rebeccazh's reviews
2320 reviews

Surprisingly enjoyable. A romance built on friendship and goodwill rather than instalust.

Really fun book!! Really picks up when Marci enters the picture

Okay, long review coming up. I have so much to say about this. So basically this was pretty awful and I think this play has put me off Jack Thorne's work forever. Harry's story was finished in Deathly Hallows and I don't want to see it revisited. It was perfect the way it ended (I am ignoring that epilogue).

The main series has shown time and again, how the adults and the older generation fail to protect, care for and love the younger generation. The adults are flawed. They fail. It falls on the younger generation's shoulders to save the world, fight for themselves and their right to be who they are, invent new ways when the old ways fail. Sometimes, Harry and the others have to actively go against/evade/rectify the older generation's mistakes. There are few positive adult/parental figures. It's a huge burden, not to mention it is very unfair, to Harry and the others that they have to make up for their parents' mistakes and failings. In Cursed Child, there's this same failure of adult figures. Harry can't connect with Albus and succeeds only in driving him further away.

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There is the same helplessness and ineptitude of the older generation -- Harry and the others can do nothing about the fact that Albus and the others are lost in time and can only let the world be saved by the younger generation. Again.

I didn't like that the play was continuing this same message. It seemed like a step back. One good thing about this was that Albus shares none of Harry's strengths. I absolutely loved that although he looks like Harry, he is not actually Harry 2.0.

And the main series is already so conservative. It stays in the past. Everything is about the past, despite how hard Harry and the others tried to break free from it. The epilogue sucked because it was so defeating. It was the most frustrating and bitter ending for Harry and the others, who fought so hard for their own future because the old ways failed. But their new future is only a return to the status quo. That epilogue is dead to me, I don't accept it as canon.

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So I really didn't like that this play was about going back into the past. Again. I suppose you could consider it as going back to the past to work out a better way forward, but considering how it worked out, the play seems to be saying that everything had to have happened the way it did. Nothing can be changed. Time travelling also doesn't add to the overarching message of the HP series at all, it was merely a plot backdrop for dramatic tension, misunderstandings/conflict, and angst to foreground Harry and Albus' cracked relationship. How is that for Round 2 of a defeating and bitter message?

Which brings me to criticism number 3. I felt the author's hand SO strongly reading the play. I felt the authorial hand manipulating the characters so much. Honestly, I don't get why Jack Thorne was picked to write this play. The dialogue felt opaque and occasionally scripted. I could barely discern the tone or mood of the characters. There were ridiculous stage directions like, 'It’s a lame trick. Everyone enjoys its lameness.' or stuff like: 'DRACO walks up to the stage and stands beside GINNY. This is almost a Spartacus moment.' I facepalmed a lot reading it. Admittedly, the only other plays I've read are literature plays, so maybe I'm comparing unfairly. But the style really takes me out of it. I have no idea how the lines are meant to be spoken 90% of the time, whereas in other plays I've read, I have a crystal-clear idea of the emotion behind the lines. I felt half-blind reading this.

The internal logic of the world is totally inconsistent. A lot of small things contradict other things. This bugged me a lot. It's the authorial intervention again. Eg, Albus and Scorpius' startling resemblance to their parents (as though they're carbon copies) only makes an appearance when it's convenient to the plot. For the rest of the time, it's conveniently forgotten.

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When Albus and Scorpius time-travelled and saw young Hermione, who looks like a twin of Rose, they mistake her for Rose. But Hermione doesn't mistake them for Harry and Draco? Or the part where Albus-Ron forces his kisses on Hermione and just generally acts really weird, but she doesn't seem to think he's acting strangely at all. Is this how he always behaves?

The play is also really male-centric. Why, Jack Thorne, why. I think it just barely clears the Bedchel test. The women are always talking about the men's problems. Like, this play's Ginny is so supportive and understanding, I would love her as a friend, but literally every line out of her mouth is about Harry, Albus or the guys' problems. She has barely any story of her own.

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Except that really good bit about being possessed. But that's like 5% of all her lines.

She doesn't exist except as an understanding, supportive, nurturing wife. And Hermione. I love Hermione and I love the representation they gave her, but I'm not sure what contributions Hermione makes to the play. You could take her out and the play functions exactly the same. Less Romione, and that's about it (is Jack Thorne a major Romione shipper, because Romione was like the ship to sail all ships in this play). Likewise for McGonagall.

