Ah, The Life Of A Fangirl....

Ah, the life of a fangirl....

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HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD BOOK REVIEW

(*SPOILERS AHEAD*)

 AUTHOR: J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany

PUBLISHED DATE: July 31, 2016

SERIES: Harry Potter [Original Script by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany]

PAGES: Approx. 320 pages

RATING: 4/5 STARS

 The eighth story – 19 years later.

 Rumors about J.K. Rowling continuing the adventures of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley have been circulating the Internet since the publication of Deathly Hallows in 2007. Although there are 7 full-length novels, 8 movies, 3 companion stories, several video games, a couple thousand fanfiction websites, numerous blogs, Pottermore, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter amusement parks located in California, Florida and Japan – the world still constantly asks for more adventures about the Boy-Who-Lived and his two best friends. It wasn’t until December 2013 that it was revealed to the world that a play about the much-beloved fantasy series was being put into production, with plans to launch the performance in 2016 at the latest.

 At first, because of certain choice comments released to the media, it was believed that the play, The Cursed Child (its official title was revealed June 2015) would center on Harry Potter and his parents, James and Lily. The idea that this was going to be a prequel story about the Potter parents and their son, with speculation revolving around the concept that the play would start in James’ and Lily’s 7th year, follow as they graduate Hogwarts, marry, and fight in the Order of the Phoenix, eventually leading up to their deaths by Voldemort, continued for some time before Rowling herself admitted that The Cursed Child was actually a sequel to the book franchise, with the story centering around Albus Severus Potter, Harry and Ginny’s second child and son.

 Divided into two parts and four acts, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened at West End Palace Theatre, London, scheduled on July 30th, 2016. On July 31st, 2016 – Harry Potter and the J.K. Rowling’s shared birthday – a printed and digital copy of the two-part play, a special first edition entitled “Special Rehearsal Edition,” was released, with plans for a finished, re-edited “Definitive Collector’s Edition” to be released in 2017.

 *~*~*~*

 Two boys from two different families. One with a family legacy that he fears he’ll never live up to; the other with a legacy he fears he will never escape from.

 Albus Severus Potter arrives at Hogwarts with a particular set of expectations already placed on him. Not unlike his father, Harry Potter, Albus must contend with other people’s estimation on what kind of person he is, the kind of wizard he’ll grow up to be, and how he’ll measure up to the legacy left behind not only by his father but also his namesakes, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

 Scorpius Malfoy – the son of Harry’s rival Draco Malfoy – also has expectations, but whereas Albus is viewed favorably due to his family and name, Scorpius is looked down upon with fear, disgust and morbid curiosity. There are rumors circulating the Wizarding World about Scorpius Malfoy’s true parentage, rumors that make him out to be something much worse than the son of an ex-Death Eater. Surprisingly, despite the fact that he physically resembles his father Draco, people speak – in hushed tones – that Scorpius is actually the progeny of Voldemort.

 Neither boy looks alike nor do they come from the same background, family, or circle of friends. The burden of their legacies, however, bonds the two children, and from there, a friendship is born.

 Being sorted into Slytherin helps to strengthen that friendship; it does nothing to alleviate Albus’ situation. From the first night at Hogwarts, through the rest of first year, then second year, then third, Albus is continuously judged by the other students on not only his choice of House but also his choice of friends, his lack of flying talents, and everything else that sets him apart from the rest of his family. Sullen and resentful, by the beginning of fourth year, Albus has resigned himself to being the “black sheep” of the family.

 Harry Potter’s life is no easier than his son’s. Despite the war being over and Voldemort dead, there is still much trouble needing to be dealt. He cannot seem to mend his straining relationship with his youngest son, and he’s being plagued with nightmares about his past. If that wasn’t bad enough, in between working as an Auror, managing as Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department, and juggling his responsibilities as a father and husband, he, Hermione (the current Minister of Magic) and Ron stumble upon a magical item that no one thought they’d ever see again, at least not after the Battle at the Ministry of Magic: a Time-Turner. The discovery of such an object brings a figure from the past to Harry’s doorstep, and when Albus overhears this particular conversation, it sets into motion a daring quest to change the past and bring back to life a much-missed character.

