The fourth book in the Potter series begins more than fifty years before the present day, with the strange death of the Riddle family, wealthy land owners and their older son, Tom. The family’s groundskeeper, once suspected of murdering his employers, now looks after the abandoned house. One fateful night he notices a light within the house that has been abandoned for years; and goes to investigate assuming it is local youths. He is mistaken however and it is the last mistake poor Frank ever makes.

Somewhere in Surrey, Harry Potter, a fourteen year old orphan who lives with his aunt and uncle, wakes with a throbbing pain in the scar on his forehead.

The real story begins at the Quidditch World Cup, where wizards have gathered in their hundreds to support their various teams. However, in the middle of the night there is a disturbance when a group of Death Eaters, wizards who supported the dark wizard Lord Voldermort when he was in power fifteen years previously, attack the local muggles. This all culminates in someone inscribing the “dark mark” – the symbol Lord Voldermort would always leave after committing a murder – in the night sky.

As ever Harry and his two best friends Ron and Hermione find themselves caught right in the middle of all the action. When they return to school they are greeted by their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, All-star “Mad-Eye” Moody; a one-eyed ex-aura whose replacement eye has the ability to see through walls. They also learn that for the first time in several years Hogwarts will be hosting the “Tri-Wizard Tournament”; a competition between three of Europe’s biggest magical schools that involve a series of trials that must display both physical and magical ability.

Only contestants over a certain age may compete in the tournament however, by some strange twist of fate Harry’s name is chosen by the enchanted Goblet of Fire listing him as the fourth contestant in the tournament. Also taking part are the beautiful French student Fleur Delacour, the famous Quidditch player Viktor Krum and the handsome Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory, who readers will have met briefly in the previous book.

Harry is truly put through his paces in the subsequent trials, however he eventually finds himself in the lead upon entering the maze that signifies the final task. Upon completion the winner must pick up the coveted Triwizard Cup, they will then be transported out of the maze and crowned winner.

However, the cup has been tampered with and when Harry, accompanied by Cedric in an effort to ensure that they are both winners, touches the cup he is transported to a place that will change the wizarding world forever.

The Goblet of Fire is the first really long Harry Potter book, where there seems to be a constant stream of action and drama and the tension is almost permanently high, which really takes the edge off the book’s length. Rowling kicks the suspense off from the word go, with the murder of Frank Bryce and the revelation that Voldermort is already far more powerful than any one would have expected, thanks to his servant Wormtail, who has been disguised as the Weasley’s pet rat for over a decade. The suspicion and tension stay high throughout the Quidditch World Cup and into the first term at Hogwarts, where tiny confusing incidents and the huge mystery of who put Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire, all entwine to help develop this surprisingly complex story.

The Triwizard trials are interesting to read and a few are certainly very exciting, but personally I found the whole maze and Voldermort bit a little anti-climatic. Cedric’s death is a swift and heartless incantation, the shock of which is more likely to catch you out than genuine grief is. Although this part of the book is of infinite importance, the ritual that raises Voldermort is skimmed over and it just seems as though Rowling could have made more of it: she doesn’t utilize the setting and darkness of the ritual enough to truly demonstrate the terror that Voldermort is supposed to incite.

The story of Barty Crouch Jr is the more intriguing story in my mind, and his deception and Rowling’s construction of the All-star Moody character are both so well thought out and intricate that you will never see the revelation coming. The emergence of the Moody character allows Rowling the opportunity to bring together several separate and seemingly insignificant strings and begin the weave them into the story so that they become core parts of the construction of the story and the magical world.

As with all the Potter books there are some brilliant comedy moments, including Hermione’s new love of house elves and the “Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare” (SPEW), which throws up – excuse the pun – loads of brilliant one liners from Ron and Harry, and in fact becomes notably important in the development of a certain relationship.

Also, Ron’s sheer ignorance and jealousy surrounding the Yule Ball is one of the best parts of all the Potter books, as it is, as ever, the characters that carry Rowling’s series. Otherwise her writing is adequate, and shows significant development in this book and the previous one, when compared to the first two, but it is still not the books best asset.

The Goblet of Fire is when things really begin to heat up in Harry’s story, his relationships with friends and peers become more complex, his sense of duty and courage become more defined and the plot line itself begins to move in a more certain and structured direction.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The second book in the JK Rowling series about a young, orphan wizard named Harry Potter begins shortly after his twelfth birthday at the end of July. Harry lives with his mother’s sister Petunia and her husband and son, Vernon and Dudley Dursely on a quiet street in Surrey.

