PS/SS vs. CoS: It's A Tie!

[Dicentra spectabilis]

No: HPFGUIDX 57440

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." <cindysphynx at c...> wrote:
 
> I'm a PoA fan, myself, but I was wondering what it is that causes 
> people to choose PS/SS over CoS or vice versa.  

I'm a 3, 4, 2, 1 myself [Books in order of preference].  I like CoS
better than PS/SS for the following reasons:

I was actually rather underwhelmed when reading Book 1.  Maybe it was
all the hoopla (I didn't read it until Summer 2001), but I found it
almost cliché, especially the ending.  What?  He was protected by
Mother Love?  Boy, that's a new one!  And they went through a gauntlet
of tests.  Yawn!  I did think that the Letters from No One segment was
especially creative, and some of the other little details seemed
rather droll, but overall it seemed like Just Another Kids' Book --
not a bad one, surely, but not something to write home about.

Then I read Book 2 and found more to like.  I thought that Moaning
Myrtle and Tom Riddle's Diary were spectacularly creative devices.  A
ghost that hangs out in the U-bend of a toilet?  Cool!  A book that
writes back?  Way cool!  The ending seemed a little underwhelming
again (defeats the monster; yawn!), but the plot was exceptionally
tight -- no extraneous material, no loose ends.  Rereading has
confirmed that impression.

Book 3 I like for its unforgettable scenes: Shrieking Shack, Snape
Busts Harry, Snape Subs for Lupin, The Boggart Lesson, Harry Meets
Prongs, Harry Learns Expecto Patronum, Eavesdropping at the Three
Broomsticks, Grim at the Quidditch Match, Sirius Awakens Ron, Buckbeak
Escapes Execution (with Dumbledore Amused By It All), The Boys Dis
Hermione, Stan and His Accent...  it goes on and on.

Book 4 is stuffed full of fascinating thematic material: Memory,
Parricide, Loyalty (misplaced and otherwise), Fame, Betrayal, Romance
(and the lack thereof), Murder, Denial, Injustice, Slavery...  shoot,
there's a ton of stuff in the Crouch Family Saga alone. (See 47927 for
Elkins's Crouch Family Novenna.)

--Dicentra, dying to see where Book 5 will rate