I...no. I'm not even going to dignify that with criticism.

 

How many pages are there in "Cursed Child?" This question may sound dumb, but it will give me an idea of how long it will take to read the book.

 

The last page with story is numbered 330. It won't take you as long to read as a 330 page novel though as there is far less text on each page.

 

This has probably been said in a few posts, but man, what a fuck up. What a fuck. up.

I have no idea how this will look on stage. I don't care. Rowling rocked my world in seven books and tore it down in one. She betrayed me personally.

I dunno about you, but Harry Potter got me through some shit, you know? A big world you could lose yourself in. I was prepared to overlook a lot of things--shitty characterisation, etc.

But this?

I've read better fics from thirteen-year old girls.

But yeah, Rowling pulled a James Patterson. It's based on an original story, written by co-authors. Yeah, yeah, heard that shit before.

This should be in the hall of shame.

 

What I can't believe is how many people on social media are gushing about this shit, this does deserve all the criticism and hate it gets.

People should really stop with excuses like the special effects were great ( it's the same shit like saying Avatar, Transformers are great) that are just things which add spice to a story what matters are characterization and plot not to mention that she just completely retcons facts for lazy plot convienience eg. fidelius charm, when was bellatrix pregnant, 180 on characterization, time travel.

This is far more terrible than the Star Wars prequels which were not completely terrible on script but shitty on execution I hope people will open there eyes and stop raining praise on this turd and look at the story by it's on merrits instead of being blinded by their love of HP and just accept everything as pure gold.

The thing is I would have loved a new franchise in the HP world which would focus on a complete new set of characters in the past instead of relying on old characters and tarnishing them in the process.

I am also one of the people who didn't hate everything new coming from Pottermore which was destroying their fanon, somethings were hit or miss or very lazy but they were never outright shit.

I actually believe that JK didn't just want to milk the franchise but genuinly wanted to create something which fans would enjoy and just lost her touch or let the co-writers do all the work. The women is spending millions on charity and doesn't seem the type to just wants to collect more money for the sake of it.

JK could have just avoided the whole mess with calling it a different world story and not embracing it as canon.

 

Shinysavage, a cool idea does not make a scene awesome. There's plenty of cool ideas in fanfic that weren't pulled off well. Cool ideas are a dime a dozen. CC is a turd with a fancy ribbon.

Lol at Joe, you actually tried to pick apart JK's math. Thanks for the laugh, mate.

 

I'm well aware of that. Forgive me my mildly rushed phrasing.

 

Eh, it wasn't great, or even all that good really, but I didn't hate it as much as everyone else around here did. There were some silly plot points, as described above, but I think the whole thing could have been significantly better if she'd written a proper novel instead of just releasing the script.

And look on the bright side: no one called Albus Severus "Asp." I'm gonna count that as a win.

 

I want to know the motivation for Harry becoming worst at magic as the stories progress. He has 2 duels in Cursed Child and losses both. One to Malfoy in which they use the same spells they did in 2nd year.

 

And then to a teenager with silvery-blond hair after he "looks at the doors, dismayed" because she used a Colloportus charm and apparently Alohomora is beyond his reach now?

 

Not to mention that the others fail to open the door from the other side. Maybe the locking charm really only enables to open doors using Alohomora from one side, but when you have magic, the ways to open a locked door are endless.

And apparently there is only one locking charm, which can be broken by a first year spell, and Minister Hermione uses it for her office. Right.

 

The biggest thing that threw me off was I haven't read many plays before. Instinctively I kind of just expected something like the original books. I did like parts, but it certainly wasn't what I was picturing in my head.

I agree with a lot of what people have said so far. Delphi effortlessly beating Harry in a duel pissed me off.

Some things I was unsure about. Like when Dumbledore tells Harry he was putting to much weight on his son because of his name. I couldn't tell if that was supposed to come off as sarcastic or not. I had to put the book down at the part where Albus told Harry he would have liked his parents. That was one of the more awkward lines.

Still would definitely see the play if I had the chance.

 

I've just finished the epub version of the story and I can't believe what I read. The thing is just bad fanfiction, it's a pity.

Worse, I feel insulted. When I was finishing it a couple of minutes ago I started to think in all the great authors that write fanfiction and do an excellent job, an thought how sites like DLP help them in their path to awesome writing, to become better authors, to improve. And this woman who has all these money hasn't improved anything in the last 9 years.

I hope, really hope, that Joe, Taure, Zennith, Sheeza, Enembee, Etchelion, Jon and all the superb writers we have on this forum, that all of you can sell tons of your books, make yourselves millionaires and live the rest of your life in perpetual glory. You certainly deserve it.

Fuck Rowling.

