Tag: Prisoner of Azkaban

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling

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Earlier this year I completed my re-read of the Harry Potter series. Now that I’ve made it through the books again, I’m making the effort to pin down my thoughts. Wher I can, I’ll consider my experience of the books compared to my initial read as a teenager. Before going into today’s review, if you would like to catch up with my reviews of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, here are the links to do so. 

Today I am reviewing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. If you are unfamiliar, this is the third book in the seven-part series. This is the book in which the plot really starts to hint at the metamorphosis the series will undergo later on, whilst still short and digestible for younger readers.

The plot has a darker element to the narrative, and some of the more sinister characters start to introduce themselves properly. The early books are quite lighthearted in introducing you to the wizarding world. By the time you’re done with the series, you have explored its darkest avenues.

I grew up with these books (literally). I started the early ones in my late childhood/early teenage years and read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as an adult. This is something I have really come to enjoy in the series.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 317

Audience: Young Adult

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: 08 Jul 1999

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

 

Goodreads – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, is about to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry can’t wait to get back to school after the summer holidays. (Who wouldn’t if they lived with the horrible Dursleys?) But when Harry gets to Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There’s an escaped mass murderer on the loose, and the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school…

 

My Thoughts

Plot

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes on a different tone compared with the first two books of the series. With a whole school year to pack into 300+ pages, you will not be bored making your way through this one. Whilst we are familiar with the school year and structure at this point, there are new and different things happening that keep the narrative fresh.

As I mentioned above, the more sinister aspects of the narrative really worked for me. Reviewing this in hindsight from the position of having read the whole series, this is one of the pivotal books in my opinion. Whilst short and sweet, it introduces characters such as the dementors, who go on to have a more significant role later on in the series.

 

Narrative Style

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a quick read. As this book is one of the last shorter ones of the series, it is still very approachable for the everyday reader. I managed to re-read this book in just over a week. And that is a very casual pace for me! Whether you are reading this book for the very first time or like me, going back into the series again, I don’t think it will disappoint. Even though the theme of the book is a shade darker than the previous two books of the series, it doesn’t detract from its readability whatsoever.

 

Characters

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we experience the narrative through the perspective of Harry Potter himself. Along the way our friends old and new. It is in this book that we are introduced to characters who are pivotal to the story later on in the book series.

The mix of familiarity combined with a touch of new makes the pace and introductions to new characters easy to follow. If there’s one thing I like about these books is that there aren’t so many characters that you can’t keep track. As somebody who read a lot of epic fantasy, this is something I find happens a lot. That is not the case in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

I really enjoyed my re-read of this book and the whole series!

Have you picked up Harry Potter for yourself? Is this something you want to read?

 

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Sunday Summary – 6th June 2021

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Good evening everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary post. If you are new to my blog, this is a weekly post in which I share my reading progress for the week, as well as the blog posts I have shared, any books I have added to my TBR and what I plan on sharing over the next week.

I have shared a couple of blog posts with you this week. My first post of the week was my Monthly Wrap-Up for May. I cannot believe we are in June already! This year is absolutely flying by –  much like last year! If you want to check out the books I read and the posts I shared last month, that will definitely be of interest to you.

Later in the week I featured a really fun book that I’m looking forward to picking up in my First Lines Friday post. It’s by one of my favourite authors of all time and may be of particular interest to fantasy fans. I hope you can go and check that out as well if you haven’t already.

 

Books Read

As of last week’s Sunday Summary update, I had 50 pages left of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As I alluded to in that post, I did go on to finish that book last Sunday after my update went live. I really really enjoyed the book! I’m loving the re-read of the series and I will definitely picking up the next instalment before too long.

On Monday I started reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Having read her Six of Crows duology and enjoyed every minute of it, I recently took the plunge and watched the Netflix series based on her books. I had already decided that I wanted to pick up the series having enjoyed Six of Crows, but watching this reinforced my desire to do this and that is why I’m picking it up now!

Now I know a lot of you are probably going to despair that I watched the series before I read the book, but in my experience this can be an advantage. When it comes down to it, you have to trade off the perk of inventing a character in your own mind’s eye versus the inevitable book-was-better-than-the-film struggle. In my eyes, I would rather have my interpretation of a character tainted by a film but my overall experience of both the book and the TV series being better for experiencing them in that order. By reading the book second, it builds upon and improves the film rather than the film detracting from the book.

I will admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time reading this week. I’ve been starting a new knitting project and I must admit I’ve gotten a bit wrapped up in it. But I still worked my way through 25%. It’s not a huge amount but I will definitely be picking this up more over the next week. Here’s a pic of the project, in case you are interested: – 

 

Books Discovered

It’s a quiet one here again this week with no new additions to my TBR.

 

Coming Up…

I will be starting next week by sharing a book review with you. The particular book I will be featuring is a science-fiction novel that I went on to enjoy last year. The book is called Sleeping Giants and is written by Sylvain Neuvel. I hope you can join me for that post!

