Strictly speaking personally, I liked the original (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) just a little, teensy smidge better than this one, but this was still a brilliant and VERY well-done sequel. I like how it expands on characters like Ginny and the rest of her and Ron's family. The tree that beats up things is very funny and the mystery of the chamber of secrets itself was really intriguing (and this is coming from a person who doesn't particularly like the middle-grade mystery genre -- I mean, I guess I liked Encyclopedia Brown as a little kid, but mystery solving in books isn't really my thing usually). 
 My favorite part of this follow up was Dobby, the house-elf whom I ADORED. Every scene the little imp was in made me smile and giggle to myself. Despite the fact that he made endless trouble for Harry, I absolutely loved the poor little guy to pieces and was so happy that things turned out well for him in the end. 
 My least favorite, and what really made me like this less than Sorcerer's Stone, was Moaning Myrtle. I didn't think it was possible that a bullied, underdog character could be so TRULY DISLIKABLE! I HATED her. She was whiny, unpleasant, weird, sulky, and just such an annoying presence I wanted her to go back to her stupid little toilet and STAY there. I mean, I'm sorry she died and is forced to haunt a bathroom for the rest of her miserable existence, that must majorly suck and all, but ugh I just couldn't STAND her. This wasn't even my personal dislike for ghost characters that made me hate her; I hated her on her own merits, even if she'd been living I'd have thought she was the most annoying thing since the creation of Sponge Bob Squarepants. 
 I will definitely be reading more in this series, and recommend this book for fantasy lovers and mystery-book buffs. And like my previous recommendation, please take this opinion/recommendation with a grain of salt and caution, especially if the main idea of this series puts you off. (For more on this, and my overall opinion on the series, see my review of the first book).