Disclaimer: This review (as does the book) assumes that the reader is familiar with the 7-book Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Book Review:
Happy Potter and the Cursed Child
Parts 1 and 2
By J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne
The eighth Harry Potter book – a four act play – takes place 19 years after the famous series ended. The book focuses on the tumultuous relationship between Harry, now Head of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, and his youngest son Albus, who enters Hogwarts and is sorted into Slytherian. Brief scenes show glimpses of Albus’s first few years at school and his relationship with his father during that period, but those scenes only lead up to the real story, which takes place during Albus’s fifth year at Hogwarts.
At that time, Albus and his friend Scorpius Malfoy (son of Drayco Malfoy) attempt to rectify one of the injustices of Harry Potter’s childhood – the death of Cedric Diggory. The pair go back in time – several times – with a stolen time turner and attempt to prevent Diggory’s death. The two realize that the actions they take and the alternate realities that they create are not always for the better. But can they undo the changes they made and return life to normal? Or are they destined to live in a new world that they inadvertently created?
Review/Recommendation: (But first, another disclaimer.) I feel like I’ve been living under a rock recently. I’d seen this book on displays everywhere, and my friends had started to read it, but I had not read or heard any reviews about it. I can barely keep up with reading everything coming in via my RSS feed and rarely have the time to sit down and read a real book lately. And the tv? Well that’s tuned into Paw Patrol the vast majority of the time I’m home.
Why do you care? Well, I thought it important to let you know that I really picked up this book with no expectations (but full of high hopes since I loved the Harry Potter series) and completely unaware of what the book would be about. It didn’t occur to me at all, that the latest Harry Potter book was actually a play. So with that said, it took me a little while to get into the book. It wasn’t until I was about a third of the way through it that I got hooked on the story and really began to enjoy it.
I do have mixed feelings about the book in general. For one, I don’t feel the format did the story or the reputation of the Harry Potter books justice. It felt very… lacking in depth and detail. There were no real descriptions of the characters or the scenery, especially how Hogwarts changed in the 19 years that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were there. There were glimpses into some of the prominent characters from previous books but no sense of changes in character or relationships. A lot was left to the imagination, with just hints of what Rowling and her coauthors wanted us to think. There was sooo much more that I wanted from this book.
I also have mixed feelings on the story itself. It starts off really depressing, with the very tumultuous relationship between Harry and his son Albus. I felt horrible for Albus because of how unhappy he clearly was but struggled because I had no context for how Harry and Albus’s relationship got to that point. Once I got past the format of the book and what I wanted the book to be, I started to enjoy the story a bit more. Albus developed a strong friendship with Malfoy’s son and that positive relationship in his life helped lighten the mood of the book. From that point on, the story itself was pretty good, but again, lacking detail due to the format.
I think knowing that the book was a play and missing a lot of context, I might have enjoyed the book a lot more. But billing a play as the “eighth” Harry Potter book (it says so on the book jacket) is misleading and left this particular reader feeling a bit disappointed. I know I would have regretted it if I had no read the book but I might have been more satisfied if this book had been a bit more… divorced from the series that I loved so much.
Grade: B-/B