harry potter and the cursed child book review

After all, love, as Voldemort never understood, is the strongest magic of all. Very quickly, even while just reading the script of Cursed Child, you remember that Rowling loves these stories and characters as much as you do, and it becomes easier and more enjoyable to read the script. Just like you, the play argues, she wonders what would have happened if Voldemort had won or if one character survived or another died. Rowling manages, however, to include this apparent fan-service without making it cheap or insincere. But Harry Potter is so ubiquitous in our culture, so universal in its acclaim, that any new detail or twist was conceivably already thought of. Parts of the story, especially to a Potter devotee, may seem so perfect that they read like fanfiction: alternate timelines that satisfy the curiosities of hungry fans, relationships too much like established “ships,” and twists too outlandish to feel real. At 356 pages, it is a considerably faster read than many of the later Potter tomes. The familiar pace of the seven Potter novels - each of which took place over the course of a single school year - is gone, replaced with a narrative that spans years and then lingers on a few days. Without actors behind them, unestablished characters feel flat and underdeveloped. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with. 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 father of three school-age children. The stage directions, though cheeky and fun at points, are vague, leaving much to be desired in descriptions of setting and action scenes. Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. What kind of expectations did Harry saddle poor Albus Severus Potter with by giving him those three names?Īs a script only, it takes a little too long for Cursed Child to draw the reader in. It examines the bond of father and son, and what makes that bond more than perfunctory. Established relationships are tested.Ĭurtain's up on 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'īut Cursed Child is less about actually rewriting the past and more about how that past affects the future. Dead characters return, if only temporarily. A new villain, the resurrection of the time-turner device and several poor choices take the boys back to Harry’s past, allowing Rowling to rewrite her own stories, which she has seemed so keen to do since the seventh book, Deathly Hallows, was published in 2007. The tone is different, but in a way it's more personal, dealing with familial relationships and inner demons, and it handles the topic very well.

I wouldn't say it's on the level of the other Harry Potter books, but it is very good. positive reviews & am very disappointed given I love the books & films. Of course Harry Potter didn't need a sequel, but The Cursed Child is a very fun book. The script follows Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, two young wizards trying to find their place in Hogwarts and the world the way their fathers, Harry and Draco, did before them. Top ways to experience Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and similar attractions.

Harry potter and the cursed child book review