So before I go off on a tangent about the movie, I just want to say, this book was really good. I've heard countless times that Book 3 is where the series starts to get really good, and you know what, they were right. I mean, I liked the first two books, but it didn't have that OMG AWESOME factor to it. I really enjoyed the plot twists and suspense in this book.

Like usual formula of Harry Potter books until this point, the first half of the book is usually about the Dursley's home, Harry's mission getting to Hogwarts, the introduction of his classes, etc... The conflict doesn't really start 'til about halfway through. In this book, I felt the first half was better than the previous book, as Sirius Black escaping from prison was mentioned in the first chapter, along with the Dementor scene on the train. There was definitely some action in the first half, so it was by no means boring.

It really started to pick up in the Hogsmeade scene though where Harry found out about what Sirius Black actually did (or what people thought he did anyways) and how it all related to James Potter. It was really interesting hearing about the previous generation and there was an allusion to the first book where Hagrid rides Black's motorcycle to save Harry, and it suddenly clicks in your head that it was mentioned in the first book. Overall, you finally get a glimpse of the events that took place 12 or whatever years ago when Voldemort killed Harry's parents. The final scene was really good as well, when we learn that Sirius was actually innocent and it was Peter that killed the innocent muggles and betrayed Harry's parents.

Overall, I enjoyed this book the best so far. I see that it's already lengthier than the first two by about 100 pages, though I guess that was well deserved for such intriguing background information and all of the events that took place. My only problem was with the last scene where Harry and Hermione have to travel back in time to save Black. The chapter seemed to go on too long explaining events that had already happened and overall just didn't seem justified, it was hard for me to believe that was the only way to save Black. At the same time though, it was nice to finally find out how Hermione was attending all of her classes. My original prediction was a doppelganger or something.