Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 I did the midnight release thing and I have read my copy of The Cursed Child. As a reader who is wildly biased in favor of all things Potter, I can tell you that it's...OK. It's certainly not the best Harry Potter selection every written, but it has some sweet moments, funny moments, and satisfying moments and I would be lying if I didn't confess that I got all teary at least once. Here is my spoiler-free review of the script (I'm not talking much about the plot specifically because I want to avoid spoilers). 
 The book is unusual for a couple of reasons. One is that is was not actually written by J.K. Rowling. Rowling wrote the story, and thus deserves a tremendous amount of credit, but the script itself was written by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne. It's also unusual in that it's a script, not a novel, and it's clearly a product that would be more enjoyable to watch onstage than it is to read. 
 There are scripts that work well as stand-alone written pieces. In particular I'm thinking of scripts by Eugene O'Neill, because he put so much work into the detailed stage directions as well as the dialogue, or the work of Arthur Miller. The Cursed Child is not one of those scripts. There are just enough stage directions so that the reader can follow the action, but not enough to paint a vivid picture of the characters or the setting. The plot involves multiple fight and action sequences and sequences of comedy that undoubtedly are magnificent onstage but are a bit flat in printed form. 
 This is a play in which everyone spells out their feelings - as such, it can be both clunky and satisfying depending on how you feel about constant explicit communication. On the one hand, I'm a huge fan of clear communication, but on the other hand, even for Rowling this is really anvilicious. 
 J.K. Rowling is at her best when she writes character-based stories that take place in a contained world instead of trying to make the magic world mesh with our own real world (she struggled with this even before her ill-advised North American history). The Cursed Child works so well because it takes place almost entirely in the world of wizards, and because it is all about relationships despite a convoluted plot. It falters because everyone spends so much time discussing their feelings in extreme detail, over and over again. I'm all about feelings but a little more showing (which can be conveyed on stage by actors and in print through stage directions and notes) and a little less telling would have made the script much more graceful. 
 For me, the Harry Potter Series proper will always have ended at the end of The Deathly Hallows. But I still enjoyed checking in on my peeps and making some new friends (love you, Scorpius!). The play is full of nods to the previous books, plus many very clever and funny and some truly heart wrenching. I don't think I'll read the play over and over the way I've read the other Harry Potter books, but I do look forward to seeing the play someday. 
 - Carrie S.