‘Harry Potter & The Cursed Child’ Review: A Bewitching Story Worth The 9 Year Wait

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Save your ‘Avada Kedavra’ for someone else; I’m already DEAD. After nearly a decade, my fellow Potterheads and I finally have our hands on a new Harry Potter story straight from J.K. Rowling. Grab a Butterbeer and hear how ‘Harry Potter & The Cursed Child’ is going to blow your mind!

First of all, let’s just get this out of the way now: Yes, I did stay up all night to read all 320 pages like it was 2007 again. I regret nothing. Also, there are some mild SPOILERS ahead; if you want to read about the real big, HUGE spoiler, then you can CLICK HERE.

But back to the book. The Cursed Child is the perfect compliment to the Harry Potter series in so many ways, it’s hard to know where to begin. Well, first, I suppose it’s prudent to explain that the Cursed Child is actually a play, so the ‘book’ is really a script, and it reads as such. And here lies my only complaint: All the magic of J.K Rowling‘s prose is gone, and yes, it does leave something to be desired when diving into the story. I missed the little things. Like the quickie-mention of a textbook that years later is now spin-off franchise.

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Still, while the reading experience might’ve been different, all the feelings of reading a new HP story were the same. And what a story to tell! Everything picks up right where we left Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione last. It’s been 19 years since the fall of Voldemort and the gang’s  sending their kids off to Hogwarts, some for the very first time. Harry’s youngest son, Albus Severus Potter, is apprehensive and nervous, but just like his father, he meets his first real friend on the train to school. Unlike his father, his first friend is a Malfoy — Scorpius Malfoy, to be exact.

Oh yes, there’s no sense in ‘Keeping the Secrets’ now — we all have access to the book, even if we can’t get to the play. Still, rather than fangirl over the many, many, many, MANY twists of this incredible story, I want to commend the team of Jo, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany for basically evolving my favorite Potter book and making it relatable to someone who has grown with the series. I speak, of course, of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, a story about the importance of family, friends, and respecting the real power of magic. 

Harry, Hermione and Ron are still who they’ve always been, even as adults. It was a comfort to read how Hermione, the beauty/brainiac we all secretly wish to be, is now the most powerful women in all the wizarding world as the Minister for Magic. It was a delight to know that Ron, even after all he’s been through, can still crack an inappropriate joke when it’s needed. And Harry — poor, poor Harry — he’s still not seeking out the trouble, but it sure as hell still finds him. Voldemort may be gone, but he’ll never be forgotten, and that causes so many, many problems for the Boy Who Lived, as well as the next generation.

Speaking of which, the new kids on the block, while lacking the instant appeal of the original trio, really start to grow on you as the story goes on. Yes, as someone who grew up with the story, I came for Harry and his friends, but by Part Two, I was all about the buddy duo of Albus and Scorpious, two Slytherin boys who prove that belonging to the Hogwarts House of green and silver really is for cunning, resourceful students.

Overall, I’m on board for this next era of the wizarding world, if this is the direction we’re going. Cursed Child is an epic story filled with heart, adventure and all the magic I loved from the time I was 11 years old until now.

HollywoodLifers, did you stay up all night to read the book like you were 11 again? Did it give you all the feels???