Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition)

by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

[inlibrisveritas]

I really enjoyed this one. Yes, it has it's problems and it's not J.K. Rowling's writing BUT it explores relationships and characters to a level I didn't actually expect and for that I'm thankful.
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So I read this the same day I got it, but it’s taken me a long time to get my thoughts on it out. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth installement of the Harry Potter series that is in script format. It focuses on Harry’s youngest son, Albus Severus, and his attendance at Hogwarts. This was written by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, with J.K. Rowling’s approval.

Okay, so with all the prefacing and such out of the way. my thoughts!

The Cursed Child has it’s problems of course, but for me…this was a wonderful trip back to the school I grew up with. There were a lot of “I knew it!” moments for me and some that really made me think about the story as I knew it. I think for me the strongest part of this (and I know some people would disagree with me) is the character examination. Several characters that we know and love (or hate) go through some changes relating to the storyline…some of the changes are drastic like Hermione’s case. I for one didn’t have a problem with any of it. I wil say that because it’s a play it requires the reader to really read between the lines and to understand that a lot goes on that isn’t described in this story that could contribute to thee changes. I liked seeing the different sides of the characters, because for several of them I could see those sides in them already. As for Albus…well to be frank, he is Harry’s son so he can be a bit of a prat…really the resemblance is fairly striking. The character that won me over was Scorpio…I love him so much and his friendship with Albus was fantastic. I loved the support he gave to his only true friend, even when that friend is capable of being a brat.

The story itself covers several years and moves fairly quickly. I do wish it was a book because there is so much I can tell I’m missing out on with this play format, but it certainly has my mind working anyway. I liked where the plot went, even though some of it was a bit of a reach but honestly the most shocking part of the story was a portion where I just started laughing. I had to wait until my boyfriend read it a week later to tell him why I screamed “I f—ing knew it!” at like 11 at night, but as soon as he got to one of the big reveals he did the same thing. This big “shock” (I think those that read it know what I’m talking about) was something he and I have actually talked about, because the undertones were there. I do totally get that some people hate this reveal and that it seemed like a case of “shock value”, and maybe it is…I’m just bias. I also loved seeing Albus and Scorpio deal with living in the shadows of their fathers, and how in the end it didn’t matter what manner of light cast those shadows because the burden of it was still there.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I happen to like reading script formats, so I had that going for me already, but I think that the story is pretty good. It was fast paced and fun, and we got a bit more insight as to the aftermath of the war.

I will probably post some more spoiler filled thoughts in discussion posts later, just because it sort of kills me not to talk in detail about some of the aspects I’ve had to gloss over here