The Harry Potter Series is, and will always be, an iconic book series, so it deserves a better book than The Cursed Child Parts One and Two. The announcement of the book was praised among fans, but it proved to not be worth the trouble. The book overall is a decent read, but I do not hold it to the same standards that I would for the other Harry Potter books.

What initially makes this book different than the rest of the series is the fact that it is a play. The fact that it is a play isn’t a problem, but it does take away a lot of the Harry Potter feel that fans will know. To me, the story seemed to be a lot more limited than a normal book of the series because it is a play. It loses some of the magic that is Harry Potter.

The play takes place 19 years after the final battle of Hogwarts in the seventh book. It immediately picks up where in the Epilogue scene at the end of the seventh book. The book is more centered around Harry’s son, Albus Severus Potter. Albus befriends Scorpius, the child of Draco Malfoy, and then things immediately go downhill. Albus and Scorpius are the outcasts of Hogwarts, and they both resent their parents for different reasons. Through the entire story, Harry is trying to have a relationship with Albus without trying to push him more away. At the same time, Harry is getting visions of Voldemort returning. The story’s plot seemed to be more about Harry trying to be a good parent than actually saving the world. A better title would have been Harry Potter and the Magical Parenting Dilemma.
I felt that the story is a decent read, but I don’t think it is Harry Potter worthy. The book has the characters almost in their 40s, but they seem exactly like the teenagers that we last met them as. The story also has some plot holes and a few continuity errors, but nothing major. I think that the story had a lot of potential, but it did not amount to what it could have been. This is not the Harry Potter book that fans deserve. It is not the worst story I’ve ever read, however. I give the story two and a half stars out of five.