So, I have a confession to make: I am an enormous nerd. Show me a fictional literary world and I am putty in your hands. Give me Middle Earth, take me to Westeros, let me lose myself in Narnia. These are the places of my daydreams.
However, if I have to pick one that has the most special place in my heart, it’s Hogwarts. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were like actual friends to my nerdy child-self. I experienced their adventures vicariously through the books and then relived them all on-screen, spanning my childhood and well into my teenage years. It became a part of my life, and when the time came for it all to end I was genuinely heart-broken. I still remember sitting in the cinema watching Deathly Hallows Pt.2 with my friends, us three girls holding hands and bawling our eyes out for the conclusion to the Battle of Hogwarts (our other friend Conor sitting in the middle and slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation). That was it. It was over. No more Harry Potter…
Years were spent getting over the loss, spending Christmases watching reruns of the movies and crying at all the same parts (Sirius, Dobby, Hedwig… JK Rowling, you are a cruel mistress). Pottermore gave us wands and sorted us into houses and every single scrap of new material from Rowling was lapped up to try and fill the dark, endless void. But then… a glimmer of hope… wait… could it be? It is, oh my god – it’s a new Harry Potter story! And so was born Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, which I got my hands on for Christmas.
The new story takes the form of a West End play and the book that was subsequently published contains the play’s script, a diversion from the novel form of the original series. The story will follow the new generation of Hogwarts, the children of Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione and Draco Malfoy. Harry’s youngest son is the protagonist of the tale and I’m assuming he’s the ‘Cursed Child’ in question, though what’s in store for him, I do not know! I can’t wait to get stuck into a new Hogwarts adventure, especially with the mix of the new and the familiar that this story is likely to bring. It will also be interesting to see how it goes reading Harry Potter in play form. In any case, I have high hopes for this book. Check back in the next issue to read my review!
-By Aoife O’Donoghue