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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban book review

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

The third novel in the Harry Potter series is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling. As Harry returns to Hogwarts for his third year, he is pursued by the escaped prisoner, Sirius Black. Harry learns about how his parents were killed and wants revenge no matter what. Keep reading to find out what else to expect in this novel!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Summary

Harry Potter gets into a heated argument with his aunt and uncle and leaves home as a result. Luckily for him, Sirius Black has escaped jail and is reportedly after him which leads to the Ministry of Magic helping Harry until he returns to Hogwarts. The third school year is different as Dementors, wraithlike dark creatures, are roaming around Hogwarts to prevent Black from entering.

A new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher named Lupin helps Harry defend himself as Harry passes out when Dementors are around him. Divination professor Sybill Trelawney irritates Harry and his friends by constantly predicting Harry’s life to be in danger. And lastly, Harry and his Quidditch team practice nonstop so they can finally win the Quidditch cup.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban book review

As Harry navigates his third year, he feels suffocated with all the teachers trying to keep him safe. Sirius Black has been spotted on campus and Harry learns who betrayed his parents to the Dark Lord. Follow Harry as he tries to balance his school life and his personal feelings in a hectic third school year at Hogwarts. 

It is yet another horrible school year for Harry . One more person is allegedly after Harry and it makes his life more chaotic than usual. It is hard to say what is normal for Harry since he hasn’t had a normal life ever since he found he was a wizard. Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban and security around Harry tightens…somewhat. But that is the normal is this universe at this point.

The third year is much busier and we get more details about the classes, something that the previous books lacked. And I did enjoy that. Seeing them learn other stuff besides Defense against the Dark Arts (which they haven’t learned much in class) makes it feel like a real school experience. The timeskip to Christmas and the finals still happens to fast in my opinion.

There are several plot twists that seem too big to not have been solved beforehand. If only the wizard world had detectives and police instead of Dementors that crave suffering and pain. Harry and his friends have solved a lot of the mysteries and they are not even 13!

That is my take for this novel. It is mostly humourous and stuff that I enjoy thinking too much. I will try to read the fourth book by the end of the month or early August so be on the lookout for that!

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HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN

From the harry potter series , vol. 3.

by J.K. Rowling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1999

The main characters and the continuing story both come along so smartly (and Harry at last shows a glimmer of interest in...

The Harry Potter epic ( Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , p. 888, etc.) continues to gather speed as Harry enters his third year at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and does battle with the traitor behind his parents’ deaths.

Besides coping with the usual adversaries’sneering classmate Draco Malfoy, evocatively-named Potions Master Snape—the young wizard-in-training has a new worry with the escape of Sirius Black, murderous minion of archenemy Lord Voldemort, from the magicians’ prison of Azkaban. Folding in subplots and vividly conceived magical creatures—Azkaban’s guards, known as dementors, are the very last brutes readers would want to meet in a dark alley—with characteristic abandon, Rowling creates a busy backdrop for Harry as she pushes him through a series of terrifying encounters and hard-fought games of Quidditch, on the way to a properly pulse-pounding climax strewn with mistaken identities and revelations about his dead father.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1999

ISBN: 0-439-13635-0

Page Count: 431

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

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THE LAST EVER AFTER

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 3.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015

Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and...

Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.

Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.

Pub Date: July 21, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3

Page Count: 672

Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015

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book review on harry potter prisoner of azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

By j.k. rowling.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is considered by some to be the best Harry Potter book ever written. It is the third instalment in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling.

About the Book

Mohandas Alva

Article written by Mohandas Alva

M.A. Degree in English Literature from Manipal University, India.

The events in this book occur during the Third Year of Harry Potter’s education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry .

Unlike the first two books and every other subsequent book where Lord Voldemort makes an appearance within the story of ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ,’ this book is unique in that he never makes an appearance. This book starts off with Harry being given extra protection by the Ministry of Magic and at Hogwarts since a mass murderer named Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban Prison and is rumored to be hunting down Harry.

Key Facts about  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  • Title:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Published:  8 July 1999 in the UK, 8 September 1999 in the USA
  • Literary Period:  Contemporary
  • Genre:  Fantasy
  • Point-of-View:  Third Person, omniscient
  • Setting:  1990s Great Britain
  • Climax:  When Harry Potter and Hermione Granger try to save Buckbeak and a prisoner from the Dementor’s Kiss by traveling back in time
  • Antagonist: Peter Pettigrew

J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Digital Art

Books Related to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ is closely related to the other Harry Potter books in terms of plot, style, and characters. This book is the beginning of a slight shift in tone in the book series, from a cheerful children’s series to a slightly darker and grittier one. This book is similar to the first four books in that the antagonist is portrayed to be someone else and only at the end of the book is the actual antagonist of the book revealed.

Other books that are similar to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban include J. R. R. Tolkien’s works like ‘ The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘ The Hobbit .’ The Harry Potter series is also compared to the Narnia series written by C S Lewis. Both Tolkien’s and Lewis’ work feature creatures and characters that are similar to that of the Harry Potter series and have a strong presence of magic throughout them.

Other books that can be considered similar to ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ are ‘ Redeeming Justice’ by Jarrett Adams, ‘ Getting Life’ by Michael Morton, and ‘ Infinite Hope’ by Anthony Graves, as they all tell stories of people who were wrongly convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, just like one of the major characters in ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.’

Every book with the concept of time travel is also similar to this book, as a major part of this book deals with time travel.

The Lasting Impact of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ is certainly one of the most popular books in the book series. Furthermore, many critics have claimed that this book brings out a more refined and artful writing style from Rowling , owing to her experience as a writer in the past two books. The movie adaptation of ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, one of the most skilled directors to ever direct a Harry Potter movie. Most movie critics still consider ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ to be the best Harry Potter movie ever made. It is also the highest-rated Harry Potter movie in many major rating systems. ‘ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ is also important because, for the first time in the Harry Potter universe, the concept of the Time Turner and, by extension, time travel was introduced. Hermione uses Time Turners to attend all her classes that are held simultaneously, and later, Hermione and Harry use it to save a major character in the book. This served as a major plot point to the Harry Potter play released after the book named ‘ Harry Potter and the Cursed Child .’

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review

Harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban quotes, harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban character list, harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban themes and analysis, harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban summary, about mohandas alva.

Mohandas is very passionate about deciphering the nature of language and its role as a sole medium of storytelling in literature. His interests sometimes digress from literature to philosophy and the sciences but eventually, the art and craft of narrating a significant story never fail to thrill him.

The Harry Potter section of Book Analysis analyzes and explorers the Harry Potter series. The characters, names, terminology, and all related indicia are trademarks of Warner Bros ©. The content on Book Analysis was created by Harry Potter fans, with the aim of providing a thorough in-depth analysis and commentary to complement and provide an additional perspective to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

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