Emma Giordano's Reviews > Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)
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FULL VIDEO REVIEW IS LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNTYG...
I have a lot of mixed feelings on this book. Am I happy we got another Harry Potter story? Yes. Am I satisfied with some aspects? Absolutely. But am I disappointed as well? Unfortunately, YES.
L I K E S :
Characters:
I was so happy to feel like the characters were authentic. Throughout the entire novel, these felt like the children I grew up alongside and their development over the last two decades into adults felt REAL. Everyone was who I wanted them to become (ESPECIALLY DRACO) and even the kid's had their own distinctive voices I really enjoyed. The dynamic of the characters (Harry & Draco are a perfect example, as well as Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione) were consistent with the books, yet still developed over the years into what I felt they should be. Also Scorpius is my everything, he is one of the purest characters in all of literature and if you disagree, bye.
Things that were addressed that needed to be addressed:
(view spoiler)
(view spoiler)
Minimal moments that made me happy: Basically, I think there are so many people that loved everything about this book, but as I read this book very critically and found a lot of faults, the parts I loved seemed pretty minimal so I've grouped them here.
-Beginning: I loved that the story started at the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. I didn't even think this was a possibility, but I think it was the perfect way to mesh these two stories into one another.
- Draco & Harry's Dynamic: These two developed exactly as I wanted them to. While there is still an air of distaste around both of them, they've truly grown and come to terms with each other. (view spoiler)
-(view spoiler)
-(view spoiler)
Humor: I personally really enjoyed the humor in the play! The jokes coming from the cast felt really true to their characters and this book had me laughing out loud all throughout the books. I'll go over specific lines in my video review for the sake of length on here, but I don't think there was a single intentional joke that didn't have me howling of laughter.
Scorpius & Albus: Okay listen, I am one to respect anyone's sexuality, so if these two claim they're straight, they're straight. But seriously, there is so much queer baiting in this script that it pains me to know it was never going to amount to anything. I don't understand why it's so bad to have two gay wizards as the main characters. If you're going to throw lines at me like "He doesn't like his friend talking to a girl" and "They hug each other with fierceness. They hold for a beat." IMMA SHIP THEM TOGETHER. And that's not to undermine their love as friends; regardless of their sexuality, they have a beautiful relationship and their dynamic is a pleasure to read. It's clear they love each other so much, even if it is just as friends. I just think I would have loved this story on a whole 'nother level if their friendship became something more at the end of the story.
D I S L I K E S :
Lack of characters: This goes into my feeling that this plot was FAR TOO LARGE to be limited to the time constraints and physical space on the stage for a play. There is an absence of every character who is not Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Albus, Scorpius,and Delphi.
-Hugo: Does not appear ONCE. What REALLY confuses me and goes into the contradiction to the books, is that he was at Kings Cross in the Deathly Hallows epilogue, yet he's not in the first scene. He starts Hogwarts during Albus/Scorpius/Rose's third year, yet he. is. never. there. He's Ron and Hermione's child for gods sake! He should have been in this book!
- Rose, James, & Lily: While we do see these three in the beginning for a few scenes, all three are virtually absent from the entire play after about Act Two. How on earth do you expect me to believe these two groups of parents are off on another CRAZY adventure, but don't show any thought about their children, other than Albus? It's just unreasonable and does not make sense. I'm going to say this a million times throughout these reviews, but if you use the argument that "it's a play, they don't have enough time," then they should not have made this story a play. Lack of room for a plot is the biggest reason to NOT include it and putting out something incomplete is just sloppy and amateur.
- Neville: Neville is mentioned COUNTLESS times throughout this novel. He's a professor at Hogwarts and you bet your ass he would coddle The Golden Trio's children like they were his own, but again HE DOESN'T SHOW UP ONCE. (view spoiler) I'm purely disappointed.
- Teddy Lupin: Teddy is obviously a very minor character but HE WAS ALSO AT KINGS CROSS (which still confuses me because he had left Hogwarts at this point, but whatevs) HE WAS STILL THERE. They made a big deal that Teddy was a "part of the Potter family" and came over for dinner frequently, but he isn't even mentioned in the books. Also, his CHARACTER ITSELF was made a big deal by Jo, who wanted the story to end on another child being left an orphan. But nope, there's no space for anyone who wasn't a main character (which is a large fault in the author's planning because side characters are still hugely important to a story) so we don't see him at all.
