Reviews

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

Only show reviews with written explanations

linda_1410's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Review of book here:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/663e5a45-6da8-42d9-9b93-e4c6d54ce1af

There were no dramatic changes in this one. The editor seems to have relaxed from their hectic heights of the previous book, with no major subtractions or additions. The most hilarious change, to me, was changing traffic bollards to wastebaskets since we don't really do bollards here in the US. But at least now I know what they're called when I come across them. 😂 The weird thing they did with this one was leave all the words there but move the phrases in the sentence, and there are still random thesaurus changes that weren't needed at all. Was the editor under a quota or something?

Here's a (very short) list of some changes:

UK vs US

Row (pronounced like now) / fight
Newsreader / reporter
Gorilla arms / gorilla-ish arms (Did they think we'd think he actually had the arms of a gorilla?) 🤔🙈😂
Idea / thought (Why?) 🤦🏻‍♀️
Anticlockwise / Counterclockwise
Pop my clogs / kick the bucket (😂😂😂 I like pop my clogs. I'm going to have to try to remember that and just say it randomly to confuse people.)
Sack / fire (For being fired from a job. And again, why? We use sacked that way too.)
Do his nut / go ballistic 🙈😂
"I haven’t been Sirius’s friend for twleve years..." / Twelve years was left out for some reason. Maybe they figured it was implied. 🤷🏻‍♀️
Tearing spirits / boisterous good spirits

The plot holes and logic fails in the world building are more obvious with each reread, and sometimes she forces drama just for the sake of it, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying these. I love these characters (except the annoying ones, lol) and I like how each book expands the world. Knowing where everything is going, it's so sad that

Harry never got to live with Sirius, although I do have to wonder what kind of parental figure Sirius would be, on the run and in his current mental state. Truthfully, Harry was probably better off with the Dursley's for this summer.

Fry's narration continues to shine. He doesn't have the range of Dale, but he makes it work and his reading of Snape was especially impressive in this one. Snape is the worst.

linda_1410's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This is much better than CoS and marks, to me, the place where the series really picks up momentum. The world of HP opens up more here as we learn about Azkaban and found out more things about James's time at Hogwarts. Trelawney is a hoot, and the dementors are like ringwraiths ramped up to 11. Sirius and Remus as my faves. I forgot about Sir Cadogan, and I'm happy to say he's less aggravating this time around. And of course, Crookshanks is the best.

I had to laugh at Harry's complete inability to properly use the Maurder's map. He has a map that tells him exactly where everyone is, and yet he's still looking up and down the corridors and then gets caught by Snape. *palmface* And how exactly is it that none of the others teachers know that Hermoine has a time turner to get to all her classes? Seems like something that would be covered in a staff meeting, no? At least the time travel makes more sense in the book.

I forgot also how much the movie ramped up Hermoine's role here. This is the start of Mary Sue!Hermoine and Barney!Ron, and if there's ever a reboot, they really need to do these characters justice.

Jim Dale's performance is again perfection. Can't really add more to it than that.