I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that one of the highlights of my summer was the release of the new Harry Potter book.  I went all of for the premiere of the new story, which may or may not have included dressing up like a wizard.

Once I bought my very own copy of The Cursed Child, I raced home to read.  I honestly don’t remember the last time in which I was this excited to read. On the way home I couldn’t stop thinking about J.K. Rowling’s words, “This is the Harry Potter for the next generation.”

However, my excitement died down as I eagerly flipped open to the first page.  Expecting a book, I was pretty disappointed when I found that it was a playwright.  It was the last thing I was expecting to find.  But I believed in Rowling’s writing, so I read and read and could not stop reading.

All that being said, here are my opinions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

With J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany teaming up to write the new Harry Potter, expectations are high.  After all, Harry Potter has been “translated into 68 languages” and “have sold more than 400 million copies” (Scholastic.com).

Although the story line itself contains a great idea, following the life of Harry’s youngest son, and his journey through Hogwarts; as well as Harry’s adjustment to a job after being the chosen one.  It contains some flaws.

The biggest of these flaws being that it tries too hard to play homage to the original series.  It involves the return of beloved characters including but not limited to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Malfoy, and Neville.  Some of these characters, however, need to be left behind, such as McGonagall, Cedric Diggory  and Voldemort.  

The authors try too hard to include jokes and stories from the original, often at the expense of flow.  I can’t even count the number of times in which someone says, “Dumbledore’s beard!”

As all of these characters are included, some of their actions seem unnatural.  Take Ron for example, he’s often only used as the comic relief (not surprising as he becomes the owner of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes).  But his jokes are often misplaced and bizarre, which once more takes away from the overall flow of the story.

All of this being said, there are some pretty amazing parts to the story as well.  My favorite of all being that the characters are just as human as the rest of us.  Harry is seen as a struggling father who hasn’t mastered the art of parenting.  It’s an incredible idea to know that our heroes have muggle problems as well.

I also enjoyed the character development as well.  Often times when one just reads a play, it’s hard to see the characters develop and mature, yet the authors do a wonderful job.

Overall, I’d rate the book a 3.4 / 5.  Although it brings a new chapter to the Harry Potter story, it often tries to hard to be the originals, and in doing so it disrupts Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from being its own stand alone story.