(No Spoilers in this Section)
Initial Reaction to the News
When I first heard about
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, I had cautious expectations, and maybe even some skeptical ones.
First, adding more to an already satisfyingly complete story can do more harm than good.
Second, I know J.K. Rowling is listed as a writer, but she didn't really write the script, just gave the other guys a few ideas to run with. I've seen this done with another franchise I love and the result was terrible.
Third, it's really hard to pull off something like this. The audience usually has high, but very vague expectations, which makes it very difficult to deliver.
As for actually reading the book, well, there's a problem. It's a script. And really, scripts are meant to be
watched, not read. I'm an English graduate, so I've read a few scripts in my day, and I almost never enjoyed it. The only exception was
Dr. Faustus. So, again, I was skeptical, but I mean, let's be honest. This is
Harry Potter, of course there's going to be something I like about it because I'm so biased toward it. I love plays themselves, I just don't like reading them.
I considered not reading it and waiting until the play came to the U.S., but I only considered it for a few seconds--I'm going to Comic Con next month as a guest, and people will expect me to have read it.
So, basically, I wasn't sure what to think about it and personally didn't expect much. But then months ago, I accidentally-on-purpose read some of the spoilers, because honestly, how much of a "spoiler" could they be? The main story is complete.
Man, was I wrong about being unspoilery. The two I read I did
not see coming--and I loved them. So two points to
Cursed Child on that--and I was excited to read it.