Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
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The eighth story, nineteen years later…
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
As I grew up being an avid Harry Potter fan I pre-ordered this book (Is it called a book? Script? Screenplay? You know what I mean) in March and have been excited ever since to read what seems to be an unofficial 8th book! Of course it is mainly speech as it’s in a script format as I know many people have seemed surprised or dissatisfied with, but I found that after a couple of pages you do start to get used to it and I was sucked straight into the storyline.
The latest installment to the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, it’s filling a hole for the wizarding world that many people were clamouring for with fanfiction. However, the story itself seems to borrow a lot of tropes from fanfiction sites, but not always to the best use of them.
The lack of details is quite strange as Rowling had created this beautifully described world which we all know and love, but seeing as we all know it I guess it’s a lot easier for fans to read this. I really enjoyed jumping back into a book which features some of the beloved characters from my childhood (and onwards as I do read or watch Harry Potter a lot) but I did find some parts of the plot to be questionable. Anyone who hadn’t read the Harry Potter series (but who hasn’t???) wouldn’t understand any offhand comments made, the descriptions of people and places and the history being referenced.
There’s a time travel premise for this story, which as soon as it was mentioned I was sceptical. Time travel plots just don’t do anything for me, as in my head they just don’t logically work and yes I know this is a fantasy book, and magic isn’t logical and what not but this just brings up so many questions about how time travel could be used. The story touches on some of these questions – and pushes a particular question which fans have been asking since the Prisoner of Azkaban was released – but it doesn’t seem to fit within the restriction Rowling had placed from previous instalments or word of mouth. Plot holes could also come out in force and I’m sure there’s already fans writing about them all over the internet.
I really think Rowling missed out here, she could have definitely have written a fuller, more detailed book with these characters and still used this storyline. The issue is after 2 and a half hours reading it I didn’t feel like I had fully immersed myself into the wizarding world of Harry Potter and so you would definitely need to go see the play to understand better. I really wanted to like this book, but the storyline didn’t do it for me and I missed the description even if I am slightly biased because it is Harry Potter.
Positives of The Cursed Child
- A fun and fast read
Negatives of The Cursed Child
- As a script, it lacks a lot of detail and nuance normal fantasy stories contain
- Plot line feels like a fanfiction come to life
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