#BookWorm: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Hello fellow readers,

The book I checked off my list last was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by JK Rowling. Yeah I know, I'm super behind the times as this book came out last summer. However, I have had it on my shelf for a while, and finally had time to crack it open. This book follows Albus, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's youngest son, who is sorted into Slytherin on his first day at Hogwarts. He becomes friends with Scorpius Malfoy, son of Harry's foe in the original HP series, and the two try to take on dark forces at work together. One day Albus overhears Cedric Diggory's father talking to Harry about how his son should have been saved, and after stumbling across a time turner Albus and Scorpius travel through time to save Cedric from his lowly fate. However interfering with time makes things messy, and changes many people's fate. They have to decide between changing the world to bring back Cedric, or leaving his father depressed and alone without a son. Of course they run into some more important characters from the past HP books along the way, making their journey even more complicated than originally anticipated.

This book was an easy read to me, especially compared to the later Harry Potter books that seemed to be hard to follow unless you sat down and read it straight in the summertime. I had no problem reading the play format, as many people stated was annoying to read. I also had no trouble finishing it quickly, as a lot of people I talked to said they got uninterested in the middle and stopped there. I did however find most of the themes a repeat from the original series, i.e. the time turner in The Prisoner of Azkaban, reliving the death of Cedric in The Goblet of Fire, and many more. It wasn't super original and exciting to me. It did make me want to see the play, but sounded more like something that would be done at Universal Studious not a Broadway production. Overall I would say it is a 6/10. Wasn't a terrible sequel to the series, but was nowhere near comparable to the original books. Not even close. But it does answer some questions that readers or fans of the movies may have asked at the end of the original series.

I have already picked up a new book and am working my way through it. This summer seems to be flying by and my free time has been quite limited as I am almost constantly busy at work, therefore exhausted when I get home and don't have energy to read. But I do try my best to make it happen! Did you read The Cursed Child? What were your thoughts? Has anyone actually gone to London and seen the play? Thoughts on the play in comparison to most Broadway theatrics? Let me know!

Thanks for reading with me,
- Olivia