 What neither Albus or Harry or anyone could’ve predicted, this same quest may end up resulting in Voldemort’s return. After all, why else would Harry’s scar start to hurt again?

 *~*~*~*

 Reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was a quick and enjoyable experience. Unlike the 7 novels and 3 companion books, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is printed in the script format, so there isn’t much detail about the surroundings, classes, people and events that were featured. It was a new way to experience Harry Potter, certainly, and made for a quick reading, but there were several issues. A lot of scenes took place in familiar settings – the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, Dumbledore’s (now Minerva’s) office, the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch pitch – so it wasn’t difficult to picture it mentally because a lot of the scenes came from watching all 8 Harry Potter movies. What was difficult about reading The Cursed Child in the script format was when it came to certain scenes involving magic, transformations, duelings, and subterfuge. A great part of the reason why I want to see the play for myself is because I want to see how the theatre adapted the Wizarding World onto a live stage: I want to see the costumes, the stage props, the background designs, hear the sounds and see the lighting and how they accomplish making it look like the actors were doing magic or transforming into each other with the use of Polyjuice Potion. Another difficulty is the lack of emotional empathy for the characters introduced, most especially the new ones. Caring for Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny or even Draco comes from the fact that we were able to connect with them because Rowling had fleshed out their characters and was able to elaborate on their thoughts, emotions, decisions and pasts; I enjoyed the characters that were newly-introduced in The Cursed Child but I couldn’t feel as strongly for them because we were only able to garner their personality from the dialogue they had and speculate on everything else about them.

 The story for The Cursed Child was certainly an interesting one. I wouldn’t have guessed that Time-Turners would come back into the story, although this probably fulfills the wishes of every reader whom wished that J.K. Rowling expanded on the time-travel magic that she introduced in Prisoner of Azkaban but never thought to bring up again. A probable reason for why Rowling hadn’t involved time travel more is most likely because it’s a confusing concept with many variables, outcomes and possibilities for paradoxes and the sort, assuming she goes for the basic rules of time travel: the butterfly effect, fixed timeline events, paradoxes, etc. It was certainly confusing in The Cursed Child, more so because there was little elaboration on how time travel magic worked in the Wizarding World and how one’s actions in the past ultimately led to the new future created.

 Another surprise was the subject of Voldemort having fathered a child. That idea always seemed more like a fanfiction story prompt than an actual detail belonging to the story of Harry Potter. Needless to say I was shocked that it featured here in The Cursed Child. And I thought that the idea of Scorpius actually being rumored to be that child was laughable. Even disregarding the physical resemblance to Draco, I got enough of an impression on Scorpius’ personality to know that no one in their right mind would believe he was related to an ex-Death Eater, much less be the son of the Dark Lord.

 I was greatly overjoyed about Harry’s, Hermione’s and Ron’s return in The Cursed Child. Now adults and married, with kids in school and their own individual careers, everyone’s favorite Golden Trio continue their lives as both family and friends now that Voldemort has been vanquished and the Ministry and Wizarding World is rebuilt. In the 19 years that have passed since the end of the war, Harry, Hermione and Ron have experienced much and it shows in the small changes to their personalities. The most noticeable change is Harry: juggling his work and his family life is no easy task, but the strain shows in particular when it comes to Albus, whom during one particular scene he has a bad argument with. Readers will know which scene I’m talking about; it’s the same scene that most people take issue with because of how out-of-character Harry responds to Albus and then to McGonagall in a later part of The Cursed Child. I have my own issues with this scene but I put it down to the fact that Harry as an adult is a different person to when we last saw him as a 17-year-old hero, and that because we skipped to 19 years later, we weren’t able to see how him develop into the person, father and husband he is now.

