Witches and wizards have streamed into bookshops across Australia to conjure up a copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – the final installment of the global phenomenon.
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Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, is the eighth instalment of the magical series, and was released at midnight.
Almost 300 fans rushed through the doors of Kinokuniya bookstore on Singapore’s Orchard Road at 7:01 am (2301 GMT Saturday) to become one of the first people in the world to see the new script.
Now she and millions of fans know: Ahead lay an avalanche of new movies, plays and books. The book is the script of a stage play based on a short story penned by Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling and John Tiffany.
Harriet Hayter, 26, a senior bookseller at Waterstones, grew up with the Harry Potter series. This book is more about human emotions – about trying to be good parents or good children, of wanting to be understood and accepted, and making your way through life no matter how many times you stumble, regardless of whether you’re a witch/wizard or muggle – than it is about magic.
JK Rowling attends the press preview of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre in London.
Oh yes, there’s no sense in “Keeping the Secrets” now – we all have access to the book, even if we can’t get to the play.
Hundreds of Potter-heads across the country are burying their noses in the script of the new play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, after it went on sale at midnight.
Pakistani fans can also get a copy from their nearest stores.
In Singapore, some fans held a prize-giving ceremony and a hunt for the Snitch – a type of ball used in the wizard sport of Quidditch in the Potter books. “My daughter Maya will read the new book first and then I’ll have to wrestle it off her. My youngest daughter Anya will be next, after she’s finished reading the other books”.
Sanpipat Huangsawat, 29, was first in line and had started queuing at 6:30 pm on Saturday evening. She said: “What we would really like most of all is to bring people in who have never been to the theatre before”.
Who’d have thought nearly a decade after the last book was released, we’d find ourselves enchanted by a midnight Potter release again? “I’d like as many Potter fans to see it as possible”, Rowling said on the red carpet before the show, as fans cheered and poked camera phones over crowd barriers in hope of getting a picture. “I’ve been following the Harry Potter series since I was eight years old, and it’s unbelievable that after nine years they’re keeping it going”, he told AFP. There’s a definite whiff of crackfic to the very idea of Harry Potter’s son time-traveling into Harry Potter’s past – and the grand reveal of the villain draws on an idea more than one fic-writer has had.
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After giving time-travel powers to a 13-year-old who overbooked her class schedule, the stock of devices was conveniently destroyed in Order of the Phoenix, but it turns out there were two extra-powerful models in the hands of the Malfoys the entire time. After 10 hours, I was left the half-dead reader.
