Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

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file1-3 Allow me to talk about Harry Potter series first.

Unlike many people who are in their (late) twenties now, I discovered Harry Potter books when first 3 or 4 books were already out. I remember hearing all about Harry Potter books but not really getting the hype. I was 23 years old and picked up "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" only after my manager, who was 10 years my senior, told me that had read it and loved it.

I read it and fell in love with it too, naturally.

But for me Harry Potter books have never been as life defying as for some people. I have always been an avid reader, ever since I was a kid. I have always loved fantasy: I grew up reading adult fantasy, and only as an adult, quite recently, started reading YA novels.

I have never been that much influenced by the series because I was already an adult and a reader and a fantasy lover before that. I loved the books and I loved the movies, but I have never been obsessed.

That is why even though I was excited by Pottermore, I never really explored it.

And that is why I was not really following any news regarding The Cursed Child. I did understand that it was a story in Harry Potter universe in a form of a play and will be released as a book. I was confused as to why it was so expensive and why they would want a script (something that is usually pretty short) published, etc. But I never expected it to be a real novel.

And here is where lies a problem for other readers: unless you are completely aware and okay to read a play - you will like it. Because it has all of our darling characters and familiar world, but IT IS NOT A NOVEL.

I stressed it out before but will do so again. And again. And again.

IT IS NOT A NOVEL.

It is a rather well written play. It is a script. It has enough production notes for a reader to recreate the actions in one's mind, but it is not written as a novel, therefore doesn't have the same character development and world building. It is not intended to be a novel. It is a whole different medium and is meant for producers and actors. Thus, it reads to some people as a very poorly written fanfiction instead of something written by J.K.Rowling.

And here comes problem number 2:

IT IS NOT WRITTEN BY J.K. ROWLING!

It is a script written by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne based on the world and the story by J.K. Rowling, but IT IS NOT ACTUALLY WRITTEN BY HER. She, obviously, wrote the story (the plot, the outline or an actually story - we do not know, but she came up with the idea) that the play was based on. But the actual script is not written by her. Naturally, the book has her name all over it, as you can imagine she holds all rights for anything that has to do with Harry Potter (which is reinforced by a very stern copyright warning inside the book). But having rights and having your name first on the book cover in big letters does not equal to being the person who wrote the script.

You see what I am saying?

A lot of people were misled, unintentionally, into thinking that this naturally would be a real, full fleshed novel. It looks like a book, so it must be a novel, right?

The hype surrounding the play, plus the plot that was kept as a mystery (I remember how many times Rowling had to post on Twitter over and over again how this was NOT a prequel), the fact that we were getting SOMETHING from Rowling again created this craze that completely blinded most of the readers.

You can't treat a script which was intended to be a script and nothing more, written by someone else, as a novel written by J.K.Rowling. It is not fair to the script and the work that was done by Tiffany and Thorne.

All those eager readers who anticipated something from Rowling herself let themselves down by overhyping this book. Believe me, I would have preferred to read a novel by her, or even a novella - heck, I'll take a short story - than get a quasi-HP novel written by someone else. But it is better to have something from hat universe than have nothing. Whether you want to accepted as canon is a whole different thing.

I personally liked the plot and I really enjoyed reading this script. I love plays and I could envision some parts - I bet they look amazing on stage! I know that I will never be able to see it live on stage, so for me reading the script was worth my time and money.

It was not perfect, but it was very good for a play. Lots of exposition, naturally, but lots of inside jokes too. At times it was hard to keep track of who is in the room and who left, but it was good. It was fun to revisit the world.

I don't want to talk about spoilers here. I thought about it and decided that the best thing to do is for you to go and read it and make your own opinion. So, I won't be doing a full spoilery review here.

Two things though (might be slightly spoilery, so if you'd rather know nothing - DO NOT READ FURTHER) that I want to mention.

One.

I disliked the fact that they turned Ron into a huge joke and kept him around for comic relief. This is not how Rowling wrote Ron (at times yes, but not always by far) and I expected him to grow into someone more stable and serious and not a tamed version of Mad Hatter.

