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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)

I don't really want to get into the story behind why I decided to read this book, but trust me, there was a good reason. And it seemed like a good idea to see what the big deal was with these Harry Potter books. I read the first one before I started doing this site, so I'll just review the second one here.

You know the basic idea, right? Young wizard boy, in a school for wizards. Evil, magic, and monsters are all big parts of the setting. Lots of funny words, like "muggles" (non-magic users) and "quidditch" (a wizard sport). All the kind of stuff you'd expect from good kid's fantasy literature.

And it actually is pretty decent. Well written, usually well paced, lots of little cliffhangers, enough twists in the plot to keep things interesting, and a fairly consistant setting for everything, which is nice for things involving magic and other fantasy elements. It seems like great stuff for kids to read.

But here's my main problem: in the world of Harry Potter, everyone who uses magic keeps it hidden from the "muggle" world. There exists a whole parallel society with fantastic powers and abilities that rarely interacts with the everyday world of most people, not even understanding many aspects about it. And they spend lots and lots of effort to keep it this way. I find this condescending attitude towards everyday people very disturbing. Shouldn't people with these abilities be responsible for helping people who do not have those abilities? This idea keeps me from fully appreciating the more typical morals of the importance of friendship and not judging people based on their appearances and all those sorts of things. Do these ideas only apply to people in the elite ruling class?

But the fact that the book makes me question these sorts of things is probably a pretty good sign for something that is categorized as a "children's book".

And, for the record, I think I liked this second book more than the first, although I read them both over a long period of time, and that retrospective memory isn't what it used to be.