My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Harry Potter - the name itself is enough to send the minds of its readers into whole other magical world; a world of wands, spells, potions, dragons, elves, goblins, centaurs, talking portraits, and all things magical - a world called Hogwarts. The moment I picked up the book, I left this world and instantly got submerged into it. When I started with Act One of Part One, I was at King's Cross station with a grown-up Harry and his family. Gosh! I was excited. When Act Two took me to platform Nine and three-quarters, my joy knew no bounds. Yes! That's the child-like excitement a Potterhead has. But few more pages into the book, and I could feel the 'spell of excitement' to be less effective than its counterparts.
When I got over with 'The Cursed Child', I found it hard to pen down this review with my blindly-biased attitude towards Harry Potter. After reading seven absolutely flawless books, it was hard to grasp that this one indeed contained few flaws. I loved this book. With all my heart, I did, but I also did feel a tad bit disappointed for obvious reasons (which are, of course, personal). My first disappointment was its format. The 'play' format did give it a neat and crisp appearance, but it failed to match the magnanimity of its 'novel' counterparts. After reading the entire series with such precision, it ached to read a book of Potter series with hardly any Hogwarts in it.
There was no Quidditch match, no Hagrid, no house cup, no detentions, no drama in the classrooms - it lacked that typical 'Rowling' charm. But, Rowling did make sure that her fans aren't completely heartbroken and she embedded few unexpected stuffs which made it admirable.
- The first shock (or surprise) came to the readers when Albus got sorted in Slytherin. You cannot help but keep pondering over what compelled Sorting Hat to place Harry's son into Slytherin - the house to which some of the most dark wizards and witches belonged to. It is clear that Albus is taken aback and heartbroken. His worst fear came true. I loved the way this scenario was described.
"He puts his hat on ALBUS's head - and this time he seems to take longer - almost like he too is confused.
SLYTHERIN!
There's a silence.
A perfect, profound silence.
One that sits low, twists a bit and has damage within it."
No wonder poor Albus is 'thoroughly discombobulated'.
- The second striking and most soul-stirring part of the book was the friendship between Albus and Scorpius. Draco and Harry had always been at each others necks, ever-ready for a duel at every sight. Who could have ever imagined that their sons would share a bonding that's thicker than blood? On top of that, who could have ever imagined a Malfoy with a kind heart?
- I admit that it is hard to fancy a Malfoy with a kind nature, but to fancy the ever-smugging, full of Malfoy-vanity Draco being transformed into a soft-hearted person is next to impossible. Now that sounds like our Rowling who holds an expertise to turn impossible possible. Draco's softness in character was revealed when he confronted Harry saying, "I'm not here to antagonise you. But my son is in tears and I am his father and so I am here to ask why you would keep apart two good friends."
But, his sincerity and maturity surfaced during his confession to Harry when he said, "You - the three of you - you shone you know? You liked each other. You had fun. I envied you. I envied you those friendships more than anything else." All this time, one thought that it was only hatred that bred between the two whereas envy was the prime reason of rivalry. And of course there was Lucious Malfoy. Don't you think Lucious would rather had Draco dead than going around dancing merrily with the Dark Lord's biggest enemy?
- Delphini Diggory aka Delphi - now this dear young lady was the surprise package. The way she used friendship to torture those two kids was typical of Voldemort's daughter. Though some articles chalked her character to be rather lousy, one cannot undermine her importance. True that she was the least bit interesting as compared to either of her parent but the fact that the Dark Lord was her father and the malicious Bellatrix her mother is enough to kick adrenaline of a Potter-junkie. After all, she is among those characters who add essence to the book.
In addition to all these, the book itself worked as a Time-turner for die-hard Potter fans. It was a brand new feeling to see our favorite characters metamorphosed from fearless teenagers to responsible parents, from carefree Hogwarts students to alert wizards and witches. Further, it has the power to push fans into the comfortable feeling that Harry's story has not yet come to full-stop, and perhaps, it was this feeling that made me love it.
All things considered, it must be remembered that apart from J. K. Rowling, two more people had worked on its script. So, it is not entirely Rowling's work. Had it been so, I'm sure we would have had more fun out of it with lots of catchy words and well-crafted tricky sentences like "bunch of babbling, bumbling band of baboons."
