It's hard to describe the feeling of nostalgia I got after reading J.K. Rowling's "prequel" to the Harry Potter series, but a good place to start might well be spiritual. After having read all of the Harry Potter books the world, in a sense, exists within my head. If asked, I could pick out any character or any place and explain them to a person who was not familiar with the series. What makes the world so appealing is not only its size, but its believability. Each characters personality is developed in its own unique way as the series progresses. Environments change and grow just as they would in real life, and new characters are introduced into the world as old ones leave. Reading a prequel to all this is like being given a back-stage pass to the world of Harry Potter; J.K. Rowling is going into even more detail and adding to her world in a way that makes it even more interesting. Its really hard to ask for more than that.
Two of my favorite characters, Sirius Black and James Potter, are illustrated in a way that they never were in the actual books. Rather then hearing about discussed by another character or having them described from another character’s perspective, the two are shown in their youth, acting as they would have then. For any Harry Potter fan this is an incredible experience; we are forced, after all, to spend seven novels wondering what James, Sirius, and the gang were like when they were younger. Not knowing who they were specifically ads a lot to the novels themselves, and allows us to sympathize with the characters, specifically Harry Potter, a lot more. Still, there is always the nagging sensation that we are missing out on another story that must be incredibly interesting. J.K. Rowling is giving us that story with the Harry Potter Prequel.
If I had a single complaint about the Prequel it would be that the fact that it even exits, ruins a little bit of the magic of Harry Potter’s world. We no longer will wonder what it would have been like to see James or Sirius in their youth, and on that level we will no longer be able to Sympathies with Harry. Still, I think the prequel would be very enjoyable for any devout Harry Potter fan. Its just a shame it was never finished.
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