What I've Read - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Two months ago I posted that I was cautiously excited for the new Harry Potter book.  There was a decent level of hype leading up to the release and by the time I picked up my library hold copy (which I had reserved months ago) I was pretty excited myself.  I finished the two books I was reading at the time and then started this after getting home from my niece's rehearsal dinner, even though I knew I should really be sleeping to prepare for the next day.  I've been that person waaaay too often that stays up past bedtime to read.  There is just something about a new Harry Potter book, even one so different from the past ones, that was impossible to ignore.  I read more the next day when I should have been getting ready or cleaning my house.  I read more when we were finally in bed after wedding/reception/bar/Olympic watching.  Then I really should have been sleeping.  But I was reading Harry Potter.  (You guys, this "put your life on hold stuff" for new Harry Potter is not shocking.  I was reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had just come out!!, when Matt wanted to be proposing.  So there is that.)

I have a lot of thoughts.

Here are the basics (no spoilers, yet!):  It takes place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts when Harry & Ginny's younger son, Albus, is getting on the Hogwarts Express for the first time and Albus worries that he's going to be sorted into Slytherin.  This is the same time/place/conversation as the epilogue in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  It then follows Albus' adventures over the next few school years.  A lot of characters from the first 7 books make appearances.  A lot.  The obvious: Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Draco are all there (they are all in the train station scene at the end of Deathly Hallows).  And then a ton more.  I don't want to say who is or isn't here.

Now, this is a play script, not a novel.  It was nothing like the plays that I read in high school that I did not enjoy.  This one was very easy to read.  Even with picking it up and putting it down multiple times in 48 hours, I still only spent about 2 hours reading it.  It was a very quick read.  With the play format there just isn't the feel of the books.  Emotions and facial expressions aren't described, hardly at all, since those would be up to the actors playing the roles.  There are very few room descriptions or anything to make you feel like you really are immersed in this world, something the first seven books did so well.  It reads a lot more stiffly for those reasons.  I imagine if you were in the audience at the play this would be a much more magical experience (pun intended).  I am sure they are bringing this story to life on stage in a way that is not possible just by reading the script.

I've read a lot of reviews and heard the criticism that it reads like fan fiction and I totally can see that.  J.K. Rowling came up with the whole idea so it's approved but it definitely feels like an add-on, not something so carefully constructed to fit with the 7 books.  It was well-known that she knew the ending to #7 before the first was written so she could put in little things that didn't make sense until you had read them all.  After reading the entire 7 books, you could go back and reread and catch so many things that were being foreshadowed or that would be mentioned later.  The way she wrote those first seven was masterful.  This doesn't have that.  At no point while reading did I think "Ohhhhhhh....now I totally understand why such and such happened in that other book."  The story fits...but also you aren't missing anything from the first seven if you don't read this.  Obviously if you have never read the originals then this won't mean much but not reading it won't take anything away from the experience of reading the other books.

Now, there are still plenty of touching moments and lovely moments and I laughed out loud once or twice, smiled many times.  Ron is mostly comic relief.  Hermione is mostly as you'd expect her to be.  There was a reference somewhere that anytime Harry, Ron, and Hermione are together people stare because they are fairly famous.  Which is just amusing to me.  It's fun to see these characters as adults, close to my own age, see them as parents.  Read about what the wizarding world has been up to in the last 19 years.  It was almost like being with old friends again and was so comfortable and familiar to enter their world.  That made me so excited to pick it up and keep reading.

I'm torn between wanting more books/plays so I know more about this new world and wanting them to stop, to preserve the treasure that is the original series.  This was a good experiment and so fun to read but I think if they kept going with more (and J.K. Rowling has said she's done done now) I think it would cheapen or weaken the overall series. I reread the entire series last fall and LOVED it and plan to do so again, many more times.  It's tempting to always want more but, just like overeating good food, sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

I still gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Now I'm going to talk about things that might ruin the book for you if you haven't read it yet.  Please, PLEASE come back once you've read it yourselves because I really want to know what others think!  But don't blame me if you keep scrolling and then something is spoiled for you.  

SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS  .SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.  SPOILERS.

Seriously STOP scrolling if you don't want to be spoiled. 
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Seriously.  Time-travel, again??  I was trying to summarize the plot for my husband and just kept laughing because it was a lot to try to keep straight.  I understand wanting to bring back familiar characters but at some point it just felt like they were being shoe-horned in just so they would be there.  I was trying to think of main or main-ish characters that hadn't been included and didn't come up with many.  Almost every one is covered (I got Luna, Sirius, and Lupin, and most Weasleys...those are the main-est characters I could think of that didn't make this book.)  It at times felt like an excuse just to have tried out these other realities.  Yes, Voldemort not being defeated would have been pretty horrible.  I think we all could have figured out that one on our own.  And including Harry seeing his parents be murdered (or just hearing it?  I forget which.) just felt...indulgent?  Weird?  I don't know.  It was an emotional scene but I'm not sure it was necessary.

Also, Harry never really went looking for his adventures and more did them to save the world.  Albus went looking for an adventure just because he thought it would make him and Harry get along better which feels like very different motivations.  I did like seeing Albus friends with Scorpius and Harry and Draco getting along, but that might be a bit of a stretch?  I was a little disappointed that Albus was sorted into Slytherin.  If it's not just for the dark arts type stuff what are they about? 

I just wished that they had come up with a better story than multiple trips through time.  It felt a little overused and I expected better or something different.  I would have rather read something fully set in the 19 or more years since book #7 and how Harry and Albus bonded without having to go back and revisit things that, mostly, happened in book #4.  If you are going to add to this beloved series, then really add to it.

But, again, I still really enjoyed reading this book and being back in that world again.  I would definitely reread and will probably buy it someday.  I just don't know that I'll reread it anytime I reread the entire series.  It doesn't feel necessary to finishing the story.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child