By Cynthia Ayala

The Eighth Story. Nineteen Years Later.

With Voldemort dead and gone, Harry Potter’s life hasn’t gotten any easier. As an overworked employee of the Ministry and a father of three, his life is as hard as ever. But not only for him. The past is creeping on the Potter’s, especially on his son Albus, and on their journeys, they must each come face to face with the darkness around them.

Published on July 31, 2016, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a work compiled by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. It is a special version of the story written by J.K. Rowling and adapted for the stage continues the story in a beautiful way that shows the challenges of parenthood and living up to your parents.

Wow, this was a great book to read and told the story of the father-son relationship very well. A lot is going on here to develop the characters that readers are so familiar with; characters that readers around the world grew up with (this reader included). So the challenge for the writers here was to bring these characters to life and jump them forward, think of a life and experiences for all of them to keep true to who they are, who they grew to be.

Probably the strongest aspect of the story was the father-son relationship. And not just the Potter’s. Let’s be honest here; Harry Potter is an awful father. No, it’s not his fault he was “the chosen one, ” but his legacy is one that is never going to go away, one that is, of course, going to put a burden on his children, especially one who is named after two equally famous men who died for his father. It’s tough, but not a tough sell. The dynamics were there, they built an amazing story, and the way the relationship grew and developed was one steeped in realism. It was believable, the emotions, what they said, how they reacted, was all so strong and very believable. To be fair, the only two who were good parents were Draco Malfoy and Ginny Potter. Draco was a phenomenal father in this novel, but that didn’t make his relationship with his son any easier. And that was the genius of the story because teenagers are tough and being a parent is tough. Everyone says the wrong thing or something they don’t mean when they’re angry, and it’s something that is real. It’s something that lent itself to making this a magical story.

As for the story itself, it was a doozy. It was expertly drawn up to carry-on the legacy of Harry Potter, but also different enough to make it a story not just about him but about his son and the past. At the end of the day, it’s a story about moving forward and letting go of the past. For the Harry Potter world that’s crucial because Harry Potter’s whole story has been about something in the past that some villainous pricks couldn’t let go of, prejudices they longed to hold onto. Moving forward is the only way to progress and the only way to grow.

With all of that going for it, this was such a joyous read. It had the tension, the believability, plot twists, and magic on every page to warm the hearts of Potter fans everywhere. Harry Potter was still an awful parent, and Rose Weasley wasn’t great either. Just saying, be warned (★★★★★ | A)