Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Spoiler Free Review

Title: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Author: J.K Rowling
Original Screenplay

Synopsis

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…

 

 

 

 

Review

I’ve finally done it guys. I finally bit the bullet and read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and it was so good. I myself watched the movie before reading the screenplay and I appreciated that I did that because of course the screenplay was the same as the movie in terms of plot but having watched the movie first it really allowed me to imagine the setting and the characters.

First of you know I like to take a moment and comment on Book Covers and I have to say how gorgeous this one is. It is absolutely exquisite with the navy blue, gold writing and a few illustrations dotted within. Minalima designed the cover and the illustrations and they did a lot of the paper designs for the Harry Potter movies too. Don’t spend all your wages on their website Hannah*

In terms of setting, as this is a screenplay you do lose some of the description of the settings and characters but you can see it in the stage directions. I think for this screenplay because the world is so intricate then I would definitely recommend watching the movie beforehand so you can get a feel for the design and how things are visioned to look.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1920’s America which offers a wide extension of the magical world we know from Harry Potter. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the differences in the magical world from the setting of London in Harry Potter in comparison to Fantastic Beasts’ America. One difference is how Americans call the non magic folk No Maj’s whereas the British call them Muggles. Such a slight difference but it was so interesting to see how J.K Rowling alters little bits of her magical world in relation to different countries and cultures.

I also loved hearing every mention of Hogwarts and Hufflepuff – The house in which Newt Scamander himself belongs.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them is an easy read, it’s easy to get into and it’s easy to lose yourself in the adventures of Newt as he comes to America and his bag of creatures opens and releases them around New York City. The plot also follows a mysterious person who is reeking havoc over the city and killing people. This added so much mystery to the story, of course having seen the movie beforehand I knew who it was and what was happening but the ending of the screenplay still makes me slightly shocked as something is revealed. You know I don’t like the idea of ruining anything for potential readers so I refuse to be a spoiler sue, just know that someone is not who they pretend to be. 

Fantastic Beasts also allows us to experience a new side of the magical world going more in-depth into the magical law enforcement through Tina’s and Queenie’s character. One of the major things I really liked about the law enforcement was seeing the punishments they had for their own kind who had broken laws.

We also get to see another side to Goblins and their back alley criminal sides which was a nice contrast to Harry Potter as we only get to see them in their bankers role in the books and movies.

It’s easy to fall in love with the characters of Fantastic Beasts, Newt is shy and lovable from the get go. He cares so much about his magical creatures and from that I drew comparisons to our lovable Hagrid. He truly wanted to educate everyone on the magical creatures and it’s so interesting how he created this giant Zoo inside his suitcase for them and how he had a personal relationship with each of them like the Niffler.

I have to say though whilst I do love Newt and Tina I think Queenie and Jacob are my absolute favourites. Queenie is such an interesting character and unlike any other character associated with the Harry Potter franchise because she has the interesting ability of being able to read people’s minds.

Queenie and Jacob are so cute, they are lovable, funny and they both share this love for cooking. The ending of the screenplay really breaks my heart but I have hope that there will be more featuring these two.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them for me was a 5 star read. I absolutely loved my reading experience, it didn’t take me long to get through and I think J.K Rowling’s extension of the magical world is brilliantly done. I hear that there will be more movies for the Fantastic Beast world and I hope that’s true, I want to see more from Queenie, Newt, Tina and Jacob so fingers crossed they are all in it.

Useful Links

Goodreads  | MinaLima | J.K Rowling

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Let me know in the comments if you have read or watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them. Who was your favourite character? Let’s discuss it in the comments!