Grab your wands, don your robes, and rejoice! After almost ten years, J.K. Rowling has gifted us a new Harry Potter book. Get ready for some spoilers and midnight release party fun as I discuss Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II.
I remember the midnight release for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Everyone was excited for a new adventure, but there was also a deep, heavy, melancholy in the air. Some people even cried as they clutched their book to their chest, because it was to be the very last… or so they thought.
The Party
Inkwood Bookstore in Haddonfield, New Jersey, showed why independent bookstores are awesome. This was my fourth midnight release event for a Potter book, and it turned out to be the best. They committed to the night like Hermione commits to schoolwork.
Fred and George Weasley were the highlight of the evening.
They hosted activities like a Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans tasting and Fortune Telling Fizzers . I was very lucky with both. I got a non-gross, lovely tasting, peach jelly bean, and my soda turned yellow which means I am going to live a long life.
I didn’t make out as well with the potion mixing. My potion tasted like a weird, cold, beef gravy.
I was delighted that one of my favorite characters, Professor Snape, joined us for the evening.
Some of the other activities included, coloring pages and word searches. There was trivia, and the Muggle Wall, where you were invited to write what Harry Potter means to you. The bookstore was planning to take pictures of the writings to send to Scholastic.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Harry Potter event without Butter Beer.
It’s so much fun to geek out with people from one of your chosen fandoms. It was a great time. Everyone was having so much fun in fact, it was a surprise when the announcement came that it was already midnight. This time around, books were clutched to chests filled with hope, hope that since the last book wasn’t the very last, this book would not be the last either.
The Book
***I am about to reveal some major spoilers. If you want to know nothing about the book, read no further. You have been warned.
As Scorpius Malfoy said,
“My geekness is a-quivering.” This is exactly how I felt opening up Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II. It felt exactly like reconnecting with a best friend that you have not seen in a really long time. It was revisiting a place I despondently missed.
Plot
Albus Severus Potter, is the black sheep of his family, or more correctly, the silver snake of his family. He finds it impossible to live up to the expectations put upon him because he is Harry Potter’s son. Instead of embracing what makes him different, Albus develops a deep resentment towards his father. Feeling that Harry isn’t the good guy everyone says he is, Albus decides to take it upon himself to right one of the deaths caused by The Boy Who Lived. After acquiring an illegal Time-Turner, Albus, along with his best friend, Scorpius Malfoy, learn why you don’t mess with time. Their actions create alternate realities that erase the existence of those they love, and destroy the world as they know it.
If you are the type of person who does not like time travel stories, you are going be very unhappy. If you like time travel stories however, you are in for a treat. It was incredibly fun to see alternate realities played out with the Potter characters, new, and old. Speaking of old, it was a bit strange seeing the trio living their This is 40 lives. Harry complaining about paperwork at his job, Ron going “ooof” whenever he sits, it took some time to ease into the idea of them being middle-aged adults.
The Best Bits
-I never thought a Malfoy would be my favorite character in a Harry Potter book, but I adored Scorpius Malfoy. He was witty, geeky, and never took himself too seriously. When needed, he dealt out sound advice, but never in a heavy handed way. He’s exactly the kind of person I like being friends with.
– The biggest disappointment for me of book seven, was that Draco Malfoy never had a come to Jesus moment. After Harry saved him from being burned to death, I thought that Draco would redeem himself, sadly he did not. For much of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, you still want to punch Draco in his smug, jerk, face, then things turn around just a bit. There is an amazing scene where Harry and Draco have a father to father heart to heart. Draco goes deep. He is honest about being jealous of the trio’s friendship. He confesses how lonely and isolated he felt as a boy. He also admits to hating his father. Then he flat out tells Harry that if Harry doesn’t get his dad act together, Albus is going to turn out just like Draco. By the end I started to soften towards Draco Malfoy.
-I absolutely loved the alternate reality scenarios. I would be happy to read entire books based in those realities. Although the realities are different, with different characters, there was a constant, Ron and Hermione. You would think you would get tired of Ron confessing his feelings for Hermione over and over again. I gushed with new happiness every single time.
-As one of those weird individuals who has a crush on Severus Snape, I was glad to see him again, and this time as the hero he always was. Of course it was equally heart-wrenching to see him die again.
-I know Bellatrix was evil and crazy, but she committed one hundred percent to her crazy evilness, and I respect her for that. She was intelligent, brave, and ambitious, she just happened to be on the wrong side. I was happy to see that she apparently did get her heart’s desire, a romance with Lord Voldemort. I would love a whole story just based around their secret love affair. I want to know all of the details about the Voldetrix relationship, wait, maybe not all of the details, they did have a secret love child, and that brings about some horrific mental imagines, all of the details, but that detail.
Conclusion
I loved this book! The thing that Harry Potter does the best is mix dark intensity, with hilarity. You’re laughing, while you’re simultaneously terrified. It’s a fabulous, emotional, roller coaster ride.
I desperately want to see the play.
There were so many scenes where all I could think was, how are they doing this live on a stage? Fingers crossed that it eventually makes its way to a theater a little closer to home.
I hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Harry Potter. Whether it’s Harry, Albus, little Lily, or perhaps even Scorpius Malfoy, hopefully a little divination would tell us that there are more Potter stories in our future.
