Having ‘grown’ up with Harry Potter, considering I read my first one when I was merely 13 and my last one when I was 18, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to re-enter the magical world, J K Rowling so convincingly created for millions, children and adults alike.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child picks up from exactly where the last book left off, (19 years later) with Harry Potter and the old gang (i.e Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco) now sending off their own children to Hogwarts. Life has moved on after the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry is now an auror with the Ministry of Magic.
Meanwhile, his son Albus is struggling under the weight of a family legacy he never wanted, which is causing a strain between the father and son.
To make matters worse, he is sorted into Slytherin and his only friend is a Malfoy. There are a few time jumps and then complications arise because of an illegal time turner which gets seized from Theodore Nott. What ensues is a tale where the past and the present fuse, and Harry and his son Albus learn that darkness comes from the most unexpected places.
The format is decidedly different from the previous books and it takes awhile to get accustomed to it, but I’m sure this makes more sense in a play where the story unravels through dialogue. Because of this, everything is left to the reader to interpret, and I fear that some of the nuances of the actor’s performance and dialogue delivery may get lost in text.
This is definitely a darker story, where the emphasis is on relationships and conflicts between family rather than being just about the world of ‘magic’.Some of the most well written scenes are the ones between father and son, namely, Harry and Albus and Draco and Scorpius. One remembers Draco as the entitled and arrogant son of Lucius Malfoy, but in this, he is a concerned father who is fiercely protective of his son and this transition of his character was, for me, one of the surprises in the book.
I have mixed feelings about it, part of me enjoyed it but it also felt a bit unnecessary. While this is a good read in its own right, with some unexpected plot twists to keep one gripped, I truly feel that in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling gave us the perfect ending, it truly came full circle, so did we really need this? I’m not too sure.