Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, and would definitely like to see a live performance or since that's likely going to be nearly impossible, a recorded performance (or movie adaptation?). Still it's not quite the same thing as a new Harry Potter book. It's probably the closest we'll get though.

Full Review
I wasn't sure what to think about this. I want to see the play, but that's not practical. I'd have loved a novel, but paying to read the script of a play? Was this just a money grab? Maybe I'd wait and see what other people thought.

Who was I kidding? I ended up buying it and nearly reading it all in one sitting. I really enjoyed it. I loved getting to visit with the old characters again. It was like catching up with old friends. The new characters were really good too. I especially like Scorpio Malfoy. He was probably my favorite of the kids.

Ms. Rowling has already come out and said she won't be writing anymore adult Harry Potter books, but how about books about the kids in this book? There is a lot of room for more stories in the world, and I hope that we may get some, probably now much more than before this play was released.

I'll be curious to see what kind of reaction this gets. It's not the eighth Harry Potter book. It's a play with the characters from the Harry Potter books. It's incredibly short compared to a novel. It wasn't written by Ms. Rowling either. Those are all important things to keep in mind before picking this up. Maybe that's why Ms. Rowling didn't want to write the novel. The seven books stand on their own, and always will.

However the same magic I felt when reading those books was there for me. I suspect it may not be the same for others though. These books seem almost universally loved (at least I haven't met anyone whose read them than didn't enjoy them). I'm sure those people exist, but I suspect this will be a lot more divisive than that.

All I can say is for me personally, I'm glad I picked this up, and I'll probably read it again at some point, but not nearly as many times as I've read the original novels. It's a nice addition to the world of Harry Potter for me, but it's not quite the same as getting an eighth book.

Now if anyone has some kind of magic ability to score tickets to the play some point in my lifetime, I'll trade you all the gold I have in Gringotts..