Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (spoilers)

[kate_nepveu]

Proposition: the reason that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is less interesting than the first book is that the story is mostly about someone other than Harry.

Discuss.

(Alternatively, what the heck was Bloomsbury UK thinking with the kids-version cover art for the seventh book? (See also: US version.))

ETA: I've booklogged this book & its predecessor.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Hmmm! That's interesting.

The school year format really imposes odd pacing requirements, I think, and that may have sometning to do with that--it's hard to do an entire school year of just the growing tension.

I wonder if the loyalty theme might run counter to the structure you identify--Harry wins not because he conquers his own self-doubts about his nature, but because he defends Dumbledore.

[eruthros]

Yes! Exactly. It's almost that story. And I wouldn't mind if it had some other structure entirely, but it's so nearly that story that I can't help seeing it as a failed attempt at same rather than as a story about loyalty or a story about Ginny or whatever.

Also, it's the only excuse for the inclusion of poor little Harry, whose friends hate him, blahblah, Ron and Harry blah. I think I kinda wish it had succeeded as a descent narrative, because then we'd be over it: we'd know who Harry was, and what he could do, and we could stop with the "Ron thought Harry was lying to him!" "Harry and the rest of Gryffindor house were on the outs!" and whatever. Especially because I think it's annoying in most stories, but actually does induce tension in a descent narrative.