In Chamber of Secrets, Malfoy is the original suspect, but the Heir of Slytherin turns out to be Ginny acting through Tom Riddle.
In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry and his friends think the clues point to Snape, when in fact Quirrell is the villain. The characters stumble across relevant information throughout the book (unknowingly at times), and these “clues” are cleverly set up to implicate more than one person at a time.
On a related note, Rowling does an exceptional job building up the mystery in her stories. After each successive basilisk attack, Rowling describes the escalating fear among students and staff alike: curfews are set, teachers chaperone students to and from classes, and everybody travels in groups. To that end, Chamber of Secrets doesn’t shy away from the very real possibility that most people–including young students at Hogwarts– will die if Voldemort comes back to power. In general, Rowling treats her young characters like adults, one of the reasons I enjoyed this series so much as a kid. I like that the stakes are higher, that there are more serious consequences than detention or expulsion (even Hermione would agree with me here). The legend of Salazar Slytherin’s monster adds another layer of danger to Harry’s escapades. A memory of him is powerful enough to manipulate a student into petrifying her classmates…just imagine what Voldemort at the height of his powers could do. If the first book serves as an introduction to Voldemort, the second is where we start to see the real implications of his return. Like all books in the series, it gives Harry more insight into Voldemort’s identity and ethos. Similar to Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets is inward-facing, having more to do with Hogwarts than the rest of the wizarding world. My amateur artistic rendering of Harry (who admittedly looks a lot older than 12 here) I could have talked about more literary things (like all the foreshadowing, character development, etc) but it felt nice to “turn off” the part of my brain that likes to analyze everything ( everything) and let myself get swept up in the magic.Ĭhamber of Secrets, on the other hand, is a great place to start thinking more critically about the story: we’ve had a solid introduction to the wizarding world, gotten to know some of its characters, and we can now focus on the actual storytelling. Long story long: I realized after publishing my Sorcerer’s Stone review that that was less of a review and more of me just feeling good about re-entering the magical world (which is totally valid and I don’t feel bad about it at all).
Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to stop it before Hogwarts is shut down for good. The book in two sentences: Harry is excited to start his second year at Hogwarts, but a mysterious, half-forgotten monster begins to terrorize the school.
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