Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
John Tiffany, 2016
Fantasy Young adultContemporary fiction
Nineteen years after Voldemort's fall, Harry's youngest son boards the Hogwarts Express carrying a name he never chose. Dialogue and stage directions carry a tense father-son story about legacy, longing and identity, with moments of wonder.
Feels like longing and wonder. About family, identity and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy Harry Potter's world seen through family conflict and adolescent identity, especially in script form. Be aware that this is a play text, so much of the story arrives through dialogue and stage directions rather than novelistic prose.
Why read it
It gives you a grown Harry wrestling with fatherhood and a son trying to escape a famous name, in a dramatic, accessible form.
A page from the book
When a powerful father becomes the source of all your limitations.
So what would you like me to do? Magic myself popular? Conjure myself into a new house? Transfigure myself into a better student? Just cast a spell, Dad, and change me into what you want me to be, okay? It’ll work better for both of us. John Tiffany.The play was developed by J.K. Rowling with director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne; it opened in London in 2016 and won nine Olivier Awards.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy Harry Potter's world seen through family conflict and adolescent identity, especially in script form. Be aware that this is a play text, so much of the story arrives through dialogue and stage directions rather than novelistic prose.
- What is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child like?
- Dialogue and stage directions carry a tense father-son story about legacy, longing and identity, with moments of wonder. Feels like longing and wonder. About family, identity and memory.
- What should I read after Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?
- If you liked Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, try The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (V.E. Schwab), Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides) and The Hawthorne Legacy (Jennifer Lynn Barnes).
A taste of the feed
The difference between being remembered and being known.
Last night, she told him hers was Jess. She lied, but only because she can’t say her real name—one of the vicious little details tucked like nettles in the grass. Hidden barbs designed to sting. What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind? She has learned to step between the thorny weeds, but there are some cuts that cannot be avoided—a memory, a photograph, a name.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue · V.E. Schwab
A rule for surviving being left, and the cost folded inside it.
The trick to being abandoned was to never let yourself long for anyone who left.
The Hawthorne Legacy · Jennifer Lynn Barnes
What it sounds like to be chosen by someone who knows you.
He’s still looking in my eyes. Staring me down like he did that dragon, chin tilted and locked. "I’m not the Chosen One," he says. I meet his gaze and sneer. My arm is a steel band around his waist. "I choose you," I say. "Simon Snow, I choose you.
Carry On · Rainbow Rowell
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