Why Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the best book in the HP series:

 

For a long time, my favourite Harry Potter book was the Half Blood Prince; within the Harry Potter community there is unanimous agreement that it is underrated and overshadowed by the Deathly Hallows and I agree. Harry, although still recovering from the death of Sirius, is in a much better place. Compared with the previous year where he was called mad or insane (until Rita Skeeter’s interview with him in the Quibbler), that year shows a more settled Harry (even if he was obsessed with Draco Malfoy and the Half Blood Prince). However, recently, I stumbled on the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the Half Blood Prince was promptly regulated to second place.

The first reason as to why I think Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is brilliant is because how accurately it shows depression via the Dementors. These soul-less creatures literally drain the happiness of a person and reminds them of their darkest memories. It was 1999 when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was first published and depression as a topic was barely talked about. The Dementors helps to create empathy from a mentally healthy person to a mentally ill one and you cannot ask more for that.

The second reason as to why this book is my favourite is because it features my all-time favourite Harry Potter character – take a bow, Wendelin the Weird! She’s only mentioned once throughout the Harry Potter series (she even doesn’t feature on the Sporcle 200 Harry quiz) but her strength during what must have been a very difficult time for the wizardry and witchcraft community is commendable!

An additional reason why this book is fantastic is because of the final few chapters. I remember being nine and reading the book up until 4am because I was so engrossed by the twists and turns within the plot. Far from Sirius Black wanting to kill Harry because he was Voldemort’s chief in supporter, he wanted to murder Peter Pettigrew who had been living as Ron’s rat for the past twelve years. I was hooked when learning that Sirius was in fact innocent and that he had managed to escape while being a dog. This book is definitely amongst the cleverest within the Harry Potter series.