Chamber of Secrets (2025) Audiobook
Between the release of the first audiobook and this one, I recommended these full-cast editions to my brother Luke. He sent me many a reminder in the lead up to Chamber of Secrets being released as he was so excited to continue.
When I first heard about these new recordings I assumed we might get 1 or 2 a year. Now that we're progressing through them I am so glad that these are monthly releases as they are just excellent. I would have probably had to pull out the books or the Stephen Fry recordings to satiate myself if these weren't being released at a breakneck pace.
Chamber of Secrets may be my least favourite book in the series. I found that, especially considering this is one of the shorter entries, it was a bit grating to spend so much time bringing us back up to speed on the world and characters. At times I found it a bit slow in this regard but I understand that there isn't much in the way of a solution realistically. Future books start to get much longer so it feels less like time wasted when there is so much more book here.
Kit Harrington was a standout here. His overconfident chuckle had me smiling every single time he did it and I walked away hoping that Kit gets an opportunity to join the HBO show and has more voice acting opportunities in the future. He is clearly a massive Harry Potter fan and it shows.
So far these audiobooks have been fantastic and an example of a big budget being used well in a production. There are plenty of fantastic audiobooks out there but it is hard to stand up against a full cast and orchestra bringing a fantasy world to life.
As I said previously, I borrow these from a friend and don't support the views of Joanne. It's hard sometimes to separate the art from the artist but the reality is that Harry Potter has been a mainstay since I was a young kid. My aunt had read a bunch of the books while travelling to and from Australia and handed me her mildly battered copies of books 1-5. That and the movies and the game adaptations and trips to The Wizarding World in Orlando have cemented this as a franchise I will always have a soft spot around. This new adaptation is quickly cementing itself as the definitive way to experience the books for me.
