Of A Cursed Child

Disclaimer: This post contains no spoilers. This is largely due to the fact that I haven't finished the book yet, but also because #keepthesecret, guys, it's only been a few hours.

Before I begin, allow me to say something in a language popularized by the vast community of excited fans of anything:
ASDFGHJKL;ICANTEVENWSDJKAJFAHLJ

Unless you have been living under a rock, with no internet connection, by now you would have heard about Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, the much-publicized script of the (again) much-publicized play of the same name set immediately after "Nineteen Years Later", and dubbed the "eighth Harry Potter book.

Let me repeat that. THE EIGHTH HARRY POTTER BOOK.
*sigh of pleasure*
Since I was too young to have actually followed the entire series as it came out, I cannot paraphrase Sirius and scream- I DID MY WAITING! NINE YEARS OF IT!
But certainly, as a Harry Potter fan, I can hold the book and (changing fictional worlds here) whisper myyyy preeeecioussss.
(My classmates would trip over themselves running away from me, despite the allure of the "precious". I do a creepy Gollum impression. Thanks, Andy Serkis, for teaching me too well.)

Some people have said that this is a year when the Harry Potter fandom has risen again, what with Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them coming to theatres in a few months. This is my response:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHANO.

JK Rowling invites you to return to the wizarding world-
IT'S NOT LIKE WE LEFT IT.

So no, this book is not a return to the wizarding world, and no, the Harry Potter fandom has not "risen again" because we STILL talk about Harry Potter. We still argue about our favourite characters, we still write fanfic, we still draw fanart, we still defend our Hogwarts houses, we still complain about calmly (it's been like eleven years and we're still angry), we still pore through all the extra info on Pottermore and Twitter that JK Rowling releases. 

It's just that now we're seeing what happened after that scene on Platform 9 3/4, with Harry watching his sons leave on the train, a hand to the scar that had not pained in nineteen years, thinking that all was well.
(Apparently all is not well, since there's a story immediately after that thought.)

So now, on Harry's thirty-sixth birthday, and JK Rowling's fifty-first birthday (happy birthday, by the way), we catch the train with Albus and ride to Hogwarts for his first year and the story of the Cursed Child.

Because whether by page or by the big screen (or now the stage), Hogwarts will be there to welcome us home.

AQB: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.

When Christopher discovers his neighbour's dog dead in her yard with a gardening fork stuck through his body, he wonders what has happened. He sees it as a murder mystery- despite people telling him that most murder mysteries are about people dying. As someone who understands dogs better than people, the death of Wellington the dog is as important to him as any person's death.
He decides to investigate.

He follows the standard methods of detection, as set by his favourite detective, from the only genre of fiction he reads, Sherlock Holmes. Somewhat hindered by his difficulty in understanding human emotions and his own specific hangups, Christopher nevertheless uses his own observational skills and logic to find Wellington's killer- and in doing so, uncovers another, more personal mystery, a secret he never knew was being kept from him. (Can't tell you more without spoilers)

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was...interesting. The plot was fascinating and the point of view of the narrator- a boy who views the world somewhat differently from the majority of people (he has behavioural difficulties and it's implied he may have Asperger's, but this isn't confirmed or really relevant)- was intriguing. Another interesting aspect was that the chapters are numbered with successive prime numbers. However, it did sometimes drag, some exciting parts were quite blandly told (most likely because Christopher did not see it as exciting), and there were several profanities, so if you're thin-skinned to swearing, DON'T read it. If you can handle that, and you're interested in detective fiction, mathematics, dogs, or some combination of the above, then I'd recommend this book.