Yes, I devoured the new Harry Potter book in less than two hours. Here is my review with only MINOR SPOILERS.

On my book review page, you can find the reviews I have done on WKAR as well as reviews I have done on the site over the last three years. Almost 80 different books, contemporary to classic, genre to literary fiction. I hope you will check them out. 

If you are interested in reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (and you sholud be) you can find it on amazon here. 

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Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

When the war is over and the last battle has been won, we like our heroes to ride off into the sunset. They have earned the peace.  Of course, the snag with that earned peace is that there is nothing more to say. Plain and simple, you need conflict for a story. A hero without an adventure to back him up is just any old normal dude… even when he has a cool lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

After the epic seven years that span the Harry Potter series, our young hero definitely earned a break. He had lost family, friends, and heroes in his quest to destroy the evil he-who-must-not-be-named, Lord Voldemort.  When we last saw Harry he was older, saying goodbye to his two sons on Platform 9 3/4  and watching as they race off to start their own studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. To emphasize the story was done, even his scar was just a scar.

Yet, we can’t let our young boy who grew up under the stairs go. We gave him almost twenty years of peace, it’s time for some wizarding action. Wands out! Just released, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (with John Tiffany and Jack Thorne) is something a little different and still the same. This is the continuing story of our boy wizard and he is dealing with something many parents deal with, a conflicted and jaded teenager.

The Cursed Child was created for the stage and the book is the script for two plays, not a new young adult novel. I am envious of anyone that gets to see the shows. I can’t imagine how some of these feats will be performed live in front of an audience each and every night. It must be quite a spectacle, kind of like getting reasonably priced tickets to see Hamilton.

I’m not going to say who the Cursed Child is (honestly, there are a few strong contenders for the title), but this tale is really about Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, two unlikely best friends and their struggles to live under their fathers’ shadows. They want to make their mark. And that is all I am going to say about the plot!

There is a wonderful sense of uneasiness running throughout the scripts that really wasn’t there in the books. We worked hard in the seven books to fix the magical world of Potter, to see it being this fragile feels painful. You can’t help but imagine that Rowling might have been inspired by how things in our world are presented everyday in our media. When the first part ends, it must be difficult for the audience to go home with that feeling still in their guts, and then patiently wait for the next night’s show to begin.

Each of our favorites (and even some of our favorite moments) make reappearances in the two plays that make up the story. The character I enjoyed rediscovering the most in these new pages was Draco Malfoy. The last time we saw Draco he was also married, with a son, but he didn’t have the heroic legacy of Harry. His life was more complicated and people were suspicious of him and his family. It is wonderful to see him as a dad and that there is a heart under those robes.

With Harry Potter back for another adventure, I loved visiting with him again. But there is a part of me that again wishes that he got a little more peace before being pushed back into the fray. Hopefully, Rowling will give him another few decades before his next. He has definitely earned it.

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Permanent Spring Showers was published by 5 Prince Books. You can find out more about my novel as well as my other books (including A Jane Austen Daydream and My Problem With Doors) and grab a copy via my author page on Amazon.com here.