Two.

I liked Scorpio way more than Albus, for many reasons. One of them being that Albus turned out to be in many ways like Harry, who was at times a bit of a prick, to be honest. His father James even more so. Albus has boldness and righteousness that was so typical for Potter (both James and Harry) at times. I did not like it, although I do understand that it is done for a reason and we do see character development for both Harry and Albus in this play.

Three (or two point five, if you like).

Queer baiting. If you read this book, you probably know what I am talking about it. It was mentioned by Jen Campbell in one of her videos and she didn't really say anything, so I can't claim being influenced into thinking this by her review. No, it is just something that is very clear once you get to the very end. (I still don't know why they wrote this the way they did.)

I liked the play. It is a very easy read and it can be pleasurable and fun if you leave your expectations of this being a novel before starting it. I can easily see myself reading it again and again. (And shipping Scorpio and Albus till the end of times.)

Because of some problems that I had with this script, I can't give it full 4 stars, so it is more of a 3.5-3.75 stars read for me.

Now I desperately want to re-read the whole series! Who is with me?

September Read-A-Thons

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I should have titled this post something like "September Read-A-Thons or How to Make Myself Even More Stressed During Vacation", because I will, hopefully, be away on vacation in September for about 3 weeks. Naturally, I do plan to take books with me (and I will post my TBR online) but participating in readathons while meeting with family and friends and traveling around? Ugh, madness. Anyway. I was catching up with YT today and saw 2 announcements that immediately made me want to participate. One is Banned Books Read-A-Thon "Banned Book-A-Thon" (announcement) and another one is Slow Read-A-Thon (announcement). I am posting these links mostly for my sake, as I know I will be scrambling later, trying to find them.

Slow Read-A-Thon

Slow Read-A-Thon (and I just love tags #slowathon and #booksnals) runs September 12 and September 18. There are some prompts/challenges, but it is not required to complete them all.

The prompts: 1) Read a book and mark it up! (Tabs, notes, underlining, etc.) 2) Create something inspired by the book you're reading! (Examples: write a poem, a song, do a sketch, a dance routine, a painting...) 3) Do a buddy read (with booktube or real life freinds) and discuss the book! 4) Read a book out loud (to someone or just to yourself.) 5) Read a book that intimidates you! 6) Reread a book and compare your reading experiences. 7) Read a book and review it on your platform of choice during the readathon week. 8) Read a book, then read secondary literature on it. Or a retelling/variation of the first book.

Banned Book-A-Thon

Banned Book-A-Thon starts at midnight Sunday, 25 September, and runs till midnight Saturday, 1 October. The theme for this year is "diversity." More info about Banned Books Week: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Somehow in my brain I decided that participating in readathons during my vacation is exactly what I need on top of everything else. Hmmm... Nevertheless, I am excited about the prospect of picking books to fit some challenges. Of course, I don't plan to participate in all of them or reading a lot, but I can aim for 2-3 books, right?

Tell me, I am not crazy XD

Book review: The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

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Let me start this book review by saying that in spite of every fault that I found with this book, I still enjoyed it. It was a very quick and fun read. I did roll my eyes a lot while reading it. But it was also such an easy world to dive that I can easily see myself re-reading it (although I don't own a copy and got one from the library).

This review is mostly spoiler free. There might be some hints at things, but I am not explicitly stating anything.

This is a young adult fantasy novel set in imperial Russia, in 1825. There is a girl named Vika who is trained as an enchanter to potentially become an imperial enchanter for the tsar. However, it turns out that there is another enchanter, Nikolai, who is trained for the same purpose. Since according to the laws there can't be two enchanters, they have to enter the crown's game to proof their magic ability. It is fight to death as there can only be one enchanter alive.

I loved the premise of the book. It is a fast read told in third person (thank goodness) but the point of view switches to show us what is happening with different characters. Some of chapters are extremely short, which makes it feel as if you are flying through this 400 paged book.

I won't go much into detail about the plot itself. I think that the author did a good job describing the political situation of that time. Saint Petersburg is described very vividly as the life of common folk. I enjoyed that. I also liked the magic parts too. However, I did have a problem with the magic system itself.

