harry potter and the cursed child book review

Much to Harry’s dismay, Albus quickly bonds with Scorpius over their respective father issues and the fact that both of them are outcasts at Hogwarts (where Albus is startled to find himself sent by the Sorting Hat into the House of Slytherin).Īlbus resents being the son of “the Chosen One,” and he’s increasingly filled with anger at the expectations placed on him. There are growing tensions not only between Harry and Albus but also between Draco and the insecure Scorpius, who, we learn early on, is actually rumored to be Voldemort’s secret son.

This book version of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is the script of the hit play that just opened in London.ĭumbledore, like Sirius Black, is one of several father figures to Harry, and the Oedipal father-son dynamic is central to “Cursed Child,” much the way the Luke Skywalker-Darth Vader relationship is central to the “Star Wars” films. Rowling’s novels, but she did such a remarkable job in those volumes conjuring a fictional universe that this play nimbly sustains itself simply by situating its canny story line in that world and remaining true to its characters and rules. The script is missing the fully imagined, immersive amplitude of Ms. Thorne and the director John Tiffany), the play picks up where the last novel, “ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (2007), left off, and it flashes forward to Albus’s later years at Hogwarts. Written by the playwright Jack Thorne (and based on an original story by Ms. This book version of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is the script of the hit play that just opened in London, and even though it lacks the play’s much-talked-about special effects, it turns out to be a compelling, stay-up-all-night read. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is about the journey Albus takes while growing up, and the roles he and his best friend, Scorpius (Draco Malfoy’s son), play when dark forces, perhaps in league with Voldemort, once again threaten the fate of the planet. More important, we get to see Harry as a father - and his teenage son Albus’s efforts to cope with the suffocating expectations that come with having a famous father. Now, in a play set 19 years later, we get to see how this legendary hero has settled into middle age as a civil servant in London, working at the Ministry of Magic. In the course of those books, we see a plucky schoolboy, torn by adolescent doubts and confusions, grow into an epic hero, kin to King Arthur, Luke Skywalker and Spider-Man. Rowling’s magical seven-volume Harry Potter series is the ultimate bildungsroman, tracing that young wizard’s coming of age, as he not only battles evil but also struggles to come to terms with the responsibilities, losses and burdens of adulthood.

Harry potter and the cursed child book review