Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Rather good.

Clever, well put together, nicely written, an easy read.

Certain aspects are absolutely dated, and it doesn't help that J.K. Rowling is a known bigot now, but she's still, rather infuriatingly, a great author at this point.

Dig deep, and you can see the beginnings of her later politics (well, not later, just bolder), but it's hard not to love these books.

The magic isn't quite there like it is in the first one, and by that, I mean the wonder of it all - of course, magic is still present. But it doesn't hit quite as hard as the first.

I honestly think I might enjoy the film adaptation of this more, I could really lose Peeves without any qualms and almost every page of this ends up in the film some way or another, and much of what the film changes or adds I actually prefer.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna charge right ahead with the next book, but I'm eager to read more eventually.