The long awaited eighth book of J.K. Rowling’s famous series had its world premiere on the 31st of July this year. I was amongst the many who waited (im)patiently for midnight in a line to get one of those first printings. Rowling collaborated with John Tiffany and Jack Thorne to create a theatre script of which this book consists. The play itself is currently being performed in London.
The new format makes this story extremely easy to assimilate, and therefore perfectly readable in one sitting. However, a lot of content and characteristics we’re used to in J.K.Rowling’s writing were lost because of it. There’s a battle of emotions inside me concerning this book. I enjoyed a lot of it, but there are some things that just keep bothering me and I can’t make sense of. So, dear reader, If you’re not ready for spoilers, get your wand and apparate back to Home Page!
We are taken by the first pages right to where we were left in the epilogue of the seventh book (19 years after The Battle of Hogwarts), and later get to accompany Harry’s son Albus Severus Potter on his journey since he got in the wizarding school. This little boy starts feeling the weight of his father’s name on his shoulders, and the pressure makes their father-son relationship not so warm. The plot revolves around a familiar magical device: a time-turner (supposably the last one left), which can either solve issues by time traveling or create worse ones. What if someone tries to use the time-turner to bring a dead person back to life? Albus decides to fix his father’s mistake by traveling back to The Triwizard Tournament and saving Cedric Diggory – which might be perceived as his attempt to prove that he is just as capable of great deeds as his father. But what if the time-turner gets in the wrong hands and someone tries to resurrect Voldemort?
This plot may appear lazy to some, since instead of giving us something new it just makes us go back and forth through already existing episodes. The time traveling idea itself isn’t so fresh either – many works have already shown us the butterfly effect. However, the choice of expanding this already existing universe is interesting and quite ironic, if seen as a response to all the people who craved alternative endings for this sequel. Rowling gives us a glimpse of these in parallel realities – and, funnily enough, despite her claims of wanting Harry ending up with Hermione, we still don’t see them together.
We finally get to interact with the characters we missed so much, but… They don’t feel the same? Many will agree that some characters’ attitudes are somehow inconsistent with who we’ve known them to be from the previous books – especially Ron, whose humor appears a little forced. Harry’s behavior was also surprising, in a bad way. I can’t get over the horrible things he said to Professor McGonagall and his own son. But then again: it’s been 19 years, and they might have changed.
One character that I did genuinely like was Scorpius Malfoy, Draco’s son. Who would think that a Malfoy could be so polite and nerdy? He is dragged by Albus into this time traveling adventure, and their friendship along with Scorpius’ personality kept me engaged throughout the book.
There where two main inconsistencies for me here. For one: practically everyone was still married to their school sweethearts – how likely and convenient is that? Even in a parallel reality, where Ron didn’t marry Hermione, he still married another former Hogwarts student. Secondly: the fact that they all had children who went to Hogwarts at the exact same time – did Draco, Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron plan this together?
Time traveling brings huge plot holes into the story. Although the process itself breaks rules we’ve been previously introduced to in The Prisoner of Azkaban, I accept that this is due to a different device being used. Nonetheless, I can’t ignore how oddly the changes Albus and Scorpius make in the past influence the future. Not for one second will I believe that Cedric Diggory’s humiliation at The Triwizard Tournament would make him become a Death Eater – that’s an offense to who he was (a Hufflepuff, for Dumbledore’s sake). I also won’t buy that just because Hermione didn’t marry Ron she would give up on her ambitions. And the reason why they didn’t get married? Objectionable.
I could go on with this, but I rather switch to a part of the story I actually enjoyed – having Snape alive. In a parallel reality where Voldemort won the Battle, in 2020 Severus Snape is teaching Potions. Having one of the strongest characters we’ve lost back, even for a bit (I won’t count Dumbledore’s portrait, for obvious reasons), was a gift. As clever as always, Snape’s apparition was consistent to him as a character. His ease at making the decision to help Scorpius get the original world back, knowing that he wouldn’t be there, got me emotional.
It is understandable that the amount of characters has to be limited in a play, but where is Teddy Lupin? I would also have really loved to see more of Rose Weasley and Lily Potter.
All the same, I have to admit that this book had me glued to it, from somewhere in the middle until the end. It did mess with my feelings, and it did make me hungry for more. I also want to highlight how pleased I was to see Hermione Granger as Minister for Magic in the main world. It was definitely interesting to see how the change of the smallest detail in the past could immensely affect the Harry Potter world that we know and value so much. Despite this being claimed by some fans as “another fanfiction”, it did get J.K. Rowling’s blessing, so we might as well start accepting it as canon.
So, is this sequel worth reading? Definitely! Was it worth standing hours in a line for? No. However, the best thing to do, if you haven’t already, is to go grab a copy yourself and develop your own opinion on it. Erase all your expectations and welcome this script with an open mind. Don’t be afraid of it changing your previous perspective on the series – nothing can.