Like most of my generation, I grew up on Harry Potter. Midnight release parties at Barnes & Noble. Waiting in line for the movies clutching a wand. When a new book came out, there were often 3 or 4 bookmarks in our family copy. We spent many road trips listening to Jim Dale take us to Hogwarts and back.

So, you’d think that I’d have been one of the most excited this summer by the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. But I wasn’t. Not that I don’t still love HP. It took me awhile to figure out why I wasn’t excited. Why I was feeling apprehensive. And to be honest, I think I have to blame Star Wars.

Let me explain. I’m a pretty hard core nerd. I loved Star Wars, still do, to a degree. But I was pretty shattered and disappointed by The Force Awakens. (I really should do a whole other post on this subject.)  I was afraid that Harry Potter was going to disappoint me the same way Star Wars had, and the same way the Hobbit movies did.

Reluctantly, I bought a copy and went to a reading party my brother-in-law was hosting. Since this book is a play, it was actually super fun to read it this way. We didn’t have enough people for every part, but it was very fun to sometimes be reading two characters having a conversation with each other. If you get a chance to read it out loud with a group, I recommend it.

Reading this familiar world as a script was odd. Sometimes the stage directions were confusing or absurd. “Harry’s thoughts resonated around his head.” And sometimes it was hard to imagine how they would show this on stage. I missed the depth that comes with a novel.

Despite that the world felt true. You learn some interesting things about the Trolley Witch on the Hogwarts Express. And all the familiar characters felt right.

The story hinges on Harry’s son, Albus, who is best friends with Malfoy’s son, Scorpius. The two of them have a series of misadventures with a Time Turner. This started to bug me after awhile. Didn’t we learn our lesson about time travel? It got so convoluted at points I was waiting for a blue police box to show up and put things right.

All in all, I enjoyed this story, but it mostly made me miss the real thing. And maybe I sort of miss the person I was then. The girl who never would have worried that the fresh out of the box Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire would disappoint her.

And yet, I can’t wait to read these books to my kids. Hogwarts and Narnia and Middle Earth and a million others.