The year of #LongReads is slipping away, what with all these three-hundred page nothingburgers I keep on churning through, but that's okay. Here's the much-maligned sequel to the Harry Potter series. Why don't people love this? If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it's because it's a stage play rather than a book - and how many people read stage plays on the reg? And also because it was written by two guys who weren't J.K. Rowling. It's basically fan fiction. Fan fiction by professional writers, sure, but fan fiction all the same.
The story begins some nineteen years after the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - so, right where that book's epilogue stops, I guess - and focuses on Harry's black sheep of a son, Albus Severus, who's so unlike Harry that he ends up in Slytherin and befriends a Malfoy. Ga-whu? I actually liked this best in its early stages, as we just check in on our wizard friends nineteen years on in middle age. How's the gang all doing? Great to see you again. Anyway, what ensues is a messy and convoluted "Voldemort returns" story that really strains disbelief, considering how thoroughly he was beaten at the end of the main series and all. (Slight spoiler - we've got time travel, folks!)
I can't say this really enhanced the series in any way, but so what? I mean, forgive me, but was Harry Potter ever even "good," or was it just an entertaining example of good young adult fiction? I mean, for fuck's sake, if you think Harry Potter was something good enough to have a "legacy" that would be "tarnished" by this modestly entertaining epilogue of sorts, go back and read the first book again.
Bottom line, this was enjoyable and entertaining, albeit slight. But my hunch is that you either already knew that, or you were never interested in this book in the first place.
Now - let's get the year of #BigReads back on track with some seasonally appropriate Stephen King. (Damn, I've gotta settle on one hashtag.)
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