Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

3.55/5.00

Published: July 2016

Genres: Fantasy

Goodreads

In general, books that revisit past stories leave me with three reactions: nostalgia carries it, it pales in comparison to the original magic and sometimes even ruins the series, or it is surprisingly original and pleasant. Harry Potter and The Cursed Child falls between options one and three. It ‘s a fun read. I finished it in a few hours. Granted, it’s written in play format, but I will still take pride in this. It added a few, fun aspects that make the HP-verse more interesting and real. If, however, you looked at this book outside the Harry Potter context, it would probably only be mediocre at best. Even in context, it isn’t nearly as great as the original series.

Obviously, the characters are older. They’re adults now, like many of the people who grew up reading the Harry Potter books. And they’ve changed, most noticeably Draco.

I read this to reunite with the original characters, and the new ones failed to catch my interest, for the most part. I liked Scorpius.  

Other than Albus, Scorpius, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Draco, Ron, and Professor McGonagall, you should not expect more than a mention or a chance appearance. Even James, Rose, Lily, and Hugo are barely in it. I understand that not every character was going to be included in this story, but I was still bummed that Luna Lovegood didn’t even get a mention.

If you haven’t, I recommend reading the other Harry Potter books. Almost all of you are already Harry Potter fans, though, or have heard enough by now.

SPOILER WARNING

Below, I mention a few specific instances in the book, ones that may spoil it for you. As far as unspoiled goes, this review is finished. If you plan to read this book and do not wish to be spoiled, this is your fair warning to turn back now.

As soon as the time turner was mentioned, it was obvious where the story was headed. We’ve heard or seen the story before. Our main character(s) find a way to time travel, they try to alter the past, it yields an unexpected past (loved ones separated, like Ron and Hermione, someone disappeared like Rose, political system twisted) that the protagonist must work to fix, learning along the way that the path time has followed is the best, or necessary, one.

Can someone, anyone, please explain to me why writers feel the need to include prophecies? I can’t be the only one tired with the prophecy device. If a prophecy can be broken, can it really be described as a prophecy? On the other hand, this could explain why much of the magical community (in the HP-verse) looks down on divination and seers, like Sybill Trelawney. What if seers really see a fragmented future, all the possible routes the universe can take, and one vision only leaves after a choice closes it? Is a prophecy, or anything a seer says, only one of those possible futures, the one they deem to be the most probable?

“Sybil Trelawney has predicted the death of a student a year. None of them has died yet,” Minerva Mcgonagall said (was that just in the movie, not the book? I don’t remember). Could Trelawney actually see these students’ deaths, narrowly missed by some spontaneous choice? Am I overthinking this? Probably. Point is—I have not found an instance yet where I think the use of a prophecy enriched the story.