The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.
Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The play will receive its world premiere in London’s West End on July 30, 2016.
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
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When I first heard about Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’s script being released as a book, I was completely sure that I was not going to read it.
I was disappointed that it wasn’t a proper novel and unhappy that J.K.Rowling would only be one of the three writers that wrote this book.
And I think many bookworms shared my sentiments initially because I remember discussing this with the Rainbow Bookclub and the girls and I were quite displeased.
However, last week, my editor sent me a message asking if I liked Harry Potter and if I would like to wake up at a god-forsaken hour on a Sunday to attend the launch party of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Bras Basah. Apparently there would be butterbeer and we would get a free copy of the book.
The bookworm in me just couldn’t say no despite my initial reservations about the book.
As the 31st of July came closer, I got more and more excited. I was actually hand delivered an invite last week and I was so impressed.
So on Sunday (the day of the party), I woke up at 4.45am to attend the 7.01am Harry Potter party.
It was actually pretty cool except for the fact that the ‘butterbeer’ was really rootbeer and whipped cream but okay. I can (kinda) accept that.
After the party, I spent the entire day camped out on my bed and read the book cover to cover.
Plot
This book picks up exactly where we left off in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. We are on the train platform with a grown up Harry, Ron, Hermoine and their kids.
Harry’s son, Albus, is about to start his first year at Hogwarts and he is worried that he will be sorted into Slytherin.
Now you guys know that really don’t like to reread anything so I read the whole Harry Potter series for the first and last time when I was about 11.
If you’re like me, you would expect to have forgotten a lot of little things. But the way the book picked up and very non-intrusively explained things that most people would have forgotten made it feel just like coming home again.
The story focuses on Albus, Harry’s son, and Scorpius, Draco’s son. Basically, they are dangerously playing with time travel and as a result, they visit iconic moments in the book and explore what the story would have been like if one little detail was changed.
It’s pretty dynamic for a play really.
Charachters
I’m not going to talk about individual characters like I usually do because there were so many of them and I really don’t want to have to miss anyone out because each charachter, even the ones who were only there for a chapter, had such a huge impact in the original seven books and I feel like I will be doing them a great injustice if I have to simply casually mention them.
So I really liked the way the charachters were built upon. We follow all the original cast as well as their kids but the story focuses largely on the adventure (or misadventure) that their kids go on and experience.
What I really liked was that I felt like the charachters really grew. It really did feel like 19 years had gone by and it felt very authentic.
I really enjoyed seeing familiar faces and just getting to live through their lives again.
I also really enjoyed the parent-child dynamics that was going on. I feel like in the first seven books, we had very little parental interference perhaps except for Ron. However in this book we got to see a pretty realistic portrayal of parents taking care of their adventurous kids and I really liked that.
Overall
I honestly cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book. The whole experience of reading it just felt like coming home. I just felt so safe and warm and fuzzy and I really felt like I was reentering the beautiful period in my life when I read the first seven books.
If you’re worried about the fact that the book is in script form or not completely written by J.K. Rowling, don’t worry. It’s all good. Trust me. It’s amazing and you want to read it.
Twenty Three Pages 
I wonder why JK Rowling doesn’t write this book alone.. Did you read the series again before starting this book?
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I wish she had but I think it largely had to do with the fact that it was a play and not a novel and she needed help with that. I didn’t reread the series but I still got everything.
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