3.25

3

Feb 24, 2012

How (not) to read The Casual Vacancy :

1. DON'T read it just because it's written by JK Rowling.
2. DON'T expect it to be like Harry Potter - i.e, magic stuff. (Read the blurb, nimrod)
3. DON'T expect a murder mystery - it isn't one.
4. DON'T read it if you are not comfortable with the fact that the woman who might have moulded your childhood, is writing about drugs, teen sex, prostitution, rape etc. - this book isn't for you.
5. DON'T compare this with her previous works, for the love of God!

When it How (not) to read The Casual Vacancy :

1. DON'T read it just because