Sometimes costs are made to be borne.

Continuing Harry Potter is a double edged sword. Nothing could compare to the original series, but there is so much world left to explore that it is almost wrong not to continue writing. I imagine Rowling considered heavily the consequences of carrying on with the story, and right or wrong, the story now has eight books so let's move on.

I haven't read a script before but that didn't detract from how I read the story. After a few Scenes you are comfortable with who is talking and the minimal stage directions help convey any emotions or facial expressions of the characters. Otherwise everything is dialogue driven and each character has their unique voice, even if I felt like they were caricatures of their former self. Seeing this performed in a play would be interesting, especially with the numerous locations that appear.

I like that the Cursed Child can apply to a few characters, and that the darkness referenced in the story can be interpreted a few ways too. The story has more family focus, and that's a good choice, but I felt that the magic was important to the story but a little under developed. I see why this could be considered strong fan fiction because while it's a good story it is missing the charm of the original series.

Regarding the characters in the book...It felt like fan favorites were brought back as fan service. I expected a "McGonagall enters the room...pauses for applause" with how some favorites were rolled out. They served no purpose other than to show the connection to the original series. Perhaps it is easier to bring back known characters instead of building new ones, but seeing as this is part of the Harry Potter series maybe it's justified. It will be interested to see how Fantastic Beasts plays out because there are no familiar characters to leverage.

Regarding a significant plot device in the story...seriously, a Time-Turner? Cherry picking on characters is one thing, but to go back and revisit events from previous books felt shallow and too similar to what happened in Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm grateful nothing was severely impacted from Goblet of Fire because of the actions in Cursed Child but the fact they were even messing around with the original story line put me off. Seeing alternate realities was nice but this made the story felt unoriginal and appear more fan fiction instead of it being canon.

While reading Cursed Child I would have flashbacks to moments from the original seven and get an urge to start another re-read of the series, but I won't include Cursed Child in that re-read. In the end I'd consider this more of an appendix, there is some history after Deathly Hallows but it's not essential reading for the Harry Potter universe.