Hands down, no questions, this is easily my favourite Harry Potter book. It's the book where the series takes it's first real turn towards a darker tone and really begins to step things up a notch. It's also the Harry Potter book that happened to win the prestigous Whitbread Award, and perhaps where the series first began to recieve widespread recognition.
Sirius Black, the evil Voldemort's one-time right hand man and doer of *very bad deeds* (not revealed here in the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone), has escaped from Azkaban - the hell-like prison for criminal wizards. Meanwhile, Harry and his pals return to Hogwarts for their third year, where the wraith-like Dementors (Azkaban's guards) have taken up residence in order to protect the school from Sirius Black. And true to form, there's a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher - the mysterious Lupin, who seeks to teach his new students by giving them some 'hands on' experience!
There's a lot more going on of course, lots of little subplots run along side by side and they DO all tie up rather neatly by the end. Most satisfyingly, some big answers are finally given to some of the questions most readers are probably asking by this point of the series, and we get the long-awaited back story of Harry's parents and their peers. In fact, I'd probably even go as far as to say that this is the most self-contained yet exciting of the Potter novels... the first two novels are just as self-contained but they seem to lack the punch of Azkaban, whereas the later novels might have punch but they lack the rewarding feeling of fulfillment that comes with a well-structured novel. I'm not saying the later novels are poorly structured, it's more that they segue into one another and are more concerned with a bigger picture. Azkaban is the tightest and most thrilling of all the books.
However, be warned, if you read the Harry Potter series and make it as far as Azkaban, well, there's probably no turning back. You'll be hooked. Once I read this book I turned into a miserably obsessed Potter fan... uncaring of the stigma attached to the series by many fellow adults, scornful of all the unsuspecting muggles around me, and forever indebted to the individuals who put me onto these books in the first place.
Oh, and on a sidenote... and the film is actually pretty faithful to this one too. It feels a bit crammed in I think, and I'm not sure how well I might've followed it if I hadn't read the book, but it's probably also my favourite of the films too - it's dark and scary and doesn't feel as sugary as the first two movies.
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