My second blog post of the week will be a blog tour for Preacher Boy by Gwyn G. B. I’m taking part in the blog tour and promoting the book – I really hope you can come along on Saturday and check that out! To stop my blogging schedule from getting too cluttered, I will be postponing my usual Friday feature until next week.

As always, I’ll be rounding off the week with a Sunday Summary post.

That’s it for today’s Sunday Summary update. What are you reading?

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Sunday Summary – 30th May 2021

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Good evening everyone – as usual, it’s time for my weekly Sunday summary update post. I hope you’ve had a fabulous week whatever you have been doing! I must admit, I’ve enjoyed a nice short working week and a lovely long weekend. We had some fantastic weather as well for a change!

I started my blogging week with a Top Ten Tuesday post. That particular post shared my favourite humorous book quotes. Thankfully, being able to access these on Goodreads made the job of putting together this post a lot easier. There are a lot of Terry Pratchett quotes on there, but for good reason!

Later in the week, I shared my next Shelf Control regular feature on Friday. This week I shared a contemporary classic currently on my TBR and why I’m really excited to pick this up. If you haven’t checked out either of these posts already, there are some handy links above so you can go and take a look.

 

Books Read

Over the course of this week, I have read around 200 pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It has been a nice and easy read to pick up and I have really enjoyed delving into this series again. As of last week‘s Sunday Summary update post, I was only around 50 pages in and I now have around 50 pages left! No prizes for guessing what I’m going to be doing tonight…

I’m a few more chapters in to listening to a clash of kings by George R. R. Martin. I haven’t been making lots of progress on this but listening to the odd chapter here and there will help me get through it eventually!

 

Books Discovered

Again, there is nothing to report here this week – I haven’t added any more books to my TBR (thankfully)

 

Coming Up…

The beginning of June is fast approaching and that means it’s time to share my monthly wrap-up post for May. It’s absolutely scary how fast this year is going. Am I the only one who thinks that? Nevertheless, I’ll be recapping my reads of the month as well as the posts I have shared in that time.

Friday is the turn of my regular First Lines Friday feature. As in most cases, I haven’t chosen a book yet for this week’s post, but I’ll make sure it’s a good’un!

That’s it for today’s Sunday Summary post. What are you reading this week?

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Sunday Summary – 23rd May 2021

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Hello everyone and welcome to today’s weekly Sunday Summary update post! I hope you’ve had a really good week wherever you are and whatever you have been doing.

Aside from the usual 9-to-5 grind and the usual reading/blogging, I’ve been doing some work on my knitting and crafting projects. This week’s focus has been working on a dotty cardigan I’m making. I also recently finished a lovely crochet blanket (that has been over a year in the making now) and I’m really pleased that I’m putting aside time to do these. Some people may laugh, but I find it very therapeutic. I’ve always been a crafty person – I don’t think that will change. 

On the blogging front, I have shared a couple of posts with you this week. My first post of the week was shared on Thursday. Last week I decided I wanted to share a Discussion Post on why I think reading books from multiple genres is of a benefit. I still really think this is the case and I would be interested to hear your thoughts as well!

On Friday, I took part in a blog tour for A Knot of Sparrows by Cheryl Rees-Price. The post is a promo of the book and I hope you can check that out. I’ve also included links to some of my favourite reviews from the tour so far too. If you want to find out more, you can do so using the link above. 

 

Books Read

My first priority of the week was finishing You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney. I did in fact finish this at the very beginning of the week as planned in last week’s Sunday Summary post. I had around 30% left to read and I really enjoyed picking up this book. It has elements of humour and the psychology featured really does make you think about yourself, and opens your eyes to the psychological tricks that you yourself are prone to. It was both entertaining and insightful and honestly, it was nice to pick up a non-fiction for a change!

Later in the week, I read the first 50 or so pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’ve really enjoyed picking up this series again. I haven’t read the books since I was a teenager and it’s really nice revisit. Looking back, they are quite easy reads (at least so far!) but there’s also a lot of detail I have forgotten since reading the books and watching the films when I was younger. I’ve only read 50 pages or so in one sitting, but I will definitely be picking this up more next week. If my experience of the first couple of books is anything to go by, I won’t be reading this one for long either.

I have listened to a little more of A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin, however not too much. I must confess I’ve spent more time watching TV of an evening and so I haven’t really done too much in the way of listening to audiobooks.

 

Books Discovered

A nice and quiet report this week-quite simply, there is nothing to add!

 

Coming Up…

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday post is one where I have a little bit of choice. The topic is ‘quotes from books fitting a theme’ – a theme of my choice. I haven’t chosen one yet, but I’m going to have a look at the quotes that I’ve saved on the likes of my Kindle and Goodreads and I will draft a post depending on what I have! It will be interesting to see where this post takes me.

Later in the week, I will be returning with a regular Friday feature. This was temporarily put on hold this week as I was taking part in the blog tour for A Knot of Sparrows. This week it is the turn of my Shelf Control feature post. For those of you who don’t know, in this particular post I take a look at a book on my TBR and review/discuss why I like the sound of the book, why I want to read it and generally just get myself hyped for it! I hope you can join me for that post.

That’s it for today’s Sunday Summary post. What have you been reading this week?

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