However, Harry is not as normal as the rest of his family, and from September until June he lives in a huge hidden castle somewhere in England called Hogwarts. Hundreds of other boys and girls live at Hogwarts too, where together they are all learning magic. Some of them are from wizarding families, whilst others grow up knowing nothing of the magical world and receive letters on their eleventh birthday telling them that those strange abilities they’ve always had are in fact impotent magical powers.

It is Harry’s second year at Hogwarts and there he has two very close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a full blood wizard and muggle born respectively. After the shocks of Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, where he discovered that the man who murdered his parents is living, albeit a kind of half life, draining the life from others, and seeking a way to return himself back to his full health and power. This man’s name is Lord Voldermort.

In the second book we begin to gain an insight into Voldermort, as Harry, without realising it, drifts into the memories of his nemesis through an enchanted diary. Harry is not the first person to possess Voldermorts memories however, in fact Ron’s younger sister Ginny, who is in her first year at Hogwarts, has been pouring her heart out into the pages of the diary for months and the diary, disguised as a caring ear to Ginny, has been using her life to become more and more powerful himself. As Voldermort’s power has grown he has used Ginny to unleash a deadly terror upon Hogwarts, an unknown killer that seems untraceable and leaves his victim’s paralyzed by fear.

Harry meanwhile, begins to hear menacing voices, voices only he can hear and strange messages begin appearing across the school proclaiming that any student not a full-blood wizard will die and that the “Chamber of Secrets” has been re-opened.

Together, Harry, Ron and Hermione begin to investigate, trying to discover what the Chamber of Secrets is, and what could possibly be attacking the students. Whilst in one of the memories locked in the diary Harry learns that his part giant teacher and friend, Rubius Hagrid, was expelled from Hogwarts as a child for keeping a dangerous animal on the grounds. To Ron’s horror the two boys discover that the monster was a giant, man-eating spider, but even worse that he is not the one who has been attacking the students.

Eventually Hermione is found paralyzed on her way back from the library and a student is dragged into the Chamber of Secrets as one final sacrifice to the monster before Voldermort can finally be returned to full strength.

Harry finds himself, separated from Ron and their brain-washed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who had accompanied him, in the caverns beneath the school and facing a huge, deadly snake, with nothing but his wand and a tattered old hat.

This book is more of a mystery than its predecessor; with a real air of intrigue and uncertainty about it. Yet it finds itself in a slightly awkward position, somewhere between childhood innocence and naivety and darker teenage horror. In many places it seems a bit obvious and ham-fisted, Rowling seems to have opted for stereotypes rather than originality in these monsters and it makes it all a little contrived.

Unfortunately this is inescapable and dulls the intrigue and interest of the book, in many ways this book came too soon, when the dark side of the magical world was still too undefined for readers for it to truly be explored to the extent that it needs to be for this story. Yet it is a necessary part of the series and must be read in order to understand the following five books.

In many ways the Chamber of Secrets opens doors to aspects of the Harry Potter series that will become hugely important later on, ideas about Voldermort’s past and his soul and even his choice to hunt Harry begin to take shape and future relationships are hinted at.

However, when it comes down to it The Chamber of Secrets is most definitely the weakest of all the Potter books, the story line is predictable and the newly introduced characters are pretty stereotypical and just add to the aforementioned predictability.

The books best asset is the stuff with Lord Voldermort and Tom Riddle, the finale in the Chamber of Secrets is far better than the rest of the book; which seems to exist largely of ridiculous filler moments, like an incident with a cat hair and some polyjuice potion, rather than slowly gathering information throughout the story to build to a climax. It is a shame that more time isn’t devoted to Tom Riddle and the mysteries of Voldermort’s past, but that is reserved for later on in the series. Without it however, this book sits more in the thriller/mystery section, despite its fantastical elements, and even seated there it’s not the best book on the shelf.

It does have its positive points, of course, as the characters develop and the mysterious and fascinating magical world is built upon, getting stronger with every word. Where in the first book everything is new the second book builds on the already established understanding and really sets up the rest of series.

And, as with all the Potter books, it has a fantastic main character base, which make the whole read bearable and even enjoyable, ridiculous over-the-top incidents with flying cars and falling pudding can even be forgiven thanks to the humour of Ron Weasley and the irate madness of Vernon Dursely; not to mention it being the first time we meet the wonderful house elf, Dobby.

All in all, not the best Potter book, particularly if you don’t like spiders and snakes, but it’s pretty easy to get through and will definitely whet your appetite for the rest of the series.

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Tags: Adventure, fantasy, Harry Potter, Magic, Wizards