Harry Potter and the Cursed Child {Spoiler-Free Review}

A few weeks ago, I happened to pass by Popular bookstore in Eastpoint and saw that they were taking reservations for the latest Harry Potter story – Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. So I excitedly paid for a copy and this morning, all my flatmates asked why I was up so early on a Sunday and it was because I was excited to collect this!

After all this time?

Always! 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth Harry Potter story, nineteen years later.

This is the synopsis in the book’s jacket:

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.

Now the difference between this book and the other original seven is that it’s not a real book, exactly, but more of a script of a play. Here’s a peek at what the first page looks like:

If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the script form of a scene from the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I have to admit that the real books are better and meatier than this one, but you do get used to the script format after a while.

The advantage of this format is that it is shorter and a lot faster to go through than a book, so you can breeze through it in an uninterrupted hour or two. It took me 4 hours because I had to eat, shop, and do other stuff before finally parking myself in a cafe to finish it.

To be honest, I had some issues with certain parts of the plot which seemed off from Canon or the original 7 books, but overall, I liked it, and it gave me back all the Harry Potter feels, which I didn’t even realize I had missed.

Now I had been warned by JK Rowling, in a couple of tweets, that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child would make me cry.

Well, she delivered, all right! I was crying quietly in a cafe while reading a chapter towards the end – reminiscent of me in a similar situation back in 2007, that is, of me crying in another cafe with another Harry Potter book that I had paid in advance for and finished reading within the same day it was released. Some things never change, I guess!

But you know how usually books are better than the movies? In this case, I think the play would probably be better than the book. But only because this is actually a book of the script, and not a typical book.

I wish I could watch the play when I’m in London in September, but unfortunately, all the tickets for those dates have already been sold out!

Oh well.

I’m just really glad that JK decided to release the script in book form so the rest of us can still get to enjoy the story even if we can’t watch the play!

Thanks, JK, for the magic, and Happy Birthday too!

Now I’m even more excited to check out the Harry Potter Studios in London, and to watch the Fantastic Beasts movie later this year!

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