By J. K. Rowling

This a review of the Audiobook performance of this wonderful book. I love the Harry Potter book series and the movies and am currently, slowly but surely, listening to them on audio. I have read this book twice before. I listened to the first in the series read by Stephen Frye which was marvelous. The last two, by Jim Dale, because I don’t have a choice in the United States. I much prefer Stephen Frye. I know Mr. Dale has won numerous awards for his reading of this series, but there is one aspect that regrettably presents itself frequently. It is the voices of the 3 kids, especially Hermione. He often makes them sound querulous and whiney. Hermione’s “Haaaaaarrrrrry” is just like nails on a chalkboard to me. I am hoping that as the trio grows older, the squeals will abate. I have no quarrel with the way he pronounces Voldemort (with a silent “T”) But his pronunciation of the spell “Accio” as Ah-see-o absolutely drives me up a wall.

Re-reading on kindle 01/01/2026. Started reading and immediately settled in to that “home again” feeling. Loving it again.
**01/26/2026**
Upon this 4th reread of this third in the series, and numerous watches of the movie, I was struck and a little shocked at how nasty Snape was. He was really unfair and unreasonable throughout the book. I had to remind myself that he did not know Sirius was innocent of betraying the Potters, particularly his beloved Lily. I guess I can excuse him for his reaction to Sirius, but not for his behavior otherwise as a teacher. Harry is starting to exhibit some of the unattractive traits that come to the fore in subsequent books. I thought it was unrealistic how quickly he did a 180 on Sirius. My brain understands why, but it was still a little off to me. Still, these are quibbles. I am very fond of this book and will continue to be. But I will never be able to recapture the transport that my first 2 reads caused in me. And that is fine and to be expected. I will try to continue my mission of re-reading the series again “on paper”. But I am tempted by the full cast audible edition recently put out. We’ll see.

By the way, I just noticed for the first time the cover design of this edition. Brilliant!

January 19, 2019