Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne: Book 35 (2016)
The book of the much-hyped, and very well-received play that continues Harry Potter's story many years after the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I'm guessing that most people know by now that Harry did not die at the end of the last book, so I don't need to worry about that being a spoiler. This play seems to continue immediately from the final scene of Deathly Hallows with Harry's children going on the Hogwarts Express, with young Albus Severus Potter going into his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry.
It is evident quite early on that Albus does not get on especially well with his father, as he constantly remarks that he did not choose to be the son of the world-famous Harry Potter. I won't give away any further plot details, except to say that the storyline owes a large debt to Back to the Future, and that it largely centres on the climactic events of the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
I love the way that the characters are portrayed, in a manner that feels completely faithful to the novels, and the play features some amazing (and also sinister) dream sequences and recreations of moments from Goblet of Fire and the debut novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorceror's Stone if you're from the US). There were a few bits where it became a bit too complex and I had to go back and read a few pages, but overall it was really good, with some great plot twists, as the story showed how badly things could go wrong if you changed the course of past events. Although the ending felt slightly anticlimatic, one particular character surprised me a lot, and went through a lot of development, in the final act.
I haven't seen the play acted on stage yet, and apparently there is a website that gives reasons not to read the book of the play first. I am looking forward to seeing it and can't wait to see how some moments are executed on stage (particularly scenes involving polyjuice potions).