Book Review – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Goodreads Synopsis:

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

My Review:

I feel that I need to start by saying that I am a huge fan of J.K. Rowling’s writing and was as enthralled, if not more, by the Harry Potter series as my children. I also need to start by saying that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is not an epic novel in the spirit of the original seven-book series. It is a rehearsal script for a play that has opened in London. If you read it expecting the same character development and descriptive narrative as the books, you will be disappointed.

That leaves the plot. I will comment on it without posting spoilers for those of you that have yet to read it. At first, I had trouble with the premise. It is not original. The story takes place in a world where Harry and his friends are now adults with children of their own that now attend Hogwarts. In fact, the play borrows the final scene from the final movie where Harry and Ginny’s children, along with Ron and Hermoine’s are at the train station headed for school.

From that point on, the plot seems to degenerate into a conglomeration of other often-used plot devices. There is time travel that seeks to correct a past unfortunate event (11/22/63 – Stephen King), teenagers with angst (Twilight – Stephenie Meyer) and also ‘what if I’d never been born’ (It’s a Wonderful Life et. al.).

It would have been tough for Rowling to meet or exceed the quality and magic of the original series. This effort, however, has all appearances of trying to capitalize on the franchise in a half-hearted way. Why not write this as a full-fledged book? I don’t know how it evolved, but I picture someone pitching this to Rowling as a way to extend the franchise without the demands of writing another book. It’s almost like a (shudder) James Patterson situation where she approves the story premise and slaps her name on the product and everyone makes money.

I don’t want to believe this is true, but it appears to be that way.

With all of that being said, it was interesting to see how the characters had evolved and how they might have evolved on alternate timelines, but I couldn’t help feeling that, with the premise and the repeating of well-known scenes from the original series, that I’d read this before…several times.

Based on my enjoyment of the original series, I’m only giving this latest effort three and a half pizzas out of five. I will now cower in the corner and await the unpleasant comments.