Picture Courtesy - pottermore.com
Harry Potter - the name itself is enough to send the minds of its readers into whole other magical world; a world of wands, spells, potions, dragons, elves, goblins, centaurs, talking portraits, and all things magical - a world called Hogwarts. The moment I picked up the book, I left this world and instantly got submerged into it. When I started with Act One of Part One, I was at King's Cross station with a grown-up Harry and his family. Gosh! I was excited. When Act Two took me to platform Nine and three-quarters, my joy knew no bounds. Yes! That's the child-like excitement a Potterhead has. But few more pages into the book, and I could feel the 'spell of excitement' to be less effective than its counterparts.
When I got over with 'The Cursed Child', I found it hard to pen down this review with my blindly-biased attitude towards Harry Potter. After reading seven absolutely flawless books, it was hard to grasp that this one indeed contained few flaws. I loved this book. With all my heart, I did, but I also did feel a tad bit disappointed for obvious reasons (which are, of course, personal). My first disappointment was its format. The 'play' format did give it a neat and crisp appearance, but it failed to match the magnanimity of its 'novel' counterparts. After reading the entire series with such precision, it ached to read a book of Potter series with hardly any Hogwarts in it.
There was no Quidditch match, no Hagrid, no house cup, no detentions, no drama in the classrooms - it lacked that typical 'Rowling' charm. But, Rowling did make sure that her fans aren't completely heartbroken and she embedded few unexpected stuffs which made it admirable.
- The first shock (or surprise) came to the readers when Albus got sorted in Slytherin. You cannot help but keep pondering over what compelled Sorting Hat to place Harry's son into Slytherin - the house to which some of the most dark wizards and witches belonged to. It is clear that Albus is taken aback and heartbroken. His worst fear came true. I loved the way this scenario was described.
"He puts his hat on ALBUS's head - and this time he seems to take longer - almost like he too is confused.
SLYTHERIN!
There's a silence.
A perfect, profound silence.
One that sits low, twists a bit and has damage within it."
No wonder poor Albus is 'thoroughly discombobulated'.
- The second striking and most soul-stirring part of the book was the friendship between Albus and Scorpius. Draco and Harry had always been at each others necks, ever-ready for a duel at every sight. Who could have ever imagined that their sons would share a bonding that's thicker than blood? On top of that, who could have ever imagined a Malfoy with a kind heart?
- I admit that it is hard to fancy a Malfoy with a kind nature, but to fancy the ever-smugging, full of Malfoy-vanity Draco being transformed into a soft-hearted person is next to impossible. Now that sounds like our Rowling who holds an expertise to turn impossible possible. Draco's softness in character was revealed when he confronted Harry saying, "I'm not here to antagonise you. But my son is in tears and I am his father and so I am here to ask why you would keep apart two good friends."
But, his sincerity and maturity surfaced during his confession to Harry when he said, "You - the three of you - you shone you know? You liked each other. You had fun. I envied you. I envied you those friendships more than anything else." All this time, one thought that it was only hatred that bred between the two whereas envy was the prime reason of rivalry. And of course there was Lucious Malfoy. Don't you think Lucious would rather had Draco dead than going around dancing merrily with the Dark Lord's biggest enemy?
- Delphini Diggory aka Delphi - now this dear young lady was the surprise package. The way she used friendship to torture those two kids was typical of Voldemort's daughter. Though some articles chalked her character to be rather lousy, one cannot undermine her importance. True that she was the least bit interesting as compared to either of her parent but the fact that the Dark Lord was her father and the malicious Bellatrix her mother is enough to kick adrenaline of a Potter-junkie. After all, she is among those characters who add essence to the book.
In addition to all these, the book itself worked as a Time-turner for die-hard Potter fans. It was a brand new feeling to see our favorite characters metamorphosed from fearless teenagers to responsible parents, from carefree Hogwarts students to alert wizards and witches. Further, it has the power to push fans into the comfortable feeling that Harry's story has not yet come to full-stop, and perhaps, it was this feeling that made me love it.
All things considered, it must be remembered that apart from J. K. Rowling, two more people had worked on its script. So, it is not entirely Rowling's work. Had it been so, I'm sure we would have had more fun out of it with lots of catchy words and well-crafted tricky sentences like "bunch of babbling, bumbling band of baboons."
