Harry Potter ‘8’ roasted as ‘garbage’ by fans: ‘sounds like fanfic’

Despite the success of the Harry Potter series since its inception back in the late 90s, it is easy to forget that the story did not end with The Deathly Hallows.

First released in 1997 with its movie following in 2001, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone marked the beginning of a series that would capture the attention of the world for many years to come.

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Telling the story of the Boy Who Lived, the series continued on for six more books and seven movies and ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which showed the fate of the beloved characters years after their final stand.

However, back in 2016, J.K. Rowling returned alongside Jack Thorne and John Tiffany with the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play with events that occur 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows.

Often dubbed ‘Harry Potter 8’, Cursed Child was immediately snatched up by fans, both in terms of the book copy and tickets to the stage play in London’s West End.

However, it would seem as though 'Harry Potter 8' is not as popular as the rest of the series, with fans regularly criticising its bizarre events.

Over on r/harrypotter, one user asked, “How bad is the Cursed Child? I haven't read it because I heard it was terrible. And I refuse to waste my money on a book that the fandom seems to collectively agree is bad. So tell me things you disliked the most or have strong opinions on this book.”

What followed was almost 200 comments, mainly explaining all of the ways that Cursed Child did not deserve the original poster’s custom.

User bookconnoisseur listed all of the things ‘wrong’ with the book, including the pre-established rules around time travel being disregarded, Bellatrix and Voldemort’s secret love child, Cedric’s Death Eater path, Neville’s death and so on.

So much so that one user claimed the storyline sounds like fan-fiction.

Overall, it seems as though the original poster has saved a bit of money if nothing else.