Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne | Book Review

“My geekness is a-quivering.”  

Blurb (Goodreads)- 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.

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.

**Spoiler Free Review!**

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Thoughts- I’m going to warn you right now. I did not like this book. I am also a completely crazy Harry Potter fan, so I was just as surprised as you are.

Yes, it has wonderful and happy moments full of nostalgia, but it was also a complete mess (in my opinion).

Before this, I have never read a play script, but I didn’t mind it one bit! Of course I would’ve preferred a full fledged book, but once I got used to the script format (which took me only around 10 pages), I found myself full immersed in the Harry Potter universe once again.

Or so I thought.

The most amazing part about the main series is that the books truly are magical. No, not because they’re full of magic, but they just have this wonder and amazement that captures the reader so well. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was not magical, it didn’t blow me away and I definitely didn’t get that warm fuzzy feeling that you get while reading the original series. In fact, it barely felt like the actual magic was magic at all (this may be from the script format, but I don’t think so).

There were two things that frustrated me the most, the first of that being the characters. They simply didn’t feel like the original characters at all! Of course, Albus, James, Lily, Rose, and Scorpius all get an excuse since we originally know very little about their personalities. But the returning cast of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco were so weird. At times, their personalities were off on purpose (the plot accounts for this, which we’ll get to), but when they weren’t meant to be off, I didn’t know who they were. The main original cast were transformed into their movie counterparts (especially poor Ron), which was very sad to see.

The most surprising part about the characters was that Draco and Scorpius Malfoy were the saving grace of the entire book. Scorpius is such a cute little nerd.

Then there’s the plot, which is a complete mess. It’s like the screenwriter tried to fit what they thought were the best parts about Harry Potter and condense it down into one small play/book, and it didn’t work one bit for me. I wanted the day to day events of the second generation’s experiences in Hogwarts but there was little to none of that! In fact a lot of the second generation was missing (Hugo, Hermione/Ron’s younger son, Bill/Fleur’s kids, George/Angelina’s kids, Teddy Remus (!!), and even James and Lily only had little cameos).

To me, this felt like a messy Harry Potter fanfiction that someone who read the Sparknotes of the main series wrote. I’m sorry if you loved this and I’m totally ruining your view, but this is honestly how I feel.

How I wanted to love this book. It just wasn’t lovable one bit.

Overall, I do think this is worth the super quick read just for the experience, but don’t hope for too much, especially if you want it to be the actual ‘sequel’ to Harry Potter. The only reason this is getting two stars from me is because of the beauty that is Scorpius Malfoy.

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