Harry Potter and the cursed child is not a novel, it's the script of a play. A novel is ultimate in itself, a script is bought to life only when the actors breathe life to the dialogues. I had to remind myself this every time I felt disappointed by the script. Because I found the script dry; they were just shadows of what was created in the earlier seven books. This said, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a must read for all Harry Potter fans. I needed to read about 20 pages or so to get used to the new writing style and soon I was hooked. By the time I had read about 50 pages, I was jumping with joy (actually READING with joy). But as I read further, Harry Potter and the cursed child really failed to add up to the earlier seven books, and this I say with a broken heart!
Harry, as a child was always given to self-doubts. As an adult too, he seems full of it. Infact, there is not much else to see of Harry Potter in this eighth book, which is surprising because the Harry we know was much more interesting. Albus, Harry's youngest son, has a difficult relationship with Harry; the book is mostly about the reconciliation between father and son. Ron is just a frivolous character who does not take himself seriously, which I found very surprising as earlier, among the three of them, it was Ron who took himself the most seriously! Earlier he would be often hurt, he would often sulk; now it seems like he is continuously on weeds, either oblivious or else not much bothered about what is happening around him. Hermione and her dialogues have lost the edge and the sharpness. If you ask me, it really didnot feel like it was JK Rowling who wrote any of this eighth book because she would have known better about the trio. The lesser said about Ginny, the better. Throughout the reading of the novel, I felt that now the characters are written by someone who has got the facts rights but totally missed the essence.
There are new characters. But we get to get familiar only with Albus and Scorpius, and Delphi. James, Lily, Rose and Hugo are not much to be seen. Harry's youngest son, Albus and Draco Malfoy's only son, Scorpius, strike up a friendship on their first train to Hogwarts ( just like Harry and Ron did,) and lead by Albus, they try to set things right. The adventure is great, there are alternate realities, there are time turners, there is deceit and there is victory. For any other book, it would have been enough. But for a Harry Potter book (and for me, as a reader) it was not enough because I really felt that the magic was missing.
And what happened to Hagrid? I understand that this book happens 20 years after the seventh book and it's understandable that the plot has moved on and many prime characters of the earlier books can now only be mentioned in passing. So I try not to mind when there is no mention of Mrs. Weasley or even George. But atleast Hagrid, of all people deserved some mention, some tit bits.
I would rate the book 3.5/5. I would rate all the other Harry Potter books 5/5.
Harry Potter is a world. The world of Harry Potter is an alternate reality for the fans. We know everything is just make believe fiction but we also know that if we say it exactly right and point the right way at the TV remote, when we say Wingardium Leviosa, the remote would float up in air. This faith has been instilled by the first Harry Potter book and further strengthened by the following six. Simply put, the eighth book fails to reinstate that faith on magic. I mean, I donot actually ever believed that the remote would float up, but I hope you know what I mean.
Though the Harry Potter's books started as fiction for children, they soon became favourites of adult readers. The novels were multi-layered, well-equipped to hold on the fantasy of adults. The eighth book is plainly single-layered and just juvenile, a mere child's play.
The hard bound cover of the book is great. We see a young child inside a snitch. I saw the cover and the first thing that came to my mind is the famous riddle from the seventh book: "I open at the close", thus immediately bringing back all the memories of the last book. If you remove the outer jacket, you can only see a golden snitch on the black hardcover, which look so great that you just want to hug the book one more time. Later, I can understand that the young child inside the snitch is probably Albus, fighting his inner turmoil. Why snitch though, it still baffles me.
This books seems to be written in a hurry, like a task that has to be completed within a deadline. There was no respite, no space to pause and marvel at the wonders and tragedy of Harry's world. Yet, I will cherish this book. Because, after all, I am a Harry Potter fan and I will gobble up almost anything that has Harry's name smeared on it. But I seriously doubt if this book will earn Harry any new fan or Albus many fans.
Harry, as a child was always given to self-doubts. As an adult too, he seems full of it. Infact, there is not much else to see of Harry Potter in this eighth book, which is surprising because the Harry we know was much more interesting. Albus, Harry's youngest son, has a difficult relationship with Harry; the book is mostly about the reconciliation between father and son. Ron is just a frivolous character who does not take himself seriously, which I found very surprising as earlier, among the three of them, it was Ron who took himself the most seriously! Earlier he would be often hurt, he would often sulk; now it seems like he is continuously on weeds, either oblivious or else not much bothered about what is happening around him. Hermione and her dialogues have lost the edge and the sharpness. If you ask me, it really didnot feel like it was JK Rowling who wrote any of this eighth book because she would have known better about the trio. The lesser said about Ginny, the better. Throughout the reading of the novel, I felt that now the characters are written by someone who has got the facts rights but totally missed the essence.
There are new characters. But we get to get familiar only with Albus and Scorpius, and Delphi. James, Lily, Rose and Hugo are not much to be seen. Harry's youngest son, Albus and Draco Malfoy's only son, Scorpius, strike up a friendship on their first train to Hogwarts ( just like Harry and Ron did,) and lead by Albus, they try to set things right. The adventure is great, there are alternate realities, there are time turners, there is deceit and there is victory. For any other book, it would have been enough. But for a Harry Potter book (and for me, as a reader) it was not enough because I really felt that the magic was missing.
And what happened to Hagrid? I understand that this book happens 20 years after the seventh book and it's understandable that the plot has moved on and many prime characters of the earlier books can now only be mentioned in passing. So I try not to mind when there is no mention of Mrs. Weasley or even George. But atleast Hagrid, of all people deserved some mention, some tit bits.
I would rate the book 3.5/5. I would rate all the other Harry Potter books 5/5.
Though the Harry Potter's books started as fiction for children, they soon became favourites of adult readers. The novels were multi-layered, well-equipped to hold on the fantasy of adults. The eighth book is plainly single-layered and just juvenile, a mere child's play.
The hard bound cover of the book is great. We see a young child inside a snitch. I saw the cover and the first thing that came to my mind is the famous riddle from the seventh book: "I open at the close", thus immediately bringing back all the memories of the last book. If you remove the outer jacket, you can only see a golden snitch on the black hardcover, which look so great that you just want to hug the book one more time. Later, I can understand that the young child inside the snitch is probably Albus, fighting his inner turmoil. Why snitch though, it still baffles me.
This books seems to be written in a hurry, like a task that has to be completed within a deadline. There was no respite, no space to pause and marvel at the wonders and tragedy of Harry's world. Yet, I will cherish this book. Because, after all, I am a Harry Potter fan and I will gobble up almost anything that has Harry's name smeared on it. But I seriously doubt if this book will earn Harry any new fan or Albus many fans.