When an author creates a fantasy world and a magic system, the worst mistake is to make your protagonists so powerful that their magic is basically limitless. I think this is what happened here. Both Vika and Nikolai can turn things into animals and birds, change shapes and colours of things, control elements, like water and fire, give magic qualities to inanimate objects, etc. They seem to be able to do everything with little impact on themselves. They don't use spells or spell books or wands. They only use energy and that's it.

Only by mid game, and the game takes pretty much 90% of the book, it becomes obvious that that sort of energy comes with payback. However, the fact that those boundaries were not established at any point of the novel and are sort of appearing out of blue in the middle of it was not good. (Also, at the beginning it was said that both enchanters were splitting the magic from the magic heart of their country. But later they are said to be using their own energy which made it confusing.)

When your characters are so powerful, and Vika and Nikolai were almost matched in power, it means that there can't be a winner. In this case the games become pointless as nobody can be called a winner, especially in a situation when both characters do not want to fight each other.

So, what do we get then? We get a villain! Finally a real villain, who is very angry, vengeful and powerful. But once again we do not no limits of power of this villain. Besides the appearance of this character was so "deus ex machina" that it felt very artificial and forced. This villain had a potential of becoming a real threat for the world, and of though there were some fundamental things that were done and caused big changes, it could have been way grander. I feel that it should have eclipsed the game, but it didn't.

Plus, this villain was dealt with so quickly - it really annoyed me. The villain existed for, perhaps, a third of the book and felt as if was forced in and out of narrative.

I really liked the characters in the book - all of them: Vika, Pasha, Nikolai. I think Nikolai might be my favourite, though. I did find the love triangle to be a bit of a tiring trope, and the ending had a very Romeo & Juliet feel about it (if you know what I mean). (And I also think that Nikolai would have been better off with Pasha, just saying *cough*) I did like the characters though. They seemed a bit immature at times and sometimes the fact that both Nikolai and Pasha sneaked into bars and taverns completely unrecognized seemed very unconvincing to me, but oh well.

I think the author liked the world and the characters she created so much that she didn't want to put them into a real danger, which is understandable (I did like the characters too as I mentioned!) but it is dangerous to do so as a writer, as you basically kill any plot in the book. If there is no danger or conflict - there is no point of telling a story.

In spite of plot holes and some shallowness and repetitiveness to the whole "the game is everything and I must kill my opponent because there can be only one of us but I don't want to do it but I have to" spiel, I found the book rather engaging. I am looking forward to reading book 2. Although I do hope it will fix everything that was wrong in book 1 from cultural perspective.

Here is the part 2 of my review in which I dissect everything the author got wrong when it comes to Russian culture, language, etc. I will try to avoid major spoilers.

I made a video review of this book in which I got really emotional about certain cultural mistakes in this book. I might have made it seem as if I was really upset by it. And I was. And still am. However, I do understand that someone who knows nothing about Russian Empire or Russian culture as a whole, obviously, will still enjoy the book for what it is worth. Whatever inconsistencies that I found do not hinder the plot in any way. I just found it very annoying that even though the author claimed to have done the research (and Evelyn in fact majored in Slavic languages and literature), there were still so many tiny things that she got wrong.

All of this could have been avoided if the author had a Russian speaking proofreader. I, obviously, don't know how publishing world works and if authors have the luxury of sharing their unpublished works or pieces of it with people outside of publishing circle (I feel that the answer might be a no), but I am pretty sure it is possible to get at least someone to double check some details, if needed.

I don't want it to seem as if I am personally attacking the author - god forbid! It is the last thing on my mind. I just want to show that, once again, research is everything, and even when you think that you know enough - double check your facts!

If you are not a Russian speaker or know nothing about the culture, this part of the review might seem to you as if I am nitpicking. But if other cultures have the luxury of pointing out everything that is wrong when they are represented in the media, why can't I?

I hope you will enjoy this part of my review too. Perhaps, you will learn something ;)

1) It was the most glaringly obvious mistake. Or rather it is a typo that slipped past the editor and/or author in the final product and it got repeated over and over.

