Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child review

There has been (of course) a lot of talk about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, some good and some bad. I'm one of those who was quite happy with the original seven books at the time, the story ended well and everything was fine, though naturally I was sad I had to say goodbye to my favorite fictional world and all the characters. So I had some mixed feelings upon hearing that they were going to publish a new story and in a play format. Still I bought the book and read it in one sitting and I must say despite everything it was like returning home because that's what Harry Potter is to me and will probably always be.

Now I'm going to get into spoilers so if you have not read the book, go read it! You have been warned, THE SPOILERS START NOW!

The first scenes of the play were a bit confusing since we go through three years very fast and I must admit, I was bothered when the lines weren't exactly like they were in the last chapter of the Deathly Hallows. The story got a lot better and clearer once it stopped skipping years. I didn't mind the play format, it made it very fast-paced, and since the world is familiar to us all we don't need long descriptions but sometimes I would have wanted to hear what the characters were thinking instead of just what they said out loud.

About the characters: Scorpius and Albus are the best thing in the book. Their friendship is so heartfelt that the book proved itself with that only. I'm not sure how I feel reading about Harry & co as adults but they weren't bad either. The alternative universe Ron & Hermione were my favorite thing after Scorpius and Albus, this just proves that they are meant to be, no matter how J.K. regrets pairing them. Also I have never really liked Snape, not even after all his heroism, but here the two second we saw him I actually enjoyed his character.

Now I enjoyed reading this greatly but I can't overlook some extremely fan fiction like things. Don't get me wrong, I love fan fiction but I expected them to come up with something little more true to the original series. Voldemort having children has been a subject in fan fiction as long as I have been reading them so I yelled out loud when I read that. That is so out of character for Voldemort! He planned on living forever by making the horcruxes, he did not want to have children! Bellatrix would have probably done it in a second but Voldemort, never. In addition, I'm not sure I like all the time-traveling either, it worked out okay but still not my favorite thing.

Besides the characters I loved the humor in the story. Scorpius having a huge crush on Rose was sweet and Rose saying that Scorpius doesn't look like Voldemort because he has a nose... I laughed. My favorite fan fics are those that pair up Rose and Scorpius and this gave me more than I could have hoped for.

If it weren't for all the fan fiction traits this book would be a 5-star-read, no question about it. Since there are those very out of character things I can't account this into canon with the original seven. Instead I consider this as expanded universe, very much worth reading.

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