chamber of secrets

the first harry potter novel broke every record in the world, spawned a million fans, made a lot of kids draw a scar on their forehead. the question is- does the sequel hold up?

this question, has ofcourse been answered a long long time ago (precisely about 20 years). it does hold up. and in my personal opinion, it easily dwarfs the philosopher's stone. now, i love both of these books, but the second one a tad bit more, perhaps due to nostalgia.

the chamber of secrets was the first pc game i had ever played, and i have indeed played the shit out of it. this game felt like skyrim to my 13 year old self. you got to explore the the vast, mystical, seven- floored castle, collect a variety of wizard cards, duel with the slytherins, fly around the Quidditch pitch kicking the fuck outta other students. this was my red fead redemption 2. the best thing about this game was, that the castle was absolutely dripping in secrets and mysteries. there would be a secret room in the unlikeliest of places, hidden dungeons filled to the brim with danger, and ofcourse a cauldron-full of bertie bott's every flavoured beans.

my favourite aspect of the various adaptations of this story, be it in a book, or movie, or a video game, is the atmosphere of the story. a sense of mystery and spookiness not yet reached in the other books in this series. now, the later books have enough dark moments and grim storylines which would easily send chills up my spine, but this one is different. it is still a book written for kids and younger teenagers, so the story does not get grim enough to dampen my mood, but thrilling enough to make it a halloween read. infact, i would definitely compare this book to the halloween festival. it is full of spooky ghosts, and massive serpents, spiders and conspiracies, but it is still just a very fun party at the end of the day.

the atmosphere of this book is unmatched. an unknown entity is lurking around and petrifying students, cryptic warnings with blood on the wall, hearing uncanny voices that nobody else can hear, and the spiders ofcourse.

i would probably shit my pants if i had to follow spiders into the forbidden forest, in the pitch darkness of night. and suddenly finding bewitched, driverless car honking at you. and ofcourse the absolutely towering, gigantic, humongous, spider. the king of archnaids, my dearest, aragog.

this book is spooky as hell, just the way i like it. i dont understand why people rate this book really low when compared to the other installments in this series. this book is NOT a rehash of the first one, it simply has similar story beats/ set pieces to it. it has its own unique atmosphere and tone with an air tight mystery.

i shall conclude my ramblings here. thiss is probably one of my favourite harry potter stories. Long Live Lockheart.