Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Spoiler-Free)

When I first heard that J.K. Rowling (along with John Tiffany and Jack Thorne) was creating another Harry Potter story, I was beyond ecstatic. Of course I wanted to know what was happening with my favorite characters as adults – with kids of their own nonetheless! …The anxiety set in not too long after that. Will I like it? What if I don’t? What if I hate it? What if the Golden Trio aren’t the same characters I loved? Then there’s the part about it being a play/script and not an actual book. How do I feel about that? Will that diminish or enhance the reading experience? So many questions! Only one way to answer: Read the book.

Read on for my spoiler-free review of HP and the Cursed Child. 

Genre
Fantasy! You know the drill – wizards, witches, spells, oh my!

Intended Audience
Everyone – all those who love the Harry Potter series, whether you’ve grown up with these books or have just recently been introduced to them.

Overview
Harry Potter, now a 37-year-old father, husband, and Ministry of Magic employee, still struggles with his past as “The Boy Who Lived”. As does his son Albus. With the help of their family, friends, and even a few enemies, they must grapple with the unfortunate ripples left behind by Voldemort and his Death Eaters before it’s too late – for their relationships and the world as they know it.

Setting
The wonderful universe where Hogwarts and magic exists. 19 years after it all began.

Characters
Readers were introduced to angsty new characters and also re-introduced to angsty familiar faces. I loved all the cameos, although there were a few minorly notable absences…

What I Liked
First and foremost, I feel the need to say write that what I liked the most was that we got another Harry Potter story. Plain and simple. So yes, we’ve now established that I’m slightly biased.

Up next are the cameos. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you who was included, but I liked that we got to see different facets of the characters we loved and hated. Whether I agreed with those facets is another story and something I touch upon in the next section; but I liked the visual nonetheless.

It felt like a lot of this was experimental – the story itself as well as the format of its delivery. It was new and unconventional and I was/am willing to roll with that.

What I Liked A Little Less
My main critique was the portrayal of certain characters. I get that, realistically, a lot of things would have happened over those 19 years, but it seemed like a couple of the main characters were- well, out of character. …Okay, really just one character in particular. But time (and children) can change people. So… *shrug*

I also found it a bit hard to be as attached to them, mainly because my reading experience was more limited with a script as opposed to a book. We weren’t inside their heads as much as in the original series. But, as I mentioned above, this was an experiment that I was content to be along for the ride for.

Also, can someone please tell me who the “cursed child” was supposed to be? I don’t know if I missed it or if my spidey senses were off, but I couldn’t pinpoint who the unfortunate soul was – there were a few candidates in my opinion. Maybe that was the point? Anyway, if you’d like to discuss, send me a private message either here or on Instagram so that we don’t inadvertently spoil it for anyone who has yet to read the book.

Score
All-in-all, I found it to be a bit cheesy at times, but I liked it anyway. Again, biased. In script form, it didn’t have quite the same effect (i.e. emotional investment) as a book (duh), but it was good enough. I’m giving it 4/5 stars. I definitely want to see the play, preferably in England, but I’ll take what I can get.