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As for Delphi, she literally existed only to create plot conflict and danger. The only real moments in her arc -- her need/want for acknowledgement/recognition/love from Voldemort -- were used to support Harry's arc. I loved that moment, but Delphi is one of the laziest character-work I've seen in a while. You could replace her with any other stock, evil character and it still works. And Astoria was fridged for Draco and Scorpius' manpain. Sigh.

And this brings me to the next thing I disliked. Thorne was so lazy with the characters. Not only did he butcher all the female characters, he also butchered a number of the male characters. What was the point of Ron in this whole play. At first, I liked it. I thought, 'oh, Ron is really soft/supportive and comfort-loving, he seems to be the house-husband to Hermione's breadwinner. Cool'. Nope. He was one of the greatest casualties of Thorne's character assassinations, besides Ginny. As the play went on, he was reduced more and more into a buffoonish character who existed only for lame jokes that are clumsy attempts to lighten the mood. I facepalm. It is insulting seeing Ron like this.

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Thorne also tried to redeem Snape -- Snape was so noble. SO noble -- but he diminished Dumbledore, which I find somewhat ironic. Neither Snape nor Dumbledore is better than the other. They were both abusers in different ways. I love them both, but they're problematic faves. Cedric Diggory is another character who was assassinated. Honestly, he is one of those genuinely nice people but he is revealed to be a weak person who turns sour at the slightest mishap.

Reading this play has made me dislike Thorne's work. I don't think I will ever willingly pick up anything by him. I don't like his style and I dislike the obvious authorial manipulation of events and characters. I dislike his male-centric bias and I dislike his no-homo/heteronormative ending when it came to Albus and Scorpius. Representation-wise, it reads like a play by a conservative cishet white man.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Okay, the big four: Harry, Albus, Scorpius, Draco. I liked Draco a lot. He was well-written. I am totally satisfied with his character -- it does feel like an older Draco. Scorpius was absolutely precious. What a cinnamon roll. I love him. He's one of those characters you would love to befriend if you met them in real life because that's how likeable he is.

Albus has the best arc in the whole play. He started out antagonistic, hostile, unpleasant, defensive, judgmental, but through the course of the play, matured into someone who stops resisting the people in his life. He comes to embrace and accept Harry, and comes to feel proud and protective of Harry, which I honestly love. Albus' arc is so satisfying. It redeemed a lot of things for me.

Harry, though. I don't see him as the Harry of the main series because he feels far too different. There were events that happened that felt totally unnecessary, as though it was there for gratuitous angst/Harry-bashing. There was so much Harry-bashing. I felt so bad for him.

But Harry himself was surprisingly well-written (if you pretend he's an AU Harry because he's really so different from the main series Harry). He is humbled and made mortal. He has all these failings and flaws and goes into a sort of tailspin because he is utterly lost and has no idea how to deal with anything.

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The survivor's guilt was one of the few plot points I actually liked. It felt like a very natural continuation/consequence of everything that's happened to him and the things people accuse him of. It was real. I wish it had been elaborated on. Speaking of insecurities, Ginny and Draco's few lines about wanting to be like the Golden Trio were so good too. I loved that part. I wish there was more. I also loved Ginny talking about being possessed. I wish there was more of that in the play.

Other things I liked: it was so good seeing these characters again. It's like seeing the familiar face of a friend again.

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I loved that Hagrid cameo near the end.

I loved how Ginny is so kind and compassionate.

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I liked how noble Snape was. I even enjoyed that Dumbledore scene where he was so diminished.

I liked how solid and strong Hermione was. I loved seeing Harry again. He is so dear to me, I'm so fond of him. I LOVED Albus and Scorpius' relationship. Forgot to mention this, but I absolutely love it. Nice continuation of 'love saves the day'. Their relationship is so good and so solid and genuinely enjoyable. Also loved Draco and Scorpius' relationship. Draco's love for his son gives me life.

One thing I absolutely loved was that this series actually talked about the characters' trauma and PTSD. That was so good. Harry has survivor's guilt and nightmares and PTSD, Ginny talks about being possessed and sharing Draco's loneliness, etc.

A big thing that really redeemed this play for me was the ending.

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It felt so cruel, making Harry watch as his parents were killed. It seemed like gratuitous angst, to be honest. Meant to incite some reaction in the audience. But even through that, Albus' protectiveness and support for Harry showed how far he has progressed.

That scene between Albus and Harry was so well-written -- the way it tied up loose ends, revealed vulnerabilities, and was so honest and real -- was so good.

The play is both better and worse than I expected. I expected absolute trash but there were actually little nuggets of gold in it. As a whole, I think I have to say that the best thing in the play is honestly the characterisation of the four men. But please, JK Rowling, never ever ever write another Harry Potter book or play or script or whatever.