- Hagrid: OK WHERE THE HELL IS HAGRID. Someone suggested to me that he may have wrongfully passed, but if McGonagall is alive, I'm betting Hagrid's giant blood gives him a different lifespan than most wizards. HE WOULD LITERALLY DO ANYTHING TO SPEND TIME WITH HARRY&GINNY&RON&HERMIONE'S CHILDREN WHERE IS HE. We go through like three or four alternate timelines of Hogwarts and he is absent in all of them. Seriously, it's a straight up disservice to his character.
Harry & Albus's relationship: (view spoiler)
The scene in the Ministry: okay I got a looooooot of issues here.
1. (view spoiler)
2. (view spoiler)
THE TIME TURNERS:Oh lordy, lordy. Prepare for the longest rant of this entire review.
1. To give you a run down, the system of time travel established in Prisoner of Azkaban is essentially a "fixed timeline" meaning that the time traveler's actions would not alter the timeline at all. (ex. it's Harry who creates the Patronus to save himself & Sirius because as Harry himself claims "It was easy, because I'd already done it.) In Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, it follows the timeline known as the "Grandfather Paradox" (aka used in Back to the Future) which is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF TIME that is more flexible and allows people to change history by their actions. YOU. CAN'T. HAVE. TWO. DIFFERENT. SYSTEMS. OF. TIME. It's made clear that creating a paradox is possible in POA (an example given is that one can kill their future/past self if they are recognized by themselves), but that doesn't change that fact that there is no evidence of the fixed timeline that has been established for 12 years in TCC. Paradoxes fucking everywhere and The Doctor is sobbing from his Tardis.
2. (view spoiler)
3. (view spoiler)
4. On Pottermore, (here's an image as a source https://twitter.com/LIBassBunny/statu... - the original post I found it from is from 3 years ago) J.K. Rowling admits that she left a ton of plot holes in the system of time travel she created. She claims to have fixed that over the years, ending the solution with destroying all of them during the battle at the Department of Mysteries. And I think this is great, this is what authors should have the incentive to do when they make a mistake. BUT if she wanted to fix it, why would she approve a script that is built on the foundation of something she tried to erase in her books? It truly makes me question either how genuine her approval is, or the integrity of her character to turn her back on her previous decisions.
To sum up, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child BUTCHERED the system of time & time travel created by Jo and I have no words to describe how detrimental this is to the plot.
Big secret plot twist I don't want to spoil: (view spoiler)
2. (view spoiler)
3. (view spoiler)
4. (view spoiler)
This is ridiculous. This is far too convenient. There is too little information on when this actually happened. I refuse to accept this as part of the plot.
Random little things that bother me:
- First trip back in time: (view spoiler)
-The Trolley Witch: (view spoiler)
T H I N G S T H A T M A D E M E C R Y :
-Harry in Godric's Hollow: (view spoiler)
-Hagrid meeting Harry for the first time: (view spoiler)
-Draco opening up to Harry: (view spoiler)
There are a million more things to say in my video review, so stay tuned for that on my YouTube channel. All in all, I'm happy we got this book. I'm happy I read it. I'm happy that some things stayed true and somethings impressed me. But I'm super disappointed that it's so dissociated from the rest of the books plot-wise and that it was very underdeveloped. I will stand by my opinion that this should have been a full novelization of the play, and that would have fixed a lot of the inconsistencies and plot holes. I will absolutely go to see this play when it hits New York, and I would recommend it to any Harry Potter fan.
I have a lot of mixed feelings on this book. Am I happy we got another Harry Potter story? Yes. Am I satisfied with some aspects? Absolutely. But am I disappointed as well? Unfortunately, YES.
L I K E S :
Characters:
I was so happy to feel like the characters were authentic. Throughout the entire novel, these felt like the children I grew up alongside and their development over the last two decades into adults felt REAL. Everyone was who I wanted them to become (ESPECIALLY DRACO) and even the kid's had their own distinctive voices I really enjoyed. The dynamic of the characters (Harry & Draco are a perfect example, as well as Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione) were consistent with the books, yet still developed over the years into what I felt they should be. Also Scorpius is my everything, he is one of the purest characters in all of literature and if you disagree, bye.
Things that were addressed that needed to be addressed:
(view spoiler)
(view spoiler)
Minimal moments that made me happy: Basically, I think there are so many people that loved everything about this book, but as I read this book very critically and found a lot of faults, the parts I loved seemed pretty minimal so I've grouped them here.
-Beginning: I loved that the story started at the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. I didn't even think this was a possibility, but I think it was the perfect way to mesh these two stories into one another.
