Ever since the publication of the seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," fans have been desperately hoping that author J.K. Rowling would dab her feet back into the wizarding world and give us a new story about Harry and his friends. While she has partially succeeded on that front, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" leaves much to be desired. What should have been a story about the golden trio's children and how they will attempt living in their parents' shadows ultimately turns into a "Back to the Future"-esque time travel adventure that recounts some of the sacred canon of Harry's world. Yes, I'm going to go total fanboy, here.
"The Cursed Child" starts off right where book seven ended. Nineteen years have passed since the battle of Hogwarts. The trio's children are boarding the train to go to school, and so the journey begins. The main characters are Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. Being the children of Harry and Draco, respectively, they don't strike a reader as the type of young wizards who would get along. Both are sorted into Slytherin, and they really hit it off. Throughout the story, they develop a strong friendship that gets tested along the way. The great thing is, they are one aspect of the story that actually works. Albus, in some regards, is unsure of himself. He struggles being the son of Harry Potter and resents having to live in the shoes of the chosen one. Scorpius is there to help remind Albus that he can live his life any way he chooses, and he isn't afraid to be himself. In a strange way, Scorpius is basically the new Hermione. He's nerdy, witty, and the real brains of the pair.
Where the story starts to fall apart is the main objective. Albus takes it upon himself to use a newly-found Time Turner to travel back to Harry's school days at Hogwarts. His goal is to prevent a very significant death that occurs near the end of Harry's fourth year. Scorpius decides to help his best friend. As you'd expect, things don't go as planned. The boys make mistakes and repeatedly go back in time to undo the damage. This creates several alternate realities and brings back characters we've known to have died in previous books. Many of the lines are uncharacteristic and botch the characters. What's worse is the story falls back on previous villains, namely Voldemort, to push the story. It gives him unneeded backstory and development that was never explained nor mentioned in the seven books.
There are some redeemable parts to this messy story, though. Ron and Hermione are wonderful. They retain their back and forth arguments, and Ron is still the comedic relief. Ginny and Harry have a good working relationship and work as a team to be good parents to their children. Even Draco has matured in the past nineteen years, and helps Harry to solve the mystery and save their children from being stuck in time.
I wish I could say I loved "The Cursed Child." I wish I could say it's everything you've ever wanted, and that it really does feel like the eighth story we were sold on. But none of those things are true. The truth is, it goes into fan fiction territory and messes with Potter continuity too much for my liking. The story is fun while it lasts, but it's not required reading for the series and shouldn't be considered part of the canon of Harry's world.
It's worth noting that the book version is a script of a play currently performing in London, not a full novel. J.K. Rowling did not come up with the story all on her own; two other playwrights teamed with her to create and write the story.
