Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. RowlingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - < 3 hours
Pages - 293
Publisher - Arthur A Levine Books
Source - Bookstore
Blurb from Goodreads
When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt's fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone…
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved and internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. Featuring a cast of remarkable characters, this is epic, adventure-packed storytelling at its very best.
Whether an existing fan or new to the wizarding world, this is a perfect addition to any reader's bookshelf.
My Review
First off, I am not a fan generally of screenplays, I would much rather a novel, however after The Cursed Child I found I could get into these, written by Rowling, quite easily. Everyone has seen the trailer for the movie, just in case you missed it, we head back to the wonderful world of magic. Newt Scamander is a Magizoologist (finds, protects and looks after rare/magical beasts), scouring the world to locate and help them. He arrives in fabulous New York and no sooner has he arrived when things go all wrong. Magic in front of muggles, saved magical creatures on the loose and that is only the beginning. Newt finds himself in big trouble and taking those with him down the same route!
It isn't Harry Potter that is for sure but instead we have another world filled with magic, good and bad, wizards, muggles (although they are called No-Majs this time), danger and best of all fabulous magical creatures. My absolute favourite was Picket and when you read the book you will see why, he doesn't have a huge part in the book which is disappointing, I would love to have heard more but I did love the small glimpses we had.
The book is only a short 293 pages and quite a few are filled with beautiful illustrations so the actual story isn't that long at all. I devoured it in about 3 hours, had I not had interruptions I would have got through it in an hour. If you liked The Cursed Child and the Potter books I am sure you will enjoy this. Beautiful images on the pages, I love the cover too, dark blue with beautiful gold writing and the writing itself is what we have come to expect from Rowling. She casts her own spell, creating a fictional world that you have no problems conjuring up in your mind and briefly escaping reality to dabble with a little bit of magic, 4/5 for me this time. If she brought out more of these I would read them however I would much prefer them to be novels!
