Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne

330 Pages

Rating 5/5 (I'd give it more if I could!)

Buy it: thebookdepository

More info: goodreads

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the newest addition to the Harry Potter world, this time in the format of a play script. It returns back to the world we know and love, only this time we meet the familiar characters 20 years later and see how their lives have progressed. The story focuses mainly on the younger generation of Potters, Granger-Weasleys and Malfoys, with the characters from the main series playing important but not central roles. 

This latest release has been met with a lot of mixed feelings. First of all, before reading this please bear in mind that it is a script and should be read as such. If you pick it up expecting to return back to the wizarding world of Harry Potter exactly as you knew it in the same format you will definitely be disappointed. I've seen a fair few people leaving less than positive reviews mainly due to them reading it as a novel and not reading it as what it is. 

Although people generally seem unhappy with the new format, I personally really enjoyed it. I've done a lot of drama and theatre since I was little so I'm extremely familiar with reading scripts which may have contributed to this, but the main reason I enjoyed the format so much was that it let me fly through the story in a few hours. I found it to be incredibly visual and it played out in my head like a film rather than how a book normally would. To be the format was definitely a positive, however I can understand that its the type of thing I think people will either love or hate.

As for the story and plot, again I really enjoyed it. There were aspects I wish we had seen more of but recognising the limited amount of time due to it being a play, I thought the writers did the best with what space they had. Had it been a book I'm sure lots of the little bits would have been developed much further, however I can see why they couldn't be.

By far the stand out character of this newest addition to the Harry Potter world is Scorpious Malfoy. I really enjoyed getting to see a good slytherin character and I liked the fact he wasn't at all what you would aspect based on prior knowledge of his father and even grandfather. He made mistakes and felt realistic for doing so. Although Scorpious is by far my favourite character in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I really enjoyed re-visiting the characters we know and love. While there were some key characters missing from even being mentioned (such as the Weasleys other than Ron and Ginny) it was nice to see how the majority of them have grown over the years in which we've not seen them. I loved that Rose Granger-Weasley was exactly like her mother and I liked that Albus wasn't a carbon copy of either of his parents. 

Similarly, I really loved that some of the iconic scenes from the main series were re-visited or mentioned. The battle of Hogwarts comes up in conversation several times and seeing the aftermath of it was really interesting. I absolutely loved the depth we see from re-visting other specific scenes, however I won't mention which scenes to avoid spoilers (if you've read it you'll know which ones I mean, particularly those towards the end). 

Overall I absolutely loved this. I understand that its not the same as the original series but despite this I thought it was brilliant. It was an incredibly visual return to the world I love so much and I think its a must read for any Potter fans itching to know what happened next, even if it turns out to not quite be your thing. 

Have you read it yet? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!

Lucy x