I’m writing this post with a head buzzing with thoughts, heart fluttering with feelings, and eyes brimming with tears as I’m in a roller coaster of emotions that’s been tumbling since I returned home from work and sat with my iBook copy of the long awaited 8th book of Harry Potter, the one with the Cursed Child.

Is it really an 8th book? A proper sequel to the battle of Hogwarts set 19 years later? I couldn’t allow myself to get too attached the the book nor let myself believe it was a “real” or “100% authentic” new Harry Potter book. I was afraid. I didn’t want to be let down by it, I know its based on a sold out play and its not only J. K. Rowling’s name on the cover, I’m not sure what to expect and I had a feeling that… well.. this story is only make belief and this Harry book is a fraud.

That being said, my fear didn’t stop me searching for the book ever since it went up for pre-order. I tried to be there in the UK for the book release but my plans fell through. Thank god for ebooks, for I woke up in the morning and downloaded and read an entire 10 pages before I even made it to my desk t work! Good news for people living in Kuwait: a physical copy is to be found in That Al-Salsil in the avenues.

So? so so so? Was it Harry Potter?

Again let me tell you, if you are looking for a good old all-narrated by Harry long novel with exceptional details and endless characters and creatures with names you cannot even pronounce, then you will be disappointed. This book is actually a “script”. It’s the offical script of the new Harry Potter play that is shown currently in London and is sold out until summer 2017 -tickets for my next birthday as a gift will be much appreciated by yours truly, just hinting-. So when you open the first page, you’ll realise its arranged in Acts and Scenes and not in chapters and the index is just like that, acts and scenes and if should you lose your place without bookmarking it then tough luck. It is not being narrated by anybody, it is a description of the play and the lines of each character. It might be a tad annoying and unusual, but eventually you get over it and start to enjoy it. It also means that the 420 pages fly by in a glance and it flows easily and -sadly, quickly.

Will it quench your thirst for Harry?

Well, I am reading, thirsty for Harry and his adult married life, early on as the time flies too quickly you give out a couple of real loud gasps -plot surprises, no spoilers!- yet you are interrupted by by Albus Severus Potter, the sultry teenage son of Harry who is moping and moaning, trying to shrug out from under his father’s famous and not so invisible clock. Sometimes, I wanted to reach out and give him quite a smack on the head on Harry’s behalf and ask him to stop giving his father a hard time and let us catch up! Please! I mean, there are interesting things happening like everyone addressing Professor McGonagall as simply Minerva and Draco exclaiming about a Farmer’s Market -yes, imagine, epic! No spoilers-. I just wish Ms. Rowling would do us all a favour and re-write a much detailed and a longer, much longer, version of this story and perhaps 2 more in between, one for each decade we’ve missed from Harry’s life.

Another thing, a lot of the characters we love and miss don’t even get a mention in the play. I understand you cannot squeeze the entire world of Harry Potter in one play -actually two plays in two days- but, well, WHERE IS HAGRID! WHAT HAPPENS TO HAGRID? WE WANT HAGRID UPDATES! Ehem…

At the very heart of the story, its the values of loyalty and friendship that stand out and make the biggest appearance. It always has been, no? Harry’s storey is not really just about magic, its about being lonely and finding in friendship a home away from home. This story is no different, it clearly about how far would you go to battle loneliness, would you stay true to yourself at the risk of being left all alone? Or would you surround yourself with people you don’t even like, become a copy of what they expect you to be, forsaking loneliness and as collateral damage your sense of true self? Which one would you choose? How loyal can you be, should you find friendship along the way?

You don’t really get to know where J. K. Rowling Starts and where the other writers end, but I promise you that the more you read the less you will care about that. By the time you reach the end you will forget that you are reading a play script, it will be a story, a much shorter and less concentrated story of Harry yes but it is about Harry. You will laugh, and cry, and gasp, and cry some more, and I assure you had I not looked like a dement or I would have posted my picture cloaked with my blanket and tears streaming down my face reading this book. I will leave you now with two of my favourite quotes from the book, again no spoilers, and I will wait for you to finish it up and come join me, for I’m bursting for someone to discuss this one with.

“I am no fit person to love… I have never loved without causing harm” ˜Albus Dumbledore.

“In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breather”. ˜Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore always has the wisest quotes now, hasn’t he?

Oh and one last quote, my favourite Potter quote of all time: “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” ˜Professor McGonagall.

P.S. Dear J. K. Rowling, please some more? <3

P.S. 2. Happy 36th Birthday Harry, you’ve been missed <3