 Because of how the play is written and how long it would actually take to perform, it’s understandable that certain things couldn’t be properly explained and why certain characters didn’t appear or weren’t even mentioned. That being said, it’s another disadvantage of The Cursed Child being released in script form. James Sirius and Lily Luna, Harry’s and Ginny’s other children, appeared in, at most, three scenes total in The Cursed Child and then never mentioned again. None of the Weasley’s beyond Ginny and Ron appeared; none of the other kids of the new generation (besides Rose Weasley) appeared; not even Neville and Luna appeared in The Cursed Child. Only Neville has been given a mention at all the entire script. It was disappointing that we weren’t able to check in on any of the other characters, especially in regards to the situation, or how they thought it should be dealt, and that other characters that were featured were given a brief cameo at best.

 For all its problems, The Cursed Child is still something worth checking out. I can’t honestly say that The Cursed Child met everyone’s expectations, and for some of us it came as something of a disappointment because of how certain scenes were written, what certain characters did and how the story progressed, because I know that another issue is the fact that the Time-Turner and its uses, discovery, and creation were never properly explained and that, in turn, caused a bit of confusion regarding the storyline.

 That doesn’t mean, however, that The Cursed Child didn’t have its own merits and value. Although I can’t say that I love The Cursed Child with the same energy as the novels and movies, that’s an unfair comparison. When read and analyzed on its own, the story was intriguing, the characters were a great surprise in how we came to know them and re-know them, and despite the lack of details and explanations, it gave readers the chance to mentally build up the story in their own minds, which is something we’ve always had to do before the movies were created. And that’s what we have to do now.

 At least until the play comes to America.

You are a myth born to the wrong age. You are the kind of book that has magical stories trapped in every single page.

-Nikita Gill, wild embers: poems of rebellion, fire and beauty

The Suicide Shop: A Book Review

The Suicide Shop by: A Book Review

AUTHOR: Jean Teulé

TRANSLATOR: Sue Dyson

RELEASED DATE: 2007 (French); 2008 (English)

PAGES:  Approx. 169 pages

RATING: 4/5 STARS

 While I was walking around a local book store several years ago, I chanced a glance at a book rack that contained several choice books that were either new releases or at discount price and my eyes were immediately drawn to this tiny blue paperback with the strangest title and book cover I have ever seen.

 Intrigued by what it was about (although I had a fair guess, considering the title), I read the back and next thing I knew, I was taking the book home. I didn’t even finish the description on the back before I realized I was at the cash register in that book store. All I knew is that I wanted to see how such a story like this would unfold.

 *~*~*

HAS YOUR LIFE BEEN A FAILURE? LET’S MAKE YOUR DEATH A SUCCESS.

 That is the slogan – and motto – of the Tuvache’s family-owned business, The Suicide Shop, where a variety of weapons, poisons and equipment are sold (legally) to the miserable people that live in this post-apocalyptic future ravaged by a number of environmental disasters.

 Meet the Tuvache family: Mishima, father, husband and proud owner of his family’s little shop. Lucréce, mother, wife, and maker of poisons. Vincent, the anorexic eldest son who invents new weapons. Marilyn, the obese daughter who feels little self-worth. And Alan, the youngest child…and also the black sheep of the family.

 Alan is most unlike his family, who are each depressed in their own manner, to the point of wanting to commit suicide themselves. From the moment he was born, he has had a love of life that mystifies customers that enter The Suicide Shop and frustrates his parents and siblings to no end. Any attempts to demoralize him or rid him of his cheerful manner backfire, and Alan is prone to driving customers away or sabotaging the equipment in the shop.

 Unused to the cheerfulness that he displays, even in the face of tragedy, the Tuvache family tries to carry on with their lives – and business – in the same depressed manner that is their entire reality. But little by little, Alan’s influence has each of his family members question the impossible: whether they, too, can come to enjoy life.

 *~*~*

 Despite its title, I found I enjoyed this book. The Suicide Shop was a quick and easy read, with peculiar characters in a strange setting and an easy plot to follow.

