Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

As with all sequels I looked forward to this book with trepidation. I wanted it to be as amazing as all her other Harry Potter novels, but this one was bound to be different. First it is a theatrical script, not a novel. I don’t normally read scripts for fun. It would be something refreshingly different perhaps. After all I usually tend to skim flowery description and go straight for dialogue anyway.

The second reason for my trepidation was the time gap. This is set 19 years later, when the next generation is going to Hogwarts. Those kinds of stories are hard to pull off successfully. The fact that 19 years have passed means that the characters would have changed as they matured, so they should be different but not so different that we can’t recognize them. Thorne did an acceptable job of this. There were moments in which I smiled as I recognized the old Harry, Hermione, or Ron. There were also moments in which I felt he was trying too hard. The interactions between Draco and Ron seemed particularly forced from a writing standpoint. Some people are saying that this is nothing more than fan fiction. I don’t think it is that bad, but I can see where they get that idea. It doesn’t feel the same as JK Rowling’s novels. It is a play, written by Jack Thorne, so yes, it feels quite different and not much like what we love about the first 7 stories.

Why do I say Thorne wrote this when JK Rowling’s name is on the cover? I believe that the story idea, the events of the story were imagined and written by Rowling and given to Thorne to wordsmith and remake it into a play. The idea of the story is rather brilliant in my opinion. Time travel gives us the opportunity to go back and see the characters we love so much. I won’t say more and spoil the story, but I enjoyed visiting certain characters.

I enjoyed the Albus and Scorpius characters the most probably because they were new characters. They each have big shoes to fill being the sons of Harry and Draco. The synopsis reads as if Harry is the center of the story. He is a major character in the story but I got the feeling that this story is more about Albus Potter. Perhaps I just like the Albus story line better than the Harry storyline.

While reading this play, I was surprised to find that I missed the description and the thoughts that a novel would contain. Since this reads like a 3rd person POV, I did not become as emotionally attached to the characters. There were moments in the story where, if I’d read this as a novel, I’d have sobbed all over the book, but since I wasn’t, I read it with limited feelings.  That is not a flaw of the writer, just a difference between reading a novel versus reading a theater script.

There is no cussing and nothing inappropriate in this book, quite the contrary actually. The message in this script is great for parents and for children. It would be an amazing piece of literature to read together and discuss as a family! There are numerous topic which could be discussed about being a family, being a child, being someone who is flawed as we all are, about how life experiences make us who we are, and how we must choose how those events mold who we become.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I believe it would be a million times better at the theater as it was meant to be.

Finally, my sister and I had a painting afternoon and I want to share the painting I made. I was feeling rather Potterish so I painted Starry Night at Hogwarts. It is
not at all accurate but it was fun to make. This was my first time working in oils so please forgive the clumsiness.