After years of sadness that the Harry Potter series was over, an eighth book was released… almost. A lot of people were surprised (and even upset!) that the book based on the play by J.K. Rowling was a play script. It’s based on the play, guys! We’re talking about an eighth Harry Potter book, and people are complaining?

To be fair, the plot was kind of like every other time travel book/movie, in that the main characters go to the past to fix the present, but end up almost destroying their future. And, they didn’t have a very good reason for going back in the first place. Why did Albus care at all about Cedric? Yes, he died, and yes, it involved his dad, but did he not consider the possible consequences of going back and changing things?

But, you say, he’s a reckless teenager! That’s just his character. However, this is not an acceptable excuse for almost erasing himself from existence. Albus is just like any other reckless teenage lead–not thinking about how his actions could hurt someone else. This kind of character is so infuriating because they don’t seem to learn anything at the end.

On the other hand, it was pretty good, minus the whole ‘we’ve seen this before’ part. Readers got to experience the magical world all over again, through a new lense. New lense, meaning both Albus’s point of view and play format. I didn’t really mind that it was a script. It made it very interesting, and it made description essential. In fact, the play format really set the scene in the readers’ minds, pun definitely intended.

Even though it was a plot that’s been used before, what plot hasn’t been reused? J.K. Rowling (and two other people, to be fair) brought it into the magical world, and brought the story alive, and reignited the fangirl (or boy) in every reader.