Rene Hasekamp

In the first place: Lippert describes the atmosphere and the characters of the Potter World once more in an excellent way. The book is well written, like the first one. There are some good new elements introduced into the Potter World in this book. My point of criticism is, that the (supposed) main theme (the curse of the Gatekeeper) plays a relatively modest role in the book and is not - as one would expect - omnipresent throughout the whole book to make the tension rise. Instead there are several interruptions by secondary story lines, that are not always strong and some of them are hardly worked out. This made me pause a few times before I finished the book. Nevertheless there is a fine climax (or I should say two fine climaxes) in the last chapters. In the middle of the book there also are a few chapters with a fine climax.Looking back and taking my point of criticism into account, I still give this book four stars, because the atmosphere is so good and the main storyline, although too modest to my taste, is very inventive. Finally: the ending is satisfying.