With the passing of Harry Potter's birthday on the last day of July, J.K. Rowling's series, "Harry Potter" has re-emerged from the backseat of reader's minds, and back into our hot little hands with the release of the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." Now, being a member of the generation that grew up alongside Harry Potter and his dynamic-duo of friends, Ron and Hermione, I was beyond ecstatic when I found out this play was being produced, but I was a little skeptical about what exactly it would be about. I imagined we would be seeing a new force of evil returning to the Wizarding World, a force of evil that Harry's children would be the prime target of. I imagined a simple re-imagining of Harry Potter, just as a stage adaptation written partly by J.K. Rowling herself.

Now, I will say I was not one of the people lined up at my local bookstore anticipating it at midnight. I walked into a Barnes and Noble two days later looking for it, to be (unsurprisingly) disappointed to find that it was sold out, however; I did not leave without making a purchase (any time I walk into a bookstore I buy something. Oops). My mother texted me later that night saying she found one at BJ's, so we bought it and it sat on our counter for three days unread. Remember I'm a real Harry Potter fan who was so excited when the play was released.

I opened the book at 11:30 p.m. last night, thinking I would just read a couple scenes and be done with it for the night. Three hours later, I found myself at the last page of the play, completely consumed by it. The play was captivating and absolutely hit any possible point of nostalgia possible, which of course was very nice.

I did find a lot wrong with the play. I will avoid all large spoilers for any who intend to read the play and haven't yet.

Firstly, there was one relationship that they wrote as though they wanted to pursue it beyond just simply "friendship", although they quickly seemed to push it right back into the background of the play and "friend zoned" the two characters. While normally not a big deal, I found that it was poor planning on their part to write it into the script and make it such a prevalent sub-plot, and then ignore it at the end. While it may have been intentional, many other readers have felt the same way.

Secondly (and this was after a great deal of thinking), it was not the same as the old Harry Potter novels. The feel was different, and not simply because I was reading a script, but rather the characters felt different—forced, even. A lot of the scenes seemed subdued but also rushed. They fit the equivalent of four of J.K. Rowling's books into this singular play, and everything happened so suddenly that I almost couldn't buy into it. There of course was a darkness-reincarnate character, and it was possibly one of the most stretched things I had ever seen. My eyes nearly rolled out of my head from the predictability.

Frankly, this play seemed more like a fan-fiction to me than actually being co-written by J.K. Rowling herself. The play followed a whimsical fantasy that Harry's son would continue his legacy of fighting darkness, which now I just find to be a ridiculous use of the plot of Harry Potter. When looking back on it, I would have to say that reading it and not trying to remember the characters from the books and movies from the past is the best way to read it. Everything has changed in this one, and it absolutely fills a nostalgic void, but it sadly has delivered a poor continuation of the series itself.