Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Harry Potter, #8)

Author: JK Rowling

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John Tiffany

Jack Thorne

Edition: Hardcover

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Rating: 3 Stars

We waited and we waited and we hoped and then we waited some more and then we got it. Another Harry Potter story! In a very unconventional form.

The Cursed Child is about Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, the children of Harry and Draco respectively, and their first few years at Hogwarts dealing with their lineages.  It is also about and adult Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron as they deal with their lives as parents.  This book really focuses on the relationship between parent and child, and what it means to be a good father or son.

First of all, this really isn't another Harry Potter book.  It lacks the magic that the original seven had, but that's not that surprising upon reflection since this is a play and Rowling isn't the main author.  It's her story, yes, but Jack Thorne is a playwright, so really, it's his writing.  And since it's his writing, and intended for the stage, it just doesn't come off the page like I was hoping.  Rather than being relaunched into the favorite world of my childhood it was like reading poor fan fiction.

Beyond getting the voices of the characters pretty much completely wrong, a bunch of unnecessary cameos, a storyline that made only the littlest of sense, and a strange (and disliked) turn of events at the very end, this wasn't a horrible book.  It just let me (and I'm sure quite a few others) down.

I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to go into what I really disliked about the book here.  If you want to rant, though, hit me up on twitter and I'll share all my in-detail problems with their full spoiler glory. (shameless twitter promotion: @tsundokusam)

Here's what I did like: the new characters.  Albus and Scorpius are gems!  Scorpius in particular will now always have a special place in my heart because he's absolutely adorable and just precious.  I liked the beginning of the book and what happens when Albus gets to school.  I also really liked Rose, though I wish we could have spent more time with her character.  The relationship between Ron and Hermione was pretty cute, too, and Ginny and Harry are really given the opportunity to show us why they fell in love.

Returning to the Wizarding World has been great, but it seems that it missed out a lot of what we wanted.  Here's to hoping Fantastic Beasts does a much better job.