Author: J K Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne
Genre: Fantasy play
Length: 343 Pages
Release: July 2016
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
Review
When I first heard this was being released, I was not enthusiastic. In fact, until the day it was released I did not plan to read it. Once reviews started coming in with a lot of mixed information I decided to give it a read just so I could form my own opinion on this newest addition to the Harry Potter world.
I think how you go into this book has a lot to do with how much you will enjoy it. Knowing that it's a play for one, and not a novel, is a key component to understanding this. If you expect a novel you will be disappointed when you get a script. It sets the scene and then we have dialogue. So if the play format is not something you enjoy reading this likely would not be for you. Aside from the format readers should have a different expectation going into this than they would were it another novel written solely by Rowling. This has a new cast of characters, a very different plot, and is set well after the main events of the series.
So if you go into this expecting it to be more like fan fiction, you will likely enjoy it a great deal more. It still has a lot of Rowling's overall feel, but lacks a lot of the excitement that made the seven Harry Potter novels so magical.
My favorite part of this book, by far, is Scorpius Malfoy. Honestly, if he had not been in this book this review would have turned out very negative instead of mostly positive. He was fantastic. He was the only character that I felt jumped off the page and came to life. I could imagine him very vividly. He was just an absolutely stunning character.
The plot of this felt half baked, to be honest. Particularly toward the end it just seemed to fizzle out. I thought it was an interesting idea and enjoy a lot of the scenes along the way, but overall it was a rather weak plot and could have used some more development. When performed on the stage it might translate better, but I have not seen the production so I cannot say for sure.
The main thing that held me back from liking this more was the fact that we got no information about any of the other main characters from the original novels. We had Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco. No one else. They were barely mentioned. I understand that it's a play and not everyone can make an appearance, but I feel like some conversation about what was happening with the rest of the Weasley family would have been nice. But we get nothing. And aside from Albus we get nothing of Harry's children. Not sure that this is really a negative, as they probably wouldn't have added much to the story, but it would have been nice to see their interactions with Albus.
Overall this was enjoyable but nothing overly special. As previously stated, Scorpius really made it worth reading.
I think how you go into this book has a lot to do with how much you will enjoy it. Knowing that it's a play for one, and not a novel, is a key component to understanding this. If you expect a novel you will be disappointed when you get a script. It sets the scene and then we have dialogue. So if the play format is not something you enjoy reading this likely would not be for you. Aside from the format readers should have a different expectation going into this than they would were it another novel written solely by Rowling. This has a new cast of characters, a very different plot, and is set well after the main events of the series.
So if you go into this expecting it to be more like fan fiction, you will likely enjoy it a great deal more. It still has a lot of Rowling's overall feel, but lacks a lot of the excitement that made the seven Harry Potter novels so magical.
My favorite part of this book, by far, is Scorpius Malfoy. Honestly, if he had not been in this book this review would have turned out very negative instead of mostly positive. He was fantastic. He was the only character that I felt jumped off the page and came to life. I could imagine him very vividly. He was just an absolutely stunning character.
The plot of this felt half baked, to be honest. Particularly toward the end it just seemed to fizzle out. I thought it was an interesting idea and enjoy a lot of the scenes along the way, but overall it was a rather weak plot and could have used some more development. When performed on the stage it might translate better, but I have not seen the production so I cannot say for sure.
The main thing that held me back from liking this more was the fact that we got no information about any of the other main characters from the original novels. We had Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco. No one else. They were barely mentioned. I understand that it's a play and not everyone can make an appearance, but I feel like some conversation about what was happening with the rest of the Weasley family would have been nice. But we get nothing. And aside from Albus we get nothing of Harry's children. Not sure that this is really a negative, as they probably wouldn't have added much to the story, but it would have been nice to see their interactions with Albus.
Overall this was enjoyable but nothing overly special. As previously stated, Scorpius really made it worth reading.
Great review. I totally agree. I liked Scorpius, but the rest of the play was pretty weak.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Thanks, AJ! I went in with very low expectations, so the fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did was still something!
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