A Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a difficult review for me to make. On the one hand, I was extremely excited for it. Another chance to enter the magic? Yes please! On the other hand, I had severe reservations about it. Not only was it not written by Jo herself, but it didn't concentrate on Harry and the gang and I can only read it in script form (I am very much a novel person, I enjoy that style of writing and storytelling). I finally read it and those mixed feelings haven't gone away.

In many ways, I quite enjoyed The Cursed Child. It had many of the elements that made the Harry Potter series so amazing from the start (although many of these elements are probably much more impressive if you actually get to see the play). The new characters that the story revolved around were quite likeable – Scorpius in particular stole my heart. I also enjoyed seeing a glimpse into what the future was like for the golden trio and other favourites from the original series.

However, there are many aspects that felt entirely off to me as well. I fully admit that part of the issue may be the fact that I'm reading the play rather than watching it as intended. This is unfortunate, but doesn't change my opinions about the story in general. The first problem that I had was that Albus was sorted into Slytherin. I don't know if J.K. Rowling had confirmed this (if she has, please let me know!), but I myself always just assumed that he would be sorted into Gryffindor (as had everyone else that I talked to). While this isn't a huge problem, it started my entire reading of the play with the feeling that everything was off. The time travel aspect also presented many problems. Readers were given a clear set of 'rules' regarding the Time-Turners in the series which were all completely thrown out the window in The Cursed Child. Suddenly there were some that could take you back longer in time, causing numerous issues and multiple different timelines, ultimately ending in a pretty confusing story. The biggest problem to me though was the fact that Bellatrix and Voldemort had a child together. That type of relationship seems completely out of character for Voldemort who has always only cared about himself. Voldemort having a child was completely out-of-the-blue and uncharacteristic of him that this, more than anything else, showed that this was not a story written by Rowling. And let's not even talk about the trolley lady and her hands – that was probably the weirdest thing I have ever read in my life.

Overall, I didn't hate the story but I also didn't love it. As a continuation of the Harry Potter series, it is disastrous. So many things that made the world of Harry Potter so special were destroyed in this (as other reviewers also say) piece of fan fiction. While the characters have the same names, they are not the same at all. However, if we completely ignore the Harry Potter universe and read this story as though these are all new characters in a new world it actually isn't bad. The story itself is interesting and entertaining enough that I kept reading it – even when I was thrown off from the inconsistencies from the original series. I only wish that I was able to see the play so that I could give a more fair review to the story.


What are your views on the story? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments.

Rated: 3.5/5

Mischief Managed! ;)