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

3.0

 

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HAGRID. He is actually a menace. Bringing hippogriffs to a bunch of thirteen year olds and trusting them not to do something stupid is one of the dumbest things an adult does in this series, and that's really saying something considering the quality (poor) of the teachers at this school and the adults in Harry's life. Hagrid is number two on my list of Adults Who Harry Would Be Better Off Without, with Dumbledore being the first (Snape is three and the Dursleys are four and five imho). 

 

WE ALSO NEED TO TALK ABOUT SNAPE. Snape is 33 in this book (give or take a year but I think he was James and Lily's age). He's a gross incel who is taking his lack of social ability out on children. (Part of me is like, of course he followed Voldemort; he was a young impressionable unhappy teen.) It makes it even ickier to think of him that way instead of as the menacing and much older Alan Rickman from the movies. 

 

Despite this I actually liked this better than the first two. There was a great sense of tension hanging over the entire story, between Black, the dementors, the Quidditch Cup (but Wood for real needs a life), Buckbeak. 

 

HOWEVER.

I AM NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE LUPIN FOR CHAINING HIMSELF AND RON TO PETTIGREW WHEN HE WAS GOING TO TURN INTO A WEREWOLF. HE IS THE REASON HE ESCAPED AND THE REASON BLACK WASN'T FREE AND WHY HARRY HAD TO GO BACK TO THE DURSLEYS. FUCK YOU LUPIN. 

 

Though I do love Ron and Hermione in this one. In one day Hermione slaps Malfoy and storms out of Trelawney's class and that is the moment Ron falls in love with her. Also when Sirius says he can have the owl he used to send the letter to Harry, he holds it out for Crookshanks to approve before keeping it, which made my heart happy. Honestly, I now support their love. 

 

Dumbledore again gets the best line. "You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?"