There is a certain magic place that is mentioned as a meeting point for the tsar and the potential enchanters and it is called in Russian "Bolshebnoie Duplo" (The Enchanted Hollow). The problem is that there is a typo in "bolshebnoie". It is supposed to be "Volshebnoie". The first letter is wrong. It made me both laugh hysterically and roll my eyes when I read it first. But that is the editorial mistake.

However, the choice of word "duplo" is most probably a mistake of the author.

You see, English word "hollow" can mean an empty space or a cavity within anything. OR it can mean a valley. "The Enchanted Hollow" as a title for a meeting place in the book is a perfect choice. But the Russian word "duplo" has only 2 meanings: one is a cavity in a tree and another is a cavity in a tooth. That's it. "Duplo" in no way has the same broad meaning as "hollow". The meeting place was actually within a mountain which made its name "volshebnoie duplo" freaking hilarious. if I had to pick a word, I'd call it something like "volshebny grot" (the enchanted cave), but not "duplo". Never a "duplo".

2) The author does a great work describing typical food and cuisine in her book. I was really impressed as usually westerners' knowledge does not go beyond a potato salad (which is not a Russian dish, by the way - it is German/Austrian) or a cabbage soup. Evelyn mentions a lot of different types of food and there is only one tiny mistake that made me raise an eyebrow.

One of the most famous types of Russian bread is a dark rye bread which is very well-known to any Russian speaker as "Borodinsky" bread. The title of the bread comes from the battle of Borodino, which happened during war with Napoleon in 1812. But the bread itself was officially named like this (or rather the recipe for this sort of very dark rye bread) only in Soviet times after 1917. I have always known that but I went online to double check myself - and, yes, the mentions of this bread as "Borodinsky" bread start only in 1930s. Which means that in 1825 there was no way it could have been called that as the October Revolution has not happened (yet).

I am bit on the fence about this one. On one hand, mentioning "Borodinsky" bread is a homage to Russian cuisine and any Russian speaker would know exactly what bread is mentioned when reading this book. On the other hand, I am annoyed that this goes against historical facts.

3) Names. Oh, the names. The choice of names is great in this book! Finally we get some diversity that goes beyond overused "Natasha"s and "Tatiana"s. Evelyn uses the names of real royal family members too. More so, she even goes for typical kazakh names and last names too, which is great.

However, the way she picks and choses who would get a short version of the name and who wouldn't. I think the reason for this might have been not to confuse poor westerners with crazy abbreviations and pet names and diminutives. But for a Russian speaker's ear it was a bit weird to have Pasha (which is a diminutive for Pavel) but to name Nikolai only by his full name and not a short version of Kolya. Seeing as diminutives are used by family and close friends, having Nikolai address a tsar's son as Pasha, but Pasha calling Nikolai only Nikolai and nothing else, made it seem as if Nikolai was addressed politely and Pasha was not. Those two are close as brothers and yet one of them chooses to call his friend by his full name.

If it was politeness, I'd expect Nikolai to address Pasha more formally. But no.

Same thing for Vika. She is consistently addressed to as Vika, even though Vika is short for Viktoria. There was a passage in a book when she gets a formal invitation but she is mentioned as V. Andreyeva, which is a bit funny as she is never mentioned with her patronymic, while her father is and members of royal family are mentioned with their full names too (E.g., Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov).

I would also assume that the servants would be addressing Nikolai and Galina using first name and patronymic, not just first name, as it is a polite way. (Master Nikolai also works, but it was mentioned only a couple of times.)

Sergei and Galina, in spite of being siblings, also address each other by their full names. In case you are wondering: Galya is short for Galina and Seryozha - for Sergei. I would assume that at least at some point they'd revert to those diminutives.