- Draco & Harry's Dynamic: These two developed exactly as I wanted them to. While there is still an air of distaste around both of them, they've truly grown and come to terms with each other. (view spoiler)
-(view spoiler)
-(view spoiler)
Humor: I personally really enjoyed the humor in the play! The jokes coming from the cast felt really true to their characters and this book had me laughing out loud all throughout the books. I'll go over specific lines in my video review for the sake of length on here, but I don't think there was a single intentional joke that didn't have me howling of laughter.
Scorpius & Albus: Okay listen, I am one to respect anyone's sexuality, so if these two claim they're straight, they're straight. But seriously, there is so much queer baiting in this script that it pains me to know it was never going to amount to anything. I don't understand why it's so bad to have two gay wizards as the main characters. If you're going to throw lines at me like "He doesn't like his friend talking to a girl" and "They hug each other with fierceness. They hold for a beat." IMMA SHIP THEM TOGETHER. And that's not to undermine their love as friends; regardless of their sexuality, they have a beautiful relationship and their dynamic is a pleasure to read. It's clear they love each other so much, even if it is just as friends. I just think I would have loved this story on a whole 'nother level if their friendship became something more at the end of the story.
D I S L I K E S :
Lack of characters: This goes into my feeling that this plot was FAR TOO LARGE to be limited to the time constraints and physical space on the stage for a play. There is an absence of every character who is not Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Albus, Scorpius,and Delphi.
-Hugo: Does not appear ONCE. What REALLY confuses me and goes into the contradiction to the books, is that he was at Kings Cross in the Deathly Hallows epilogue, yet he's not in the first scene. He starts Hogwarts during Albus/Scorpius/Rose's third year, yet he. is. never. there. He's Ron and Hermione's child for gods sake! He should have been in this book!
- Rose, James, & Lily: While we do see these three in the beginning for a few scenes, all three are virtually absent from the entire play after about Act Two. How on earth do you expect me to believe these two groups of parents are off on another CRAZY adventure, but don't show any thought about their children, other than Albus? It's just unreasonable and does not make sense. I'm going to say this a million times throughout these reviews, but if you use the argument that "it's a play, they don't have enough time," then they should not have made this story a play. Lack of room for a plot is the biggest reason to NOT include it and putting out something incomplete is just sloppy and amateur.
- Neville: Neville is mentioned COUNTLESS times throughout this novel. He's a professor at Hogwarts and you bet your ass he would coddle The Golden Trio's children like they were his own, but again HE DOESN'T SHOW UP ONCE. (view spoiler) I'm purely disappointed.
- Teddy Lupin: Teddy is obviously a very minor character but HE WAS ALSO AT KINGS CROSS (which still confuses me because he had left Hogwarts at this point, but whatevs) HE WAS STILL THERE. They made a big deal that Teddy was a "part of the Potter family" and came over for dinner frequently, but he isn't even mentioned in the books. Also, his CHARACTER ITSELF was made a big deal by Jo, who wanted the story to end on another child being left an orphan. But nope, there's no space for anyone who wasn't a main character (which is a large fault in the author's planning because side characters are still hugely important to a story) so we don't see him at all.
- Hagrid: OK WHERE THE HELL IS HAGRID. Someone suggested to me that he may have wrongfully passed, but if McGonagall is alive, I'm betting Hagrid's giant blood gives him a different lifespan than most wizards. HE WOULD LITERALLY DO ANYTHING TO SPEND TIME WITH HARRY&GINNY&RON&HERMIONE'S CHILDREN WHERE IS HE. We go through like three or four alternate timelines of Hogwarts and he is absent in all of them. Seriously, it's a straight up disservice to his character.
Harry & Albus's relationship: (view spoiler)
The scene in the Ministry: okay I got a looooooot of issues here.
1. (view spoiler)
2. (view spoiler)
THE TIME TURNERS:Oh lordy, lordy. Prepare for the longest rant of this entire review.
1. To give you a run down, the system of time travel established in Prisoner of Azkaban is essentially a "fixed timeline" meaning that the time traveler's actions would not alter the timeline at all. (ex. it's Harry who creates the Patronus to save himself & Sirius because as Harry himself claims "It was easy, because I'd already done it.) In Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, it follows the timeline known as the "Grandfather Paradox" (aka used in Back to the Future) which is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF TIME that is more flexible and allows people to change history by their actions. YOU. CAN'T. HAVE. TWO. DIFFERENT. SYSTEMS. OF. TIME. It's made clear that creating a paradox is possible in POA (an example given is that one can kill their future/past self if they are recognized by themselves), but that doesn't change that fact that there is no evidence of the fixed timeline that has been established for 12 years in TCC. Paradoxes fucking everywhere and The Doctor is sobbing from his Tardis.
