Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Book Review

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

Scholastic

July 31, 2016

321 pages

Review- 4/5 stars

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the book every Potterhead has been waiting for since they first finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Except it isn’t what we were expecting. This eighth installment in Harry Potter’s world is a script, and is being performed as a play in London. I hadn’t read anything about the play, so going into this book I had no idea what was going to happen. However once I got my hands on a copy at midnight, I devoured it. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was a very entertaining and enjoyable read.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child takes place nineteen years after the events of the Battle of Hogwarts. It is the story of Albus Severus, the son of Harry and Ginny Potter, and Scorpius the son of Draco Malfoy. Both boys feel like outsiders at Hogwarts for difference reasons. Albus is a Potter that was sorted into Slytherin, and Scorpius is rumored to be the son of Lord Voldemort himself. So they instantly become best of friends.

Albus Severus was overall a likable character. He was a bit angsty and dramatic for some reason, but he did have nice character development. Scorpius , however was a amazing this entire book.He was definitely my favorite character. Scorpius was funny, geeky, optimistic, and very charming. Occasionally he was a little angsty, but never as much as Albus. I did enjoy reading about Scorpius and Albus’s friendship, and how it grew stronger over the course of the book.

One thing I really wished that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had more of was the classic characters. I would like to have known how Neville, Luna, George, Hagrid, ect. were doing. It would also have been nice to get to know Hugo, James, Lily, and Teddy Lupin better.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child also followed Harry, Ginny, Hermoine, and Draco. Harry’s scar has been hurting for the first time in many years, and he is nervous that Voldemort will come back. His wife and two best friends believe him, but his long time enemy Draco Malfoy thinks he is making it up. However, when Albus and Scorpius go missing Draco and Harry team up together to find there sons.

My biggest disappointment of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child were the adult characters. Ron, Harry, and Hermoine were all completely out of character. Ron was an idiot, and Hermoine was not as intelligent or determined as she was in the original Harry Potter series. This was very disappointing because Ron and Hermoine are two of my favorite fictional characters of all time. The character that was distorted the most however was definitely Harry. In The Cursed Child Harry was self centered and kind of cruel. Not only did he tell Albus that “sometimes I wished you weren’t my son” (p. 41) but he also tried to prevent Albus from being friends with Scorpius. In doing this, he threatened Albus and McGonagall. I was really not happy with Harry’s character in this book. The one adult character I really did like was Draco Malfoy. He was realistic, and it was nice to see more of his emotions. His love for Scorpius was really sweet, and nice to see. The Malfoys were the best characters in this story,

Now let’s talk plot. While reading The Cursed Child I enjoyed the plot. Looking back at it, I have realized how fanfictiony and unoriginal it is. The time traveling plot was basically Back to the Future meets Harry Potter and the Voldemort’s child plot was something I read in fanfiction. The other confusing part of this play was when Harry transfigured into Voldemort. Can wizards just transfigure into other people? What is the point of going through all the work to make Polyjuice Potion then? This was an extremely unclear scene in the story. Though the plot was certainly flawed, it was still a lot of fun to read.

Overall Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was an enjoyable read. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, I definitely recommend picking it up. If you have read it, please let me know your thoughts because I am dying to discuss it with somebody.

-Lucy