Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
While one might expect better from the beloved Harry Potter books, the latest continuation of the saga, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, fails to evoke the magical experience expected from the franchise.
Unlike its prose predecessors, The Cursed Child is the rehearsal script for the English stage play of the same name. J.K. Rowling and directors Jack Thorne and John Tiffany co-wrote the saga, but as a result, the story is robbed of Rowling’s writing voice that made the series so popular to begin with.
The eighth book in the Harry Potter series picks up right where the Deathly Hallows left off — in the epilogue scene where a much older Harry is sending off his children to Hogwarts. In this future, Harry is an overworked auror, Hermione has become the Minister of Magic, and Ron has taken over Fred and George’s joke shop. But the story’s primary focus is the children. The Cursed Child revolves around the adventures of Harry’s youngest son, Albus Potter, and his best friend, Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius is plagued with a unsettling rumor about his birth, while Albus struggles to live up to his father’s image.
The major weakness to the book is the plot. While traditionally Harry Potter books have exciting, twisting storylines, the play’s plot is uninspiring — two teenage misfits journey on a quest to prove themselves and the sour relationship between a father and son (Albus and Harry). The book is also plagued with unneeded cameos such as the reintroduction of Snape and Dumbledore. The one newly introduced character, Delphi Diggory, is static throughout the entire read. Even the existing characters seem alien (Ron). Harry takes on a darker image in the book, going as far as wishing that his son wasn’t his. Ronald, on the other hand, becomes a goofy dad that is constantly joking around — a complete opposite to his brave and clever image in the previous books.
This is all only made worse by the fact that this book does not feel like a true continuation to the Harry Potter series, and this is especially due to the absence of Rowling’s writing voice. In the past, each new book introduced new elements of the wizarding world.
In The Cursed Child, nothing new is introduced, and many existing elements are reused in the same way. Everything from setting descriptions to character interactions comes off as ingenuine.
The absence of Rowling’s voice overall causes the newest book to feel more like well-written fan fiction than an actual Harry Potter book.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child seems like a half-hearted attempt to revive the series rather than the true eighth story of the series. While the story as an actual play would be excellent, in the literary world, the book falls short. In an age where throwback TV series and “everything retro” are making their way back into the mainstream, The Cursed Child, is definitely on the disappointing end of things. Those who expect the same quality and fantastic storytelling as the books before it will come away unsatisfied.
