“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” opened at the Palace Theater in London on July 30, and a hardcover screenplay was released into stores on the following day, July 31. The screenplay was not written by J. K. Rowling, author of the original seven "Harry Potter" books, but it is based off a short story written by her. The majority of the book takes place about 20 years after the Battle of Hogwarts and features Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy as the main characters.
As the book is a script and not written as prose, the story does not mimic the style of the original "Harry Potter" books. Instead of describing every scene in detail as Rowling did, the scenes only have basic descriptions which force the reader to imagine each scene themselves. Characterization is built only through each character’s actions and words as mannerisms and physical aspects would be seen on stage.
The story itself is fascinating, picking up almost exactly where the seventh book left off at Platform 9 ¾. It features many of the characters that are already so well-known and might challenge some of the thoughts and feelings the reader has towards some of those characters. Themes of the play include heroism, xenophobia, death and friendship.
I give the script a rating of A-. I greatly enjoyed that the story made me question some of the motives of my most loved characters. The story was profoundly moving and makes the reader go through a wide range of emotions: Anger, heartbreak, surprise, suspense and joy. The plot of the book seems slightly outlandish, plus the action scenes weren’t quite as suspenseful as many of the ones in the original series were. If I had read real spoilers of the story before picking up the book, I would have thought they were fake. The story switches through many dimensions of the wizarding world, and it can get a bit disorienting, which often caused me to have to take a break or flip back and reread sections to keep from getting confused. When performed on stage, much of this confusion could potentially be cleared up, but the lack of detail in the scenes makes reading it more complicated.
As a lifelong Harry Potter fanatic, I greatly enjoyed “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child;" its strengths greatly outweighed its weaknesses. It is important for anyone who chooses to read it to go in with an open mind and remember that this is a vastly different take on many of the characters we know and love. The actions in this book do not discredit your thoughts or feelings about the original seven books as it is not written by J.K. Rowling and is in a different format. As “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was released over nine years ago, this story fulfills a need that I and many others feel for more of the magic of the wizarding world, despite its major differences from the original books.