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reubenhcomic 's review for:
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two
by J.K. Rowling
As a child, like most of my peers, I really loved the Harry Potter novels. As they were released in successive years, I was always about the same age as the main characters as they made their way through their school careers and beyond. This really made Harry Potter and his friends feel like more than fictional characters, but rather real people who were growing up alongside you.
This new story, set twenty years later, allows us to revisit our old friends (and enemies) and find out what they've been up to. What are they doing now? How they have grown? What's changed? What hasn't?
Harry and Hermione, predictably, are the real winners of this school reunion - Both having achieved high positions in The Ministry of Magic, and happily married to Ginny and Ron Weasly respectively. Ron, if anything, has become more of a class clown. But this is appropriate given his career running his brothers' old joke shop. Both couples also have a collection of children to introduce to us. Harry and Ginny's troubled middle child Albus is the one this story revolves around.
It seems being the son of the most famous hero in the wizarding world isn't necessarily as easy as you might think. Harry struggles to connect with him, and his difficulties at school lead him and his best friend Scorpius to a drastic course of action that has potentially very dark consequences.
The boys' series of mistakes and attempts to rectify them will lead them to some familiar locations and characters.
I wasn't sure about this story at first. I, like Harry, found it difficult to identify with Albus. I couldn't get behind the choices he was making, and this was pulling me out of the story. I wonder though if this is because we so used to experiencing the wizarding world from Harry's perspective, that rather than accepting Albus as the centre of this story, we adopt a parental attitude - still seeing him through his father's eyes, questioning his choices, and worrying about the consequences.
I got past this eventually though. Albus' motivations become more clear throughout the book, and I warmed to him as a character.
Another issue I had with the first half of the play: at some points the plot felt like an elaborate excuse to give the reader/audience a greatest hits of the Harry Potter novels, plus one or two 'what if' fantasy scenarios. But as the final acts come around, the story is resolved with a satisfying depth
It's important to remember that Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is a play, not a novel. Part of me worried that reading the book would spoil the experience of watching the play. Actually I think it has had the opposite effect - the ambitious sets, special effects and stage directions described in the script have just made me more curious to see the play performed. If the play can be realised on stage even remotely as it's written, then it promises to be a truly magical experience. - If you're lucky enough to score a ticket at least!
This new story, set twenty years later, allows us to revisit our old friends (and enemies) and find out what they've been up to. What are they doing now? How they have grown? What's changed? What hasn't?
Harry and Hermione, predictably, are the real winners of this school reunion - Both having achieved high positions in The Ministry of Magic, and happily married to Ginny and Ron Weasly respectively. Ron, if anything, has become more of a class clown. But this is appropriate given his career running his brothers' old joke shop. Both couples also have a collection of children to introduce to us. Harry and Ginny's troubled middle child Albus is the one this story revolves around.
It seems being the son of the most famous hero in the wizarding world isn't necessarily as easy as you might think. Harry struggles to connect with him, and his difficulties at school lead him and his best friend Scorpius to a drastic course of action that has potentially very dark consequences.
The boys' series of mistakes and attempts to rectify them will lead them to some familiar locations and characters.
I wasn't sure about this story at first. I, like Harry, found it difficult to identify with Albus. I couldn't get behind the choices he was making, and this was pulling me out of the story. I wonder though if this is because we so used to experiencing the wizarding world from Harry's perspective, that rather than accepting Albus as the centre of this story, we adopt a parental attitude - still seeing him through his father's eyes, questioning his choices, and worrying about the consequences.
I got past this eventually though. Albus' motivations become more clear throughout the book, and I warmed to him as a character.
Another issue I had with the first half of the play: at some points the plot felt like an elaborate excuse to give the reader/audience a greatest hits of the Harry Potter novels, plus one or two 'what if' fantasy scenarios. But as the final acts come around, the story is resolved with a satisfying depth
It's important to remember that Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is a play, not a novel. Part of me worried that reading the book would spoil the experience of watching the play. Actually I think it has had the opposite effect - the ambitious sets, special effects and stage directions described in the script have just made me more curious to see the play performed. If the play can be realised on stage even remotely as it's written, then it promises to be a truly magical experience. - If you're lucky enough to score a ticket at least!