2. (view spoiler)
3. (view spoiler)
4. On Pottermore, (here's an image as a source https://twitter.com/LIBassBunny/statu... - the original post I found it from is from 3 years ago) J.K. Rowling admits that she left a ton of plot holes in the system of time travel she created. She claims to have fixed that over the years, ending the solution with destroying all of them during the battle at the Department of Mysteries. And I think this is great, this is what authors should have the incentive to do when they make a mistake. BUT if she wanted to fix it, why would she approve a script that is built on the foundation of something she tried to erase in her books? It truly makes me question either how genuine her approval is, or the integrity of her character to turn her back on her previous decisions.
To sum up, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child BUTCHERED the system of time & time travel created by Jo and I have no words to describe how detrimental this is to the plot.
Big secret plot twist I don't want to spoil: (view spoiler)
2. (view spoiler)
3. (view spoiler)
4. (view spoiler)
This is ridiculous. This is far too convenient. There is too little information on when this actually happened. I refuse to accept this as part of the plot.
Random little things that bother me:
- First trip back in time: (view spoiler)
-The Trolley Witch: (view spoiler)
T H I N G S T H A T M A D E M E C R Y :
-Harry in Godric's Hollow: (view spoiler)
-Hagrid meeting Harry for the first time: (view spoiler)
-Draco opening up to Harry: (view spoiler)
There are a million more things to say in my video review, so stay tuned for that on my YouTube channel. All in all, I'm happy we got this book. I'm happy I read it. I'm happy that some things stayed true and somethings impressed me. But I'm super disappointed that it's so dissociated from the rest of the books plot-wise and that it was very underdeveloped. I will stand by my opinion that this should have been a full novelization of the play, and that would have fixed a lot of the inconsistencies and plot holes. I will absolutely go to see this play when it hits New York, and I would recommend it to any Harry Potter fan.
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Reading Progress
June 11, 2016
– Shelved
June 11, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
August 1, 2016
–
Started Reading
August 3, 2016
–
64.72%
"I'm really enjoying it but also questioning a lot of it? If you want to see my live reactions, check out #EmmaReadsTCC on twitter ;D"
page
222
August 3, 2016
–
65.6%
"I'VE READ THREE PAGES AND I'VE FOUND YET ANOTHER FAULT IN THE TIME TRAVEL SYSTEM THAT'S BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR 12 YEARS. WHY DID NO ONE FIX THIS. WHY IS A 20 YEAR OLD MERE FAN PICKING UP ON THIS AND NOT AN EXPERIENCED TEAM OF WRITERS, EDITORS, AND THE DAMN AUTHOR WHO CREATED THE SYSTEM."
page
225
August 3, 2016
–
78.13%
"I'm feeling much better about Act 4! The first few scenes have impressed me compared to the earlier three acts."
page
268
August 3, 2016
–
Finished Reading
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message 1:
by
Emma
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rated it 3 stars
Aug 04, 2016 08:39AM
![Emma Giordano](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1569693958p1/30604861.jpg)
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Most of the negative reviews I've seen are just straight up bashing it and calling it a joke, not bothering to point out any flaws and having information to back it up.
I am one of the people who loved this book, despite its flaws, but I am very glad to have finally seen a good, critical review of it. Fantastic job Emma! :)
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it's hard for me to type it because it keeps hiding my explanation because it thinks i'm trying to hide a spoiler, but when you're typing a review, the right top corner of the type box has a few options, one of them being formatting tips that show you how to do those things :)
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There are a lot of plot holes and mistakes you listed that would have been fixed if JK Rowling had written an entire book (not a play) with descriptions etc. I think this is why we don't see Hagrid or most of the other Weasley/Potter siblings/cousins, they are probably there, but they are no place or time to include them because they aren't doing anything important. (Again, something wrong happened there and if there isn't time to include some of the main characters, then something needs to be fixed in the plot,asap)
As this is a play, it should have a simplier plot. End of story. It's the biggest mistake they made and I so hope the actual play in London is better live than this book because if it isn't the case they I am sincerily confused as to why JK Rowling even allowed this to happen.
![Faith](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1532462823p1/36526851.jpg)
To me, this whole storyline was just felt like they recycled the harry potter books and placed the new characters in those storylines.
I would've been much happier with seeing Harry as an auror and battling a new group of dark wizards or something that wasn't related to Voldemort.
Also the time travel thing was ridiculous in my opinion. It made no sense.
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(view spoiler)
![Bex (Bexnbookx)](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1520735974p1/56791158.jpg)
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Geez. Way better than how I could describe it in my review. I was a mess trying to convert my feelings into words. Job well done.