 Although the topic of suicide is a serious and sensitive topic, especially for those who have been affected by it personally, I found that a good way to approach reading this book is to react to it with the same morbid curiosity and delight that we feel towards dark comedies such as The Addams Family, Beetlejuice, or any film directed, produced or imagined by Tim Burton. The Suicide Shop is a dark comedy, and while most of the humor is in a morbid sense, there are genuinely funny moments that make it possible to enjoy this book. The Suicide Shop maintains a good balance as the story unfolds: for all its morbid talk about suicide, there are enough light moments that you can tell the topic isn’t being treated with condescension or lack of sympathy, empathy or compassion.

 The Suicide Shop was a little under 200 pages, and it’s a relatively small book so I wondered, when I first bought it, what would happen in this book, and why it wasn’t a very long read. Within the first few chapters, I realized several things:

 First, the background setting for this story isn’t important. Some details about the post-apocalyptic world that The Suicide Shop resides in have been given – enough that you know that it’s a disaster where few people feel like living in anymore – but it’s clear from reading the book that the setting isn’t very important to the plot. Its only significance is that it provides a (legitimate) reason for The Suicide Shop to exist in this universe.

 Secondly, nothing happens plot-wise within the story, at least not in a big sense. The Suicide Shop is a story driven more by the characters’ interactions with each other than by any particular event or tragedy. And I found I didn’t mind that very much, because this story was about the Tuvache family and their youngest son, and the influence they had on each other and to the people around them. That being said, while reading I did feel the story lulled nearing the end of the book because not much seemed to be happening and my enjoyment was slowly growing into boredom.

 Third, I could see that the main conflict in the story would be Alan and his influence on the Tuvache family, both personally and while in The Suicide Shop. Most of the story is told from the perspectives of the parents and the siblings, and it wasn’t until near the end of the book that we finally got a glimpse into Alan’s way of thinking. And I could see why it was written that way. The Suicide Shop is about each of the Tuvache members allowing themselves to fall in love with life, to have Alan influence them to look at things differently and react differently to both each other and to others in a positive manner. And we’re allowed insight to their way of thinking as it changes, from bleak and depressive to self-appreciative and enjoyment.

 Even though the book wasn’t long and you didn’t get to spend enough time with the characters to develop a strong attachment to them, you can still enjoy them. Alan became my favorite, simply because I enjoyed his character and his actions: the measures he took to sabotaging the equipment and what he did for each of his family members that eventually changed them and their views on life. I really enjoy the fact that despite his bleak surroundings, he continues to maintain a positive and cheerful outlook.

 And then ending happened.

 Oh. Dear. God. I was NOT expecting that ending. I had to re-read that last chapter because I could not believe that that ending happened. It’s one of those twists that you have to re-read over and over again, and then wonder to yourself if the author made a mistake somewhere. Or in this case, if the translator made a mistake…because this ending was NOT what I thought it was going to be.

 Long story short: my heart broke a little. And if you happen to chance upon this book somewhere and give it a try – which, if done, shouldn’t take longer than a day because of how easy this book is and how quick you can read it (I read it in a day) – be warned: yours might break a little inside too.

 Ultimately, I commend The Suicide Shop for this unique setting and story concept. A part of me did wish it was a longer book and that more details were given in regards to the setting, the characters and the history of this family, and especially to what would happen to the Tuvache family after that surprise ending (I’m not getting over this one, anytime soon, by the way.), but another part of me likes at how quick and easy a read this was, and also I enjoyed what this book was mostly about: allowing yourself to find happiness despite the bleak past, present and future of your world; falling in love with yourself and with your life; using your talents to create things; and letting go of past scars.

Love Locks fence

Prescott, AZ

A beautiful assortment of locks featuring intials, whole names, dates -- coming in all shapes and colors; some vintage and others more modern-looking.

So much love in the world. And a thousand ways to express it.

I pray that all of these have a happy ending.