Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has gone on sale - and it's already being called "the publishing sensation of the decade".
The new story, a continuation of JK Rowling’s best-selling seven-volume saga about a boy wizard, is the first in the series since 2007. But the Cursed Child isn't one of Rowling's doorstopper novels. It is the script for the new stage play and written by playwright Jack Thorne, based on a story devised in collaboration with JK Rowling and director John Tiffany.
The two-part play is currently playing in London's West End, where it has received rave reviews, packed houses and spellbound audiences.
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The script was released on Sunday at midnight and begins where seventh book left off, with a grown-up Harry, Ron and Hermione waving goodbye to their children at King’s Cross as they head off to Hogwarts. There, Harry's younger son, Albus, meets Scorpius, the son of old school foe Draco Malfoy.
Rowling has spent months begging fans to "keep the secrets" of what happens next, but she need not have worried, says Hannah Furness in the Daily Telegraph. The "publishing sensation of the decade" is under way with record pre-sales and "a return to the nostalgia of print".
"Bookshops returned to conditions not seen since the last Harry Potter novel was published," says the journalist, who describes the host of midnight openings and notes the unprecedented pre-sale orders, going well into six figures.
Thank goodness, then, that Cursed Child, even in script form is such a treat, says Constance Grady on Vox. She calls the script "warm, witty, and wildly inventive" and says it's "so much fun to see Harry again, now slightly more world-weary but just as awkwardly heroic as ever".
It’s also great to see Hermione "ruling the world as Minister of Magic like we always knew that bad bitch would" and Ron "making a non-stop stream of dad jokes because of course he is".It's not perfect, admits Grady, but who cares when it's this enjoyable?
However, ten-year-old speed-reader Toby L’Estrange, who finished the book in 59 minutes, awarded Cursed Child just six out of ten, reports The Independent.
His main criticism is the "lack of time with each character", adds the paper, with most scenes being quite short and the storyline requiring knowledge of the previous Harry Potter instalments.
Yes, if you’re not familiar with the original books and characters, good luck following all this, says Charlotte Runcie in the Daily Telegraph. The new story dives straight into the action, with no pause for recaps, but its combination of "pacy plotting and wit-driven dialogue feels fully part of Rowling’s vision".
The script of course cannot capture the jaw-dropping visuals that have impressed audiences for the stage show, continues Runcie. But "the emotional climax is devastating even on paper" and once again, Rowling's world is "most powerful when it sets aside magic" for "the basic, brutal and human mechanics of love and grief".
The thrill of a new Harry Potter book, even in script form, "is its own kind of magic spell".
