Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Review
Fun fact: I am a huge Harry Potter fan.
Then again, I'm starting to believe there's not a person on the planet who doesn't like either the movies or the books. Or at least, after my first trip to a midnight book release with my Mother-in-law. We met tons of other fans, and it was a pretty good mix of people; kids and adults. I learned I have an identity crisis; I always used to believe I was more a Huffelpuff than any other house; Pottermore says I'm a Slytherin. J.K made the Sorting Quiz for Pottermore, I'm inclined to believe she's right. I took the quiz twice, must be a snake. I'm trying to own it and act like it doesn't shake the very foundation of my core.
Anyway, the book. I've seen a lot of the critics calling it short to the point. I guess they've never read a script for a stage-play, because that's kind of the point. It was a pretty easy read. I finished it in half a day. I'm going to be honest, I was hugely disappointed. That's hard for me to admit given J.K is my inspiration as an author and I'm a card-carrying member of the Potter generation.
*****SPOILERS BELOW, READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL******
I really wanted to like this book, it kills me that I don't. I've seen so much praise for this book from fans on twitter and facebook. But I just can't. I feel like we may have been better off if she'd just left it like it was at the end of Book seven.
I had a really hard time connecting with the two main characters; I found Scorpius Malfoy more endearing than any of the Potter's. He seemed more human to me because of the loss of his Mother, and Albus Severus Potter just rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning of the book. To be frank, I viewed Albus Severus as one of those punk-emo teenagers that always finds a way to make everything bad about him.
I thought a more appropriate name for this book may have been: Harry Potter and the Crippling Daddy Issues.
As we were told (in various interviews) Albus Severus gets sorted into Slytherin. I thought this would be a great opportunity for our beloved author to convince people that not all Slytherin's are bad, pureblood elitists. One of our very own beloved Potter's is now in Slytherin, and suddenly the world has gone bat-shit crazy! Everyone treats him like an outcast because he's not in Gryffindor and it starts to eat at his self-esteem. So, naturally being a teenager, he decides to take his angst out on his Dad! I mean, he could've lived under the radar if it weren't for his dad being a celebrity!
Before his fourth year starts, Albus over-hear's a conversation between his Father and Cedric Diggory's father, Amos. There's rumors floating around that a time-turner has been acquired by the Ministry; a rare find as the Ministry has been destroying them as they find them. He begs Potter to use it to go back and save his son from Voldemort. Harry tries to explain to Amos that he can't, but there's a young woman with Amos; his niece Delphini Diggory. Her flirtation (and being pissed at his own Father) inspires Albus to form a plan to get the time-turner and go save Cedric.
Surprise, surprise... another Potter has another bad idea that's going to get him into a lot of trouble. Or worse, expelled.
The book is broken down into Four Acts; two of the acts include what happens when you play with a time-turner. The first part is kind of comical; Hermione is a pseudo-Snape at Hogwarts, Ron married Padma but the Potter's are still a thing. Harry is determined to keep his son "safe" and demands he stop being best friends with Scorpius in a complete dick move. During this I kept the Celine Dion song "All by myself" in my brain. But, still wishing to complete his mission; Albus recruits Scorpius for round-two of a time-turner adventure so they can try to set things right.
Round two is even worse than round one: Harry's dead so that means no Albus, the Dark Lord won and Umbridge is the Hogwarts Headmistress. Hermione and Ron lived, but die hand-in-hand via Dementors while trying to help Scorpius set things right and get back to his world. Snape (who survived in this world and had been helping hide Hermione and Ron) also sacrifices himself. As a Snape fan I liked this part. Because for a minute I felt as though Alan Rickman was back again.
Scorpius finally sets things right. It seems like all is right in the world and they come to the conclusion that they're going to destroy the time-turner. But PLOT TWIST, Delphini is not what she seems! She's the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange and the Dark Lord (Lord knows when this happened, or how...) and boy does she have some roaring Daddy issues! She's going to go back in time and make sure things turn out like they did in the second failed time-turner experiment. But it can't be done by her, via a prophecy it has to be done by Albus and Scorpius. She snaps their wands, and forces them back into time with her.
The final scene's were the only redemption in Albus' character; he manages to get message to Harry via his childhood blanket and a spilled potion. This was a rather brilliant plot twist that I wasn't expecting and thought it extremely clever. So, Harry and the gang (plus Draco) go back in time via ANOTHER time turner to rescue Albus and Scorpius. We get kind of a rare glimpse at the final moments of Lily and James Potter, the last days and hours of their lives. It was hard to read because you want to jump in and stop it, but you can't. I can only imagine being in Harry's shoes, having the ability to stop it and yet having to have the willpower to let it happen for the sake of altering time beyond repair.
The realization strikes the Golden Trio that maybe Delphani isn't going to murder the Potter family herself, maybe she just wants to meet her Father. (Again, Daddy issues). So, Harry transfigures into Voldemort. There's a short show-down when Delphani realizes that that isn't her Father and she just gives up. It was all rather short-lived and anti-climatic after everything we've just read.
Then, suddenly, Albus and Harry work out their issues at Cedric's grave and we're done. According to JKR herself, this is the last Harry Potter writing she'll do. This is the end of the story. It was not what I expected. I'm going to give it a C; the first half was pretty creative and well plotted. I like the idea of toying with the 'What ifs?' of the Potter world. The ending was too quick, too boring. This is a woman who spent a decade carefully plotting out seven books and connecting dots from book one to seven in such an awe-inspiring way that this almost feels like she got lazy.
I'm torn; it was kind of nostalgic for me to create what happened to the Golden trio in my brain after the defeat of Voldemort. I always wanted to imagine them living the easy life for the rest of their days. Maybe it's for that reason alone I have a hard time liking this sequel. It's too concrete, it destroys the open-ended imagery and imagination of die-hard Potter fans everywhere.
That's all I have for you this week, readers. Things are a bit less hectic in my life now so expect more updates as I continue to work on publishing my own works. Maybe someday I'll have my own midnight release party. A girl can dream.
