Hello everyone!
Well.. Here we go! We are going to write, like many others before us, a HP and TCC review! You can read without fear there are not spoilers... Yet.
We have decided the book of this month is going to be Harry Potter and The Cursed Child (we bet you hadn't guessed that, did you?😂). How could we not dedicate this month to the eight HP book? Even if it is a theatre scrip and was written by more people than J.K Rowling herself we, as true Potterheads (Harry Potter fans) , had to read it! And a week after its release here we are, having not only acquired it but also having read it (that is a huge thing because we had to skip a lot of other titles in our "To read" list so we could read it and write this post on time, feel honoured dear readers😜).
We are going to start this post like we usually do: the title, the photo, a short summary, a link to our recommendation page where you can find more information...:
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child
Summary: It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
Read more on the recommendation page!
But as it is a great occasion (we all thought there wasn't going to be another HP book) we are going to give you a review with our thoughts about the book too. We will warn you before the spoilers start so you don't need to worry.
The first word that comes to our mind after having read the book is...disappointment, because... Really J.K Rowling, really? couldn't you do any better?
We, as her fans, are sure she could!
To be fair it is a theatre play so it wasn't written to be read like a novel. We are sure the play has to be great and it must definitely be worth it but... As far as the plot goes we were quite disappointed.
It is not bad for a play! It's just not good enough. If it was a fan fiction it would be a great one but it is not a fanfic, it is the eight official HP story! So we are not satisfied with it at all. It is true that we discover some canon (official facts told by the author) facts about Harry's life after the books but most of them we already knew of as J.K Rowling had told a lot of them in Pottermore over the years, (we will write a post about those facts in the near future).
--------HUGE SPOILERS START HERE (you can continue to read without spoilers later on-----
We should also point out that we see lots of clichés during this story... Time travelling, really? There are lots, and when we say lots we mean an awful lot, of fanfics about it (some of them really well thought and well written.)
When it first appeared in HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban time travelling was seen as a mayor plothole so lots of people asked J.K Rowling about it and her answer was:
"I went far too light-heartedly into the subject of time travel in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While I do not regret it (Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favourite books in the series), it opened up a vast number of problems for me, because after all, if wizards could go back and undo problems, where were my future plots? I solved the problem to my own satisfaction in stages. Firstly, I had Dumbledore and Hermione emphasise how dangerous it would be to be seen in the past, to remind the reader that there might be unforeseen and dangerous consequences as well as solutions in time travel. Secondly, I had Hermione give back the only Time-Turner ever to enter Hogwarts. Thirdly, I smashed all remaining Time-Turners during the battle in the Department of Mysteries, removing the possibility of reliving even short periods in the future." (source Pottermore)
She also said, with her character Professor Saul Croaker, that "The longest period that may be relived without the possibility of serious harm to the traveller or to time itself is around five hours. We have been able to encase single Hour-Reversal Charms, which are unstable and benefit from containment, in small, enchanted hour-glasses that may be worn around a witch or wizard’s neck and revolved according to the number of hours the user wishes to relive. All attempts to travel back further than a few hours have resulted in catastrophic harm to the witch or wizard involved. It was not realised for many years why time travellers over great distances never
survived their journeys. All such experiments have been abandoned since 1899, when Eloise Mintumble became trapped, for a period of five days, in the year 1402. Now we understand that her body had aged five centuries in its return to the present and, irreparably damaged, she died in St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries shortly after we managed to retrieve her. What is more, her five days in the distant past caused great disturbance to the life paths of all those she met, changing the course of their lives so dramatically that no fewer than twenty-five of their descendants vanished in the present, having been “un-born”." (Source Pottermore)
Then how did the time turner even exist? If there are so many drawbacks and it is so difficult to travel back in time how is it that no one is surprised that they can go back that far? And they can make two time turner like that? It doesn't make much sense. Also Albus is only injured, not killed for making such a big time journey, this doesn't make any sense!
The second, and biggest cliché is Delphi's real parentage. We don't know if it is a reference to Star Wars or if it is just plain copying but, there is even a scene with the revelation that looks surprisingly similar to the I am your father scene of Star Wars just read for yourselves:
“VOLDEMORT (interrupting): I see what you are, and I see what you could be.
Daughter.
She looks at him, desperately moved.
DELPHI: Father?”
Yes, we know that he isn't really Voldemort and that this isn't actually a real encounter but.. Really the evil character has a child he doesn't know about or the child doesn't know his true parentage cliché?
We are not satisfied either about the way that Albus and Harry relationship is portrayed, at all! We can understand that Harry might not be winning the best father of the year award, that he might get frustrated, and that Albus might feel like an outcast but really? If you are a teenager and you are mad at your dad you don't wait three years until you finally blow up (we are teenagers ourselves we would know). And you don't do it in a so convenient way that he loses it and tells you he wished you weren't his son and this conversation acts like a catalyst to the whole plot! Come on!
And talking about that discussion, why doesn't Harry feel a bit hurt about Albus, "I wish I wasn't your son" declarations? And why doesn't Albus apologise later on about his words? Because it wasn't convenient to the plot? Really?
We were also quite disappointed in the fact that the Magical World is still extremely prejudiced and that Rose Weasley (and the other Weasleys and Potters) doesn't do
anything to help one member of her own family whom she was friends with while he is being bullied (Al), only for being in a different house! This doesn't add up with the Weasley family spirit (although it is true that when Percy left the family they also acted like he didn't exist) or the fact that Hermione, the girl that fought for the house Elves rights and was bullied herself, is her mother. She should have known better. We can understand that Rose might be petty and mean, but we think it's just that the authors had to find a way to let us see that Albus was truly alone. That a character such as Rose had to be portrayed this way for it saddens us.
We still don't understand why does Harry scar hurt again or why does he get those dreams, as terrifying that the idea of Voldemort ( we guess the mother is Bellatrix but we don't really know for sure) having a child is it shouldn't suddenly hurt Harry or make him able to speak parseltongue again, which is really convenient for the "Father-daughter" scene. And if the reason is really the existence of Delphi... Why didn't it hurt before? Is it like an alarm? It hurts when something bad is going to happen? Because that would be ridiculous but it looks like it might be the case.
We were also left with a really big question... Where is Teddy Lupin?? Because he sure isn't around nor is he mentioned! We wanted to see Teddy!
Another quite big misunderstanding during the story was the relationship between
Albus and Scorpius, are they friends or not? We leave you these images we found in tumblr by
unformerjohnlocker so you can judge.
On the other hand, we are finishing our rant now, don't worry, not everything is negative, we were left with some very good quotes and were able to see/read Severus Snape and Cedrid Digory again!
-------Spoilers end here------
Maybe we are being too harsh and if J.K Rowling were to narrate the play in her writing style we would fall in love with it, even if the plot looks like something a fan fiction writer would write, but it is our personal opinion.
What did you think about HP and the cursed child? Let us know in the comments! Or in google plus or Instagram!
Thanks for reading us!
