Review: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

WARNING: RANT & SPOILERS

Please read the above sentence. If you loved The Cursed Child and/or if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want the story to be spoiled for you, stop reading now. You’ve been forewarned.

I want to start off by saying that I went into reading Harry Potter and The Cursed Child knowing that J.K. Rowling didn’t write it herself (did you know that? If not, you should it explains a lot), but she did give it her blessing, and I went into it with an open mind. I was very excited to be transported back into the HP universe and brought back to my childhood and teenage years of wonderment, ready to be immersed in wizardry, spells, Hogwarts, the lot of it, 19 years later.

It started off fine, I had no issues reading the screenplay style and it picked up right where The Deathly Hallows left off on Platform 9 ¾ left off with Harry talking to Albus Severus about how it would be okay if he was sorted into Slytherin. From there we’re introduced to Rose, Hermione and Ron’s daughter, cousin to Albus, and Scorpius, son of Draco Malfoy. Rose tries to warn Albus away from socializing or being seen with Scorpius because there are rumors surrounding him that he is the son of Voldemort -which right off the bat I was like what? Anyway- but Albus makes his own choice to stay with him on the train on their first trip to Hogwarts, Rose leaves, and it’s the start of a long friendship.

So, Albus gets sorted into Slytherin (shocker, I know), and a few years go by and Albus and Scorpius have become great friends. He resents that Harry is his father and he’s very emo. Scorpius is basically a mish-mash of Ron & Hermione’s personalities, nothing like Draco at all. One summer while Albus is home, Amos Diggory, Cedric’s dad - you remember him from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire don’t you? - pays a visit to Harry asking him to use a time-turner that the Ministry is rumored to have confiscated (as all others were destroyed after the previous war) to go back and save Cedric. Harry denies its existence and says no. Delphi, Amos’ niece (or is she!?) pops up and gets into Albus’s head and basically convinces him that he should go back in time and save Cedric. It will be his big moment and maybe that can gain some respect with his father. He and Scorpius get the time-turner, go back, manage to screw everything up, have to get help to fix everything, and then everything’s right in the end. Along the way we find out Voldemort did have a kid, and it was Delphi all along, and her mom was Bellatrix….


1. Voldemort having a kid at all brings up so many issues I have a hard time figuring out where to start. He thought he was so high and mighty would he have really brought himself low enough to breed with someone? And yes, that’s exactly how he would have thought of it, breeding. He thought he was better than everyone.

2. Bellatrix being the mother - I mean, if it had to be anyone, I can see why she would be the choice, but still, see my above point.

3. Her giving birth at Malfoy manor before the battle of Hogwarts - again, plausible, but Draco not knowing about it? His parents were living in the house at the time. How could they not know and why wouldn’t they have, at some point, not spilled the beans? It’s pretty freaking hard to hide a pregnancy for 9 months, plus a birth, and with Bellatrix being a top ranking Death Eater, how did NO ONE talk? And why, when Hermione used polyjuice potion to become her in The Deathly Hallows to get into Gringotts, didn’t anyone question her not being pregnant?


Depending on your theory of time travel, and sticking with J.K.’s own from Prisoner of Azkaban, Albus and Scorpius going back in time in the Goblet of Fire MAKES NO SENSE. It would have come up in the narrative! They directly interacted with Hermione, yet she has no recollection of this? More plot holes!

Overall, I think it might make a good play and would be fun to see live in person and it’s the only reason I’m giving it 3 stars. Mostly it read like a piece of fan fiction. I’m kind of surprised it received her approval as it was. The more I think about it the more upset I get. I know I can’t be the only one! I’ve heard mixed reviews, and I think most people that consider themselves to be huge fans feel similarly.


Okay, rant over.

What did you think? Do you agree? Did you love The Cursed Child? Did you hate it? Are you in between?