Shiirleyy's Bookshelf has migrated to Dear Shirley ! I will continue to post book reviews but there will also be a lot of personal and travel-related posts :)

Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

7 Sept 2016



by J.K Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne

Released: July 31st 2016 

One of the biggest disappointments in my life this year is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I cannot express just how much it hurt when I read the first few pages and immediately, my excitement, enthusiasm and eagerness to devour the book shattered.

 Cursed child was horrible.

 Absolutely, heart-shatteringly horrible.

There was no substance to the characters - I don't give a rat's ass about Albus. When I think of Albus I think of a perpetually depressed and pessimistic kid with zero personality. All he did was hate his dad, hate Hogwarts and hate the world. What else was there? The Harry Potter books were my salvation and my key to an alternate life when reality became too stressful for me to handle, or when I momentarily lost faith in myself. Harry Potter pulled me out of that state of self-doubt and taught me that no matter how much shit I go through, there would always be light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, if Harry can find happiness in a world previously ruled by dark wizards, the most powerful of which murdered his parents, or continue to walk with his head held high even when he became the most despised/talked about/unpopular/ person in the wizarding world, then I can survive.

But this book? A waste of my time and money.

Harry, Hermione and Ron were also cardboard characters. None of them were consistent with how they were portrayed in the last book. Scorpius was probably the only character with personality but even he couldn’t save the story.

I’ve been trying to wipe all traces of the Cursed Child from my memory; as far as I’m concerned, there is no 8th book and the series ended with the Deathly Hallows.