so bad. damn. ( )

I was a bit...underwhelmed by this second in the series. There was something about it that felt like it had way more story to tell and I kept waiting for more depth to what was given. It seemed to me that J.K. Rowling wanted to hold back so much in preparation for the next in the series and that truly disappointed me. I'll hold on that the next one will be better. ( )

Like the screenplay for the first film, this one has been edited to match the final cut of the film, so it's not really "the original screenplay". That being said, it's still a good read and it's nice to see how Rowling describe the scenes. There's some good foreshadowing present in those descriptions that enrich the experience of the film. It suffers from the same problems the film has (too many characters and not enough time to properly explore them all), but it's still an enjoyable read. ( )

It's still a bit weird to be reading a screenplay like it was a novel (insert expected criticism re: marketing greed and sullying the name of novels), but it's hard not to adore the efforts they made in regards to the book's design. Obviously we've all seen the film before we read the book, so we are already treated to images running through out heads, but Minalima's chapter heading, page borders, and cover design spark even more whimsy. It would have been easy for the publishers to take stills from the film, production designs, or images from the plethora of other publications about the Fantastic Beasts film franchise, but I'm glad that they commissioned specific designwork done for this book. The minimalist design is not one which I would have expected to work for the story, but it plays a great balance between art deco (the prominent style from the New York setting in the previous film) and the Art Nouveau stylings of 1930s Paris. In terms of the story itself, we're obviously lacking the narrative style of a real novel, but the screenplay does make some of the fast-pacing of the film slow down a bit and reveal a bit more about the story. The previous film was a lot more straightforward in terms of its storyline and dialogue, but this one was very fast-paced due to the sheer amount of detail that they packed in and the ground they had to cover, so we definitely benefit from having the screenplay to turn to. Unfortunately we're now waiting until November 2020 for the next film in the series, which means we're going to have a long time to spin theories, rewatch the film, and re-read all the supplementary material! ( )

I think I put off reading this book because I was angry with the movie. I am glad I went back and read it though. I got more of an appreciation for how the movie ended.

A lot of choices were made in this story and they are all going to change the course of the story. This one wasn't as interesting as the first Fantastic Beasts, I think because this one was building up the storyline, whereas the first one was introducing us to the characters and giving us the very beginnings of the story.

There was a dark feel to this story, it really showed you that even good people can change and be fooled by the worst of people. I don't know if I am angry with some of the things that happened or if I am curious about how they are going to be used later in the story. ( )