Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3)
Published 1999 by Bloomsbury.
Links: Goodreads.
Source: purchased.
Genre: children's fantasy.
Harry Potter is lucky to reach the age of thirteen, since he has already survived the murderous attacks of the feared Dark Lord on more than one occasion. But his hopes for a quiet term concentrating on Quidditch are dashed when a maniacal mass-murderer escapes from Azkaban, pursued by the soul-sucking Dementors who guard the prison. It’s assumed that Hogwarts is the safest place for Harry to be. But is it a coincidence that he can feel eyes watching him in the dark, and should he be taking Professor Trelawney’s ghoulish predictions seriously?
Hello and welcome to Hogwarts! Again! I’m participating in Harry Potter Month and you should go and check out everyone’s posts because HP fans are amazing. (You can read my reviews for Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets, too.)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban introduces one of my favourite characters, Sirius Black – though I admit I like him more as Harry’s concerned godfather in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix than a deraneged – albeit innocent – escaped prisoner. And MAN wouldn’t it be awesome if you could turn into a giant black dog? Padfoot is my favourite Marauder.
I’m not usually into time travel (and I saw that meme about saving Buckbeak) but I thought that the use of the time-turner was pretty clever in this story. There’s something neat about how Harry saves himself, Hermione and Sirius from dementors – the fact that he doesn’t need saving, really, has always appealed to me.
As with the previous two reviews, I have to add a complaint: it’s something that has always bothered me about Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry and Ron behave atrociously towards Hermione for the better part of the story – first because she tells the teachers about Harry’s mysterious gift, the Firebolt racing broom, and then because Ron thinks that Crookshanks, Hermione’s cat, ate his rat Scabbers. Look, I get it, Firebolt’s one hell of a broom and Scabbers was your (useless) pet for a couple of years but Hermione is a person and Crookshanks is a cat and could you please stop being nasty? Ugh.
Despite this bump in the H+R+H friendship, Prisoner of Azkaban features what is possibly the best story arc of the series. I always look forward to re-reading it because it’s the last of the “short” parts and also the last where Harry’s world isn’t consumed with the threat of Voldemort’s imminent return.
What would your boggart look like? I think mine would be a huge leech…
And while we’re at it – what animal would you transform into if you were an animagus (fox for me)?
I’d love to hear from you! :)