Image Credit: amazon.com
“Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.”
~J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne
After quite a bit of skepticism, I bit the bullet and purchased a copy of my own on Monday, August 8th. I took the day off from work to celebrate my birthday. My first stop when I arrived at MacArthur Mall in Norfolk was the massive Barnes & Noble.
The first chance I got to really start reading was on Sunday, August 14th. I needed to put my feet up for a while after cleaning the house from top to bottom, in preparation for having family over for the first time for a real meal!
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I took a photo of the cover, posted that to Facebook, and promptly dove in.
About 45 minutes later, I had to resurface (with great reluctance!) to the real world to make the final preps for our guests, but in that short period of time, I had already flown through 135 pages. At that point, I was almost at the end of Act II.
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Yesterday, Monday, August 15th, I desperately wanted to make more headway after a very long day at work.
After dinner, by the time 8:00 p.m. rolled around last night, I was finished.
I was astonished.
I had plowed through all 308 pages, all four acts, in a little over two hours.
As I called out to Al that I was finished, I was stunned.
He sat down on the living room couch, looked at me, and said, “How was it?”
Okay. You’ve made it this far.
SPOILER ALERT!
If you haven’t yet read Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, I would strongly advise / encourage you to scroll down, until you reach the place where I indicate the spoilers have ended.
Look for an image of a wand.
Okay?
Here we go!
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I didn’t dislike it.
I certainly didn’t hate it!
I was shocked at how fast I read through it.
But, it is a script. It’s not a novel.
I liked how the writers formed the script. I was very happy that the story continued, virtually seamlessly, from the end of Deathly Hallows.
As I started, I found myself overcome with memories – Memories of first reading the books. Memories of seeing the movies.
I was transported to those magical worlds again, and they didn’t let me go. I couldn’t put it down. Despite several challenges and objections to plot points, I wanted to keep reading, to find out everything that was going on.
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My only true preconception going into this experience was I thought I had figured out who “The Cursed Child” was.
I originally thought it was one of Harry and Ginny’s children, or possibly Ron and Hermoine’s child, Rose.
Boy, was I mistaken.
I wasn’t fully expecting Voldemort to return, let alone for Delphi to be his DAUGHTER.
But it was a wonderful mistake, in a way. It made the magic even more magical, if that’s such a thing.
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In attempting to vocalize my feelings with Al, almost immediately after reading “The End,” I didn’t quite know how I felt about all of this.
Thinking about it in a broad sense, I enjoyed the story. Overall, I liked what they did with it.
I’m very glad it wasn’t just Rowling who was involved.
It had similar amounts of action, dialogue, drama, tragedy, and happiness as the previous stories.
That said, it was not one of Rowling’s novels. That was actually refreshing. It was nice to fly through a script so quickly, rather than sometimes being buried in detail-laden chapters that seem to never end.
I appreciated the attention given to the characters, both old and new. I was very pleased, and surprised, that Scorpius Malfoy was featured as a central character. As much as I hated Draco’s character in the earlier books and movies, I was happy that Scorpius, Draco, and Astoria were so prominent in this story.
The twists and turns were fun, although frustrating at times. Facing dark and light were expected, and the writers certainly delivered.
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My main complaint with the script was attempting to keep up with all the flashbacks, and dream sequences, and time-turning. It seemed constant. It was tough to keep up.
There were multiple instances where I had to slow down, re-read several passages, and find my footing again before continuing. It happened more than I would have liked, and it got annoying very quickly.
However, I appreciated that each scene had its appropriate header. If I ever got truly confused, I had that ability to turn back a few pages and find my footing with the scene heading. I didn’t like that, though.
I wasn’t thrilled with the idea that Albus and Scorpius were hell-bent, determined to save Cedric with the Time-Turner. But, that’s what happens when two kids get ideas in their heads that they think are good and brilliant. However, I liked, toward the end, when the two of them admitted that those ideas were absolutely ridiculous.
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I felt sad when I closed the book, but I also felt feelings of warmth and happiness.
As I pictured the last scene in my head, the story just ended. But, remembering that it’s a script, and being performed as a play, I appreciated the image of Harry and Albus, together, remembering Cedric.
Part of me wants more stories in the future, but part of me is also satisfied with this script. It was a sunset ending. It was tough to swallow at first, but stories like this can’t always be carried on for forever.
In terms of waiting so many years for this script to be released, it feels a bit lacking. However, with that said, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, and I was skeptical from the time that the announcement was made – Despite being a huge fan of the original books.
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SPOILERS END.
Image Credit: universalorlando.com
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Final Thoughts:
Overall, it was a good read.
I’m happy that I decided to ignore the skepticism and read it for myself.
It was a good story, and I’m glad it was written and shared. Part of me wants to see the play, but I’m also satisfied with having the chance to read the script.
I look forward to sharing this experience with my husband, and then my future child/children.
Once a Potter fan, always a Potter fan.
Always.
4 out of 5 stars.
Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂
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