Tuesday, August 2, 2016

(UN) Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Around the House
I am currently on the road traveling.  I am missing the family a lot tonight, since this week long trip is the longest I have been on since the Jerry and the Boyos came to live with me.  I am thinking of them a lot especially as I curl up to sleep and look at the edits for Cursed sitting next to me on the desk of my hotel room.  It doesn't help that the temperature in Houston is so unbelievably hot right now.  I do  not recommend spending August in Houston when you are not out having fun.

My Thoughts
I had to think hard about how to right this review.  Would I right a review on the play I haven't seen, the script I just read, or a book that is the next installment in the Harry Potter franchise.  That is when I thought of something my Editor said to me when I first talked about getting this book, "Shakespeare should be seen and not read."  He of course is not the only person that has ever said this to me.  I have had teachers and professors say the same.  They always recommended after reading the work in class that we watch the movie or play version that they recommended so that we could full understand what we had read.  Now I find my self thinking about the same thing as I look at the book sitting on the night stand of my hotel room.

Image result for Harry Potter and the cursed child book

Like many of you, the first book I feel in love with and opened the door to literature for me was Harry Potter.  While unlike most it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets since I had just seen the first movie.  I had not wanted to see the movie, but my best friend and fellow author Katrina Rue insisted that I see it.  So I finally gave in.  I remember asking her questions through out the movie until I had annoyed her so much that she looked at me and said "Just read the damn book I bought you."

Now here I am looking at that last installment and thinking about how to review it for everyone.  Like many of the world that have read the script without seeing the play, I felt a bit disappointed and lost.  I was also annoyed to see that people other than J.K. Rowling had touched my favorite character.  Then I realized that what I read is meant to be watched, so I need to look at it with new eyes.  As a reader I had to realize that we are missing what makes the world of Harry Potter so wonderful, Rowling's fantastic way of describing the world through the eyes of the character we have loved.  We truly got to see inside each of the characters.  As I realized this I remembers something I read about the play, "Based on an original story written by J.K. Rowling."  Now I want to see where that story is, what it says, and how it meets with the play, because the way she writes a world is what we need for the final tale of Harry's adventure.  We need to see how all the characters work to bring the story together that we don't get from watching the movie, reading the script, or watching the play.  We need to see it through the words as they flow from her.

So I find that I can not rate this book as I would any other.  I must rate it in the media that it is.  As a script, I can see how this is an amazing story that like the rest of the books touch parts of the story that we thought did not really matter.  We see a return to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the weird relationship Voldemort had with his followers, and the use of a magical item that is unexpected since Granger was always such a good girl.  The part of the story that truly touched me the most was the theme that even a good character is flawed and a bad character isn't just evil they are real people.

As a reader I am going to reach out to J.K. Rowling and ask for the following, please give us the book or three that the Cursed Child is meant to be.  Bring us deeply into the world of Hogwarts and the Ministry again by having us meet the characters we love, see with in their heads, and feel what they feel through how you have them react to the most beautiful scenes you craft.  When adding to the Wizarding World in the future with the new movies on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, remember we want the story in the way you would have told it on paper and ink.  Give your devoted readers what they desire most.  A book to wrap out hands around and hold though out the day and night.

Rating: 3 out 5 (script)