(based on a story by JK Rowling, and in collaboration with John Tiffany)

Many years after the end of the Harry Potter series, a new story starts centered on the children of several characters of the original series. In play form.

I have mixed feelings about this play. On the one hand, it was fun to hear more about What Comes Later. I didn’t mind the epilogue of Book 7, and I liked seeing what it was like for the future generation of the wizarding world. On the other hand, there was a lot of this story that felt off. For example:

• There was too much revisiting the old series, down to full-on dialogue, with a few tweaks. I would have preferred fewer scenes simply regurgitated from the books, and I would have preferred those that were revisited to be revisited faithfully, without liberties taken in dialogue.
• The characterization and writing felt very not-Rowling. I won’t go into details because it would involve spoilers, but there are definitely things I never would have expected certain characters (like Voldemort) to do. I have a hard time believing it.
• This doesn’t read like a play. This reads like a play that has been semi-novelized for reading purposes. I know that most people probably appreciate that, but I’ve been reading scripts on their own since my mid-teens, and would have just preferred a straight-up script.
• A lot of the story was very predictable. There were a few surprises – mostly because of the liberties taken with certain characters – but mostly it was easy to predict in advance.
• There were also some serious consistency issues, especially regarding some of the time-travel stuff. Again, can’t say more without spoilers.
• I didn’t feel like I got to know the new characters very well at all, and I really would have liked to, especially Scorpius.

Despite all that, I did enjoy the play somewhat, especially in the second half. I just felt like it could have been so much more, and it fell short of that mark. I’m unlikely to reread the book, but at least for awhile, I plan to keep it snuggled up to the rest of my Harry Potter series.