3) The Russian language grammar is one of the most difficult in the world. I kid you not. It is worse than German and Chinese together. I am very happy that the author correctly used almost all words and phrases in the book. Including "Tvoe zdarovye" as "cheers/to your health" (which gets the most butchered by English speakers who confuse it with "za zdravye" which is a different saying). But "Myevo zdarovye" doesn't make sense as "myevo" is an incorrect form. It should have been something that sounds like "mayo" (mah-yo). Besides nobody ever says, even jokingly, "to my health". It will always be "to your health", even if it is meant as sarcastic and the person is drinking alone.

4) "Tikho" Mountain sounds like a cool name. "Tikho" means quiet. But it is not an adjective but an adverb in this case. Or an imperative. Should have been "Tikhaya" Mountain. Otherwise it seems as if you are trying to shush the mountain. (Which I find incredibly funny.)

5) Why, out of blue, do they call the scroll as "Russe" Scroll? Huh? Just so that we know for a fact that it is a Russian scroll? As I assume that it is a French "Russe" because it is not a Russian word that I can recognize. I would have picked a Russian world for the scroll that has rules to a very traditional game which is very important for the country's magic. Would have made more sense, right?

6) And the last but definitely not the least - at some point there is a very quick scene in a church, and there are mentions of pews and books of psalms. I am sorry, but there are no pews in Russian Orthodox Church! You can google the interior images if you want. People are only allowed to stand or kneel and that's it. There have never been pews and never will be. They might be present in Greek Orthodox Church, but not in Russian. Sometimes there are chairs or benches at far corners of a church, but they are not there for people who come for the mass. I have never in my life seen rows of pews in a Russian church (like in other Christian churches) or any books of psalms or bibles. Never ever.

I might have missed something but this is pretty much it.

Everything else was quite on point, I think. I do understand that the majority of these mistakes would have been difficult to research but that is why I said that authors should always strive to get a good proofreader or a beta or a consultant.

I went into this book with low expectations as I never expect any westerners to get Russian culture and more so the language right. But Evelyn did pleasantly surprised me. A lot of things (the historical and political background, cuisine, relationships between tsar and his wife and children, etc.) were quite well researched and represented. I just wish this book didn't feel so much as a debut novel. It has a lot of potential but both those little language/culture blunders and holes in the plot made me wish the author would have spent extra time on this novel.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate what Evelyn has done - she created one of the most unique fantasy worlds that exists on the book market right now. And the fact that it is my culture that is in question - made me even more happy.

Will I continue with the series? Yes. Will I re-read the book? Quite possible. (Will I ever stop laughing over "Bolshebnoie Duplo"? Probably never.)

I gave the overall rating of 3 stars to this book. It was not bad, but could have been better.

(Thank you for reading this far! Now I am thinking of reading Grisha trilogy. I wonder if it is better or?...)

Personal rating: 3 stars

Book review: "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde (play)

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file-2 (Look at all those tabs!)

Ever since I watched the play on stage (broadcasted by Cineplex from West End with an amazing David Suchet as Lady Bracknell, I have been eager to read the play. I got it off Audible first and listened to it as an audio play, but it had different cast and even though I enjoyed it, the way they accentuated some lines irritated me. (I blame David Suchet for forever ruining any other performance of Lady Bracknell for me.) I wrote the review of the play here if you are interested to read it.

Finally I got my hands on the copy of the play. It was delivered to me by BookDepository in a different edition from what I ordered but I actually like it now.

The play is the epitome of Oscar Wilde's wit and satire aimed at high society. He laughs at their habits, stupidity, narrow-mindedness and obsession with status. Reading the play might be confusing for people who are not used to reading plays. Stage directions in first part are scarce and largely left to interpretation to the reader. Reading it now, though, after watching the play let me revisit it again and I once again fell in love with Wilde's language.

I tabbed all of my favourite lines in the play. I have 20 tabs in 54 pages. Basically every other page has a gem of a line in it.

My favourite moment in the play all involved Cecily as she is so simple minded that she says the most ridiculous things. My favourite line of hers was:

Miss Prism. Do not speak slightingly of the three-volume novel, Cecily. I wrote one myself in earlier days. Cecily. Did you really, Miss Prism? How wonderfully clever you are! I hope it did not end happily? I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much.

