Imagine with me, for just a moment. The year is 2007. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has just released. It’s over. Sure, there are still movies to be made. But those are not the same as JK Rowling’s literary masterpieces. For all intents and purposes, we are now living in a post-Harry Potter world. Or so we thought.
Fast forward to October 2015. A brief synopsis of a new story is published on Pottermore. This synopsis turns out to be for a new stage play premiering in London’s West End: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Book eight of the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released on July 31, 2016. There were midnight release parties galore. People cosplayed. People drank Butterbeer. The hype was dialed way, way up.
But what is this new script about? Well, The Boy Who Lived is a middle-aged father of three children. The play is set nineteen years after the events of The Deathly Hallows. It picks up in King’s Cross Station just as Ginny and Harry are about to send off their sons James and Albus. It’s Albus’s first year and he’s a bit worried that he may be sorted into Slytherin. Harry reassures him that he will be fine.
So Albus goes to Hogwarts and befriends a boy named Scorpius. They’re both kind of outcasts for reasons I shan’t disclose here. (Spoilers) But Scorpius and Albus certainly have a knack for getting into trouble together. Like father, like son.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth book we have all been waiting for, albeit in the form of a script instead of the familiar novel we’re used to with Harry Potter. It does live up the hype. And for those who ask if we’re still into Harry Potter even after all this time? To them we say, “Always.”
If you love to read please join us in The Holler Book Club – a space to share reviews and recommendations.
Sarah King is a 17 year old senior at Letcher County Central. After high school she hopes to major in English and become a teacher. Until then, she is content reading books and writing in her free time.
