Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Review
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
A little disclaimer:
The Harry Potter craze never really stopped. But now, J.K. Rowling has added more fuel to the magical fire with the release of the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play that premiered in London during the summer of 2016. I know that many people are still waiting for this book because it sold out at their local bookstore or it’s not available in their country. For this reason I have decided not to include any specific information on the story itself, but instead focus on the quality of the writing and my overall experience reading the book. I started reading Cursed Child knowing it was a script. However, the massive Harry Potter fan in me didn’t quite realize how different from the original HP books it was going to be. For anyone that was camping outside of stores in the rain waiting to read the latest Harry Potter book, please understand that this is NOT the latest HP book. This is a SCRIPT.
Here’s my review:
First off, this story moves really fast, so be prepared to read it within a few hours. All of the characters in the story have already been introduced in the last chapter of the 7th HP book, so I would recommend reading that last chapter again if you need a refresher. One of my favorite things about the HP series was being sucked into a world with flying cars, headless ghosts, and beautiful scenery. However, because this is a play, there isn’t much description when it comes to the setting, so you have to have a really good imagination. I don’t know that much about good playwriting, but I will say that it felt a little choppy in some parts. However, I also think the writers did a great job creating a nice balance throughout the book (ehem… sorry, script). Even though there was a lot of action and drama, it was quite funny. As I said previously, I’m not going to give too many details about the plot, but I will say that it was not what I was expecting. However, I still really enjoyed it and thought the writers did a great job coming up with such great ideas.
Overall, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is definitely worth reading. I would recommend this to anyone who misses the HP books but has read them way too many times! However, if you don’t like reading plays or have really high expectations for cursed child, you might be better off sticking with fan fiction.