 

I think I can offer a counter view here. While I have been a DLPer for ages and have read my fair share of fanfics over the years, I haven't been obsessed with them and I think I've only read a total of < 10 proper fics in the last couple of years. It's usually 5-stars on DLP or nothing for me these days.

My thoughts:

a) It's a screenplay not a novel. We don't get to read any of the fundamental motivations or behind the scene action. We don't get to be inside a character's head. We don't get a whole lot of...anything really. It's just dialogue. That plays a part in my reduced enjoyment of it.

b) The plot, standing on its own merit, I found meh. I don't think it's the worst thing I've read in the world or anything, but it's not much to speak of. I can't in good conscience recommend it to someone and be all "go read that, it's worth it!". I can however, say to an existing HP fan (someone who isn't into fanfics too much) that it's something you might like.

c) They tried to compress a "kids adventure" tale and mix it with the existing world of HP mythos. Some of it worked, some didn't. I don't think Harry was given a "character assassination" as Taure called it. Much as you'd like to think otherwise, he's a 40 something dad who is a bureaucrat + auror head, making a few mistakes with his kids. It's fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. If the problem is that he wasn't as "badass" as people expected him to be, then I think they missed the entire point of the story. It's more a story about the family drama + adventure thrown in. Albus and Scorpious get the action, Harry and gang get side-roles, though inevitably, the final big scene still has its focus on Harry's story and not the kids, so it's kinda a mixed bag.

d) Delphi - Eeh. Bad villain. Poor execution. But again, I wasn't reading it as a good vs bad story where you have to have a great villain. I also don't think it necessarily ruins the canon -- I joined the fandom quite a long time after Voldemort's kid stories were popular so I've never actually read one, just heard from others how it's a terrible cliché. It's not a cool story, and Delphi is boring but again, not really really bad. Just meh.

So yeah that's pretty much it. Based on the standards I judge DLP stories on, I would give Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 2.5 / 5 stars. I don't hate it. Though I'll probably read it again if only because it's canon and thus, regardless of all the better stories I read, it does occupy that place in the HP world that nothing else can.

PS: She created the entire universe in the first place. She wrote all the books. She wrote the characters we all fell in love with. One bad book (or indeed 10 bad books) does not undo all that. To say "Fuck Rowling" is quite simply, petty and childish.

 

Especially because Rowling did not even write this, nor did she come up with the plot. This is not a testament to her skill as an author, nor as a world builder/plot creator. Honestly, it makes complete sense to her to endorse this as she is constantly hounded by fans wanting more. She probably got told that some guys wanted to make a play about Harry Potter and she knew her fans would love to see more, so she accepted.

Plus, I've heard the play is actually very good, even if the plot is weak. The special effects and acting have had amazing reviews. It shows what all is possible in a play nowadays-- magic included.

 

I wonder if you guys would consider it better or worse if the play had been a prequel? Say, it was based on Snape and Sirius and what happened in the Shrieking Shack. My memories kinda foggy was that canon or fanon that Snape was tricked into walkin' into there and almost eaten by Lupin?

Would people have been as pissed off if Cursed child hadn't altered the pre-existing canon and merely added to it?
With the Newt Scammander film coming out soon it seems unlikely that Marauder era book/movie will ever come about and it seems to me after reading the complaints that the chief ones about Cursed Child were

- Changed Canon and not for the better, if what I said above was actually canon the play would've added to the scant details known
-Plot, I'm assuming Rowling would be more invested in a play showing a scene referred too in the books and would be more involved in the script theoretically making for a better plot
-If the highlights of the Cursed Child play are the screen effects the same could be said for a play with a different premise but needing the same effects (spells and such)

Now this all speculation but say if Rowling had approved such a play would you all have been as mad over it? Not that something like this would ever happen though if another Harry Potter verse play came out I'd see it I didn't see this one because of all the bad reviews. Personally I'd prefer a marauder tv show.

 

Snape being tricked into entering the Shrieking Shack by Sirius is canon. James is able to stop him before he goes in.

A prequel certainly would have been interesting. I don't think that the events that occurred at the Shrieking Shack would have been a good enough overall conflict to make an entire play about though.

Also the play focused on Albus and Scorpius, who we knew nothing about. I think it's probably easier to work with them instead of the main characters for a prequel.

 

That'd definitely the thing I most agree with about the book. Say what you will about the plot in it's currently form, but if it had really good descriptions and better world building, I do think it could have been a lot better.

Lets be honest, would we have enjoyed the Harry Potter books as much as we did if it was only a screenplay with dialogue instead of a novel, lacking all the wonderful descriptions and character building?

 

She's credited with working on the story, i.e. the plot. So it's a testament to how badly she either compromised (highly unlikely) or how disconnected she's become since making a kajillion quid with the original series.

 

I can't believe she was very involved in the plot. There is a vast difference in quality between this and her other recent books. More likely she just gave the writers a couple ideas.