Another gem about literature:

Algernon. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

Sometimes the way Oscar Wilde phrases things scares me as even over a hundred years later his words are still true.

Do yourself a favour and watch this on stage or at least listen to it as an audio play on Audible. I promise, you will spend 2 hours laughing non-stop.

Personal rating: 5 stars

Book Review: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling

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I picked this book up as I wanted to have some sort of basic knowledge of what the movie is going to be about (this book was also my pick for BookTube-A-Thon readathon). I don't know why I expected it to be helpful, but it is really not. I haven't watched the trailer (just bits) but what I have seen gave me an idea about the movie. You don't need to read the book to watch the movie - I can tell this right off the bat. I did enjoy the book but since it is written as a textbook, it is no way as entertaining or engaging as Harry Potter books.

I think I enjoyed the introduction and some notes on the margins way more than the content itself. Rowling came up with a lot of unique magical beings and even reading the series I wasn't able to remember them all, so reading this book was a bit "meh" and it is NOT the reaction that I am used to associate with HP series.

Was it interesting? Somewhat. I think I was engrossed in the book only because I haven't read any Harry Potter books in awhile and being emerged in the world again was very exciting.

Do you have to read it to watch the movie? No. Read it if you are a hardcore fan and you want to read everything in HP universe (which means that you have probably already read this one).

I expected this book to have more notes from Harry and Ron on the margins. The fonts used for their hand writings looked a bit similar and it was hard for me to tell at times whose note that was.

It was a great pick for the readathon though as it is an easy read.

Personal rating: 3 stars

Book review: "You Know Me Well" by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

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Let me start with saying that I really enjoyed this book (in some ways more than I expected), even though it is your typical "in love with your best friend/high school/coming of age/figuring things out" type of story. I have read too many of those and only because it was by both authors that I read and enjoyed previously, I picked it up. (And also because it was my pick for BookTube-A-Thon readathon.)

I read very few books which were co-writing and recently the one that I read (by indie authors) made me cringe so hard as I could totally tell who wrote which part and the switching point of view was not working at all.

This book is written extremely well. I read books by David Levithan (for whatever reason I only vaguely recall his writing style) and I read "Everything Leads to You" by Nina LaCour (which I liked but found too slow placed for me), so I expected to be able to tell exactly who wrote which part - and it is quite obvious, even before you pick the book. BUT even though POVs of Mark and Kate are different, they have their own voices, they do compliment each other and you don't get the feeling as if you are reading two separate books. Writing was great. It was more paced than I expected it to be and equally heartwarming (and heartbreaking) and funny.

The parents are barely present in the story, which is typical for these books. Both Kate and Mark at times seemed a bit older than they were.

Even though both of main characters in the book are gay, it is not the focus of the story. The focus is on the relationships: Mark is in love with his friend and Kate is in love with a girl, she has not met yet. There is no "coming out" aspect in the story at all, which is really refreshing. Nobody is agonizing over being gay or coming out to parents. The focus is on relationships and feelings. I was worried this might turn into another "coming out" story but thank goodness it wasn't. Thank you, David and Nina!

There were some parts that I did not particularly like. For example, how hard Kate was trying to impress that girl or how Mark and Kate were ready to lie to seem cool, essentially. Even though they said that they would tell the truth if asked directly.

Both Mark and Kate are very easy to relate too. Their characters would have been rather cliched (Mark is into sports and Kate is very artsy) if they were less two dimensional. Both Mark and Kate have certain fears and feel the pressure of expectations. Kate is suffering from anxiety and the fact that it is never really addressed directly as a mental health issue made me a bit disappointed.

In many ways this book reminded me of less known "Anything Could Happen" by Will Walton. It has a similar story line (without added perspective by Kate) and a similar ending. If you like your heartstrings to be played with and you are feeling nostalgic about your first love at high school - read this book. (And also read "Anything Could Happen" and "Simon vs Homo Sapiens Agenda" because those are very similar in tone and feeling, and after reading this you will probably need Simon to make you feel better.)

This book has several quote worthy lines and I had fun reading it.

Personal rating: 4.5 stars