Book #32: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I hadn't planned to buy this, but I decided to last week and thanks to the real-life magic of Amazon Prime, I had it in two days. I sat down and read it in just a couple of hours--it moved really quickly since it was a play script and not a traditional novel. And that right there is the main difference between this and the other books--the format interferes with your total immersion into the story like you get from the books. But I think it is really important to not let that get in the way of the enjoyment of this--since it is a script and you're not actually getting the real, full experience from seeing it as a play. I have read several places that it is amazing on the stage--or at least better than just reading it. As much as I wish I could see the play sometime, that seems unlikely unless it comes to Dallas, or at least the U.S., so reading the script will have to be all we get.

I didn't really realize that this script/play wasn't actually written by Rowling. It was written by Jack Thorne, the director of the play--although she helped to come up with the story. I feel like some places it does read like fanfiction--like when Severus Snape shows up again, and a few times whenever Albus and Scorpius refer back to specific small events that happened during Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts that seem unlikely that they would have known about (but everyone reading the books knows every one of them). I didn't love how Ron was portrayed as a total joke/jokester, never saying anything serious or being taken seriously--I feel like that was taking his role from the books wayyyy too far and I liked him less for it. I thought it was a little too neat at the end to have Harry and all his pals rushing off into danger again--but it was kind of satisfying. AND I really didn't like all the crazy effects of the time-travel--it didn't seem to jive with the time-travel from the books, where they don't make any changes but just see what already happened from a different perspective. This was totally different from that, and I think that's where it doesn't seem like Rowling wrote it. I did like seeing some human sides to Harry as a grown-up and the real-life things he's struggling with, and I liked seeing the relationship between Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny as grown-ups. And also Malfoy! As a multi-faceted character! With a son who is totally unlike him! I loved that.

Overall, a pretty satisfying read that is pretty much required reading for any Potter fan. Maybe not the best ever, but necessary.