Let me start off by saying that it is completely obvious that J.K. Rowling did not write this book.  Sure, she had some creative input on the story since they were dealing with her characters and all, but this felt nothing like reading any of the seven Harry Potter books.

The most obvious reason this did not live up to my expectations is that it’s a play format.  Yes, it makes for an easy read because you are just following the dialogue, but there is really no depth to the story or characters.  Typically in novels you are able to get inside the characters’ heads through the narration and the scenery is well described so you can imagine actually being there.  I want to get lost in the world of Harry Potter when reading one of the books… not just jumping from scene to scene with a few words exchanged between characters.

The time jumping in the very beginning threw me off more than once.  One moment Albus is in his first year meeting Scorpius for the first time, then suddenly they’re fourteen and messing up/saving the wizarding world as we know it.  At least once we got to their fourth year, it stayed there.

Once Albus and Scorpius used the Time-Turner and began to mess up events in the past the plot got a little interesting for me.  I personally love the time-travel theme in books and movies and how even one tiny action can change the entire course of time as we know it.  So seeing the boys going back again and again to change a certain event of Harry’s past, while trying to fix mistakes they made previously, was entertaining for me.

However, there was one part of the plot that bugged me.

(Warning: those who have not read this yet and do not want spoilers… do not read the next line)

Voldemort has a daughter?!?  Seriously?

Just… why?

And while it was somewhat nostalgic to see the old characters – Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Draco – it wasn’t all that satisfying because they just didn’t seem the same as the characters I came to love in the series.  Though there were a few good quips between Ron and Ginny, so there was a bit of nostalgia there.  

Overall, I’m going to say that I actually wish they didn’t take the script and put it into a book.  If they were going to do that, they should’ve had J.K. Rowling officially novelize the play and make it a real Harry Potter book.  Otherwise, they should have left it as a play and only a play.

The only part of this book that I actually enjoyed was Scorpius Malfoy – he was a little ball of sunshine that I was not expecting, but loved entirely.  Where can I get one of him?

All I’m going to say is that it’s up to each Potter fan whether or not they liked Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  Me?  I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either.  

I’m just going to stick to the Harry Potter section on fanfiction.net and call it a day.