Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

JK Rowling

“‘Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go.'”

When the Knight Bus crashes through the darkness and screeches to a halt in front of him, it’s the start of another far from ordinary year at Hogwarts for Harry Potter. Sirius Black, escaped mass-murderer and follower of Lord Voldemort, is on the run – and they say he is coming after Harry. In his first ever Divination class, Professor Trelawney sees an omen of death in Harry’s tea leaves … But perhaps most terrifying of all are the Dementors patrolling the school grounds, with their soul-sucking kiss …

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JK Rowling continues with her fabulous series and doesn’t let anything slip. There are so any good characters in this series, and a couple of new ones get introduced in this book, both good, though I prefer Lupin to Sirius. It’s not just the characters that make this book and the series great, it’s the plot, with Harry’s life becoming both better and worse as he learns more about his parents and how they died, and the writing; there is a good level of descriptiveness to every aspect of this book, but nothing that overwhelms the story, allowing you to access what’s going on without anything getting in the way.

The best thing about this book, compared to the first two, is that the plot doesn’t revolve around Voldemort, there is a different focus, and I believe that keeps the series from becoming boring. If I have one real complaint about any part of this book, it’s that there seems to be a contradiction between one part of this book and something that was mentioned in The Chamber of Secrets: in this book a character says there’s no cure for being a werewolf, but in COS Professor Lockhart mentions performing a spell that gets rid of a werewolf curse.

I’m not sure if Rowling forgot what she had written in the previous book, or if she needed to change that in order to use a plot thread she had come up with.

Regardless of that one niggle, this is a very good book in a very good series.

A review of Harry Potter 2

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

JK Rowling

“‘There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.'”

Harry Potter’s summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors – and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone … Dobby’s sinister predictions seem to be coming true.

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The Chamber of Secrets continues from the events in The Philosopher’s Stone and delves deeper into the magical world of Hogwarts. We get to know more about Harry and his friends, and meet some new characters, some friendly and others not, all interesting.

Once again J K Rowling has brought to life a magical world I would love to be a part of. The characters feel and act like real people, with hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, friends and rivals. There is danger for Harry and his friends, and danger leads to injuries, but that’s to the good because it would have made it hard to accept what happens if nobody got hurt.

The writing remains as good as in the first book, and though I know, intellectually, magic doesn’t exist, I really wish it did and that I could do my time at school over again so I could attend Hogwarts.

British or American

I noticed something in my writing today that caught me by surprise, I used an Americanism. I couldn’t say why I suddenly noticed it, or why I used it (I’m British and would not consciously use an Americanism, just as I don’t use American spellings, no matter how much MS Word tries to get me to do so) but it froze me in place and I spent several seconds just staring at it.

The phrase in question was ‘hall closet’, which should, of course, have been ‘cupboard in the passage’.

I’ve fixed it now, but I’m left to wonder how many other phrases from the wrong side of the pond are lurking undiscovered in my writing. I can only assume that this has something to do with the number of American TV programs and films I have been watching.

Is this a problem unique to me, or is it something that other non US authors find themselves struggling with as a result of all the America cinema and television we have to contend with? I hope it’s a problems for others, just so I’m not unique.

Noticing this issue has raised a question in my mind, should I be sticking with the Briticisms I feel most comfortable with, being British and setting my books in Britain, or should I be adapting the language I use, including the spellings, to make it more understandable to Americans, who are, after all the bigger market?

My natural instinct is to say no way in hell, GTFO Americans, learn proper English, but is that the attitude I should have? Should I not consider that if I want to be successful as an author I am probably going to have to make accomodations of one kind or another; did not Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone become Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the American market – I suspect this was a decision made by the publishing company, but they do know the market better than the author, usually anyway.

Thoughts on a postcard please, or the comments section down below. Should I color my words to reflect that America is the center of my hopes for publishing success, or keep with British English and colour as the Queen commands?