to the canon books. A shame really...
Book List
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Rating: 7/10
# pages: Audiobook
Date read: July, 2006
Summary: For most children, summer vacation is something to look forward to. But not for our 13-year-old hero, who's forced to spend his summers with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who detest him. The third book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series catapults into action when the young wizard "accidentally" causes the Dursleys' dreadful visitor Aunt Marge to inflate like a monstrous balloon and drift up to the ceiling. Fearing punishment from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon (and from officials at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who strictly forbid students to cast spells in the nonmagic world of Muggles), Harry lunges out into the darkness with his heavy trunk and his owl Hedwig.
As it turns out, Harry isn't punished at all for his errant wizardry. Instead he is mysteriously rescued from his Muggle neighborhood and whisked off in a triple-decker, violently purple bus to spend the remaining weeks of summer in a friendly inn called the Leaky Cauldron. What Harry has to face as he begins his third year at Hogwarts explains why the officials let him off easily. It seems that Sirius Black--an escaped convict from the prison of Azkaban--is on the loose. Not only that, but he's after Harry Potter. But why? And why do the Dementors, the guards hired to protect him, chill Harry's very heart when others are unaffected?
Review: I never thought I'd say this, but I was actually disappointed with this one. It used to be that PoA was my favourite Harry Potter book, but I discovered that listening to it, rather than reading it myself forced me to go slower, and really pick up on all the things that I didn't like about the book. Like Hermione being totally insensitive to Ron (I'd've been pissed at her too!). Like Snape being utterly unfair and totally hysterical. Like the Ministry of Magic being incredibly unjust. Sirius never got a proper trial the first time around, and then when he escaped and people - children and a warewolf granted, but still people - claim that he's innocent, nobody cares, and he's just going to get kissed by a dementor anyway? I just got really, really annoyed. Fudge INFURIATED me, and Snape (whom I usually love to hate, but not so much any longer) wasn't much better. Bah! I don't think I can place HP among my favourite books any longer. I'm still looking forward to book 7, but in general, I've come to realize I prefer fanfics to the canon books. A shame really...
Book List
