I think that this book is a true work of art, despite the fact that I have read this book millions of times (well 37 to be exact), so you might expect that I would be getting bored of it by now. However that's not the case. This book is so good that I can not put it down!
What is this instalment of the Harry Potter series about? Well, we start of the book on Harry's Thirteenth birthday, which the Dursley more than happily avoids. He gets a few surprise treats from them, which is quite nice. Then Harry runs away form the Dursleys and discovers the Knight Bus, which he goes on in order to get to the Leaky Cauldron, when he meets someone he didn't expect. When it comes to meeting the Weasleys, Arthur Weasley warns Harry about an escaped prisoner from a top-security cell in the wizarding prison Azkaban called Sirius Black, who is assumed to be after Harry. Together, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione find out the truth, before it is too late- after all, the castle is surrounded by Dementors, and if Sirius black is caught, it's only a matter of time before he suffers a fate worse than death...
We meet a few new characters in this book, some friends, some enemies. Here they are:
- Marge Dursley- Vernon Dursley's sister who hates Harry with all her life. She owns 13 Bull-dogs, and is quite big. She gets a shock when she offends Harry, which causes him to accidentally inflate her...
- Stan Shunpike- The Knight Bus conductor. He has quite a thick tone in his voice, and is jolly and cheerful.
- Remus Lupin- The new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. He is very trustworthy towards Harry and his friends, a very good teacher, but with one secret...
- Sirius Black- The so-called mass murderer who escaped from Azkaban. Very intelligent, good friends with Lupin, plus he used to be best of friends with Harry's dad! He is also an Animagus (a human that can transform into a certain animal of his wanting at his own will. He has to of told the Ministry of Magic so he can be registered, otherwise they are breaking the law...) which is a clever disguise against the dementors.*
- Dementors are prison guards of Azkaban. Their sole purpose is to suck the happiness out of prisoners, only leaving them with their worst fears and memories. They use the Kiss, which completely sucks out the soul of the prisoner, leaving them an empty existing shell. There is only one spell that can repel them or get rid of them. This is called the Patronus charm (Expecto Patronum) and it forms a defence barrier of their happiest thought, allowing the Demeter to feed on it, not the person themselves. A true Patronus gets rid of Dementors, also showing their designated animal.
In this book, my favourite character is Professor Lupin, as he is very intelligent, knows what he is doing, and has a strong bond with Harry- this is due to the fact that he was friends with Harry's dad until he died. He also is very trustworthy towards Ron and Hermione. In fact he is very caring to all the students, and never seems to raise his voice. My least favourite character is Marge Dursley, as she is very stuck-up, and hates Harry as much as she would hate elephant's mess on her shoe. She is very rude and insulting to him, and especially to his parents, which greatly offend him, causing him to accidentally blow her up. She likes to say how it is and is very self-centred. That is why she is a nasty piece of work.
In this novel, we discover a new side of Harry, a more serious side. He finds out more about what exactly caused Voldemort to kill Harry and his parents in the first place. When he finds out about the supposed betrayal of Sirius Black, he actually wants to hunt down him and kill him. In the end however, he finds out that it wasn't him who betrayed Harry's parents: it was someone everyone believed to be dead, but wasn't...
I think that this book is very good, but not as good as the fourth book, so I would recommend it, but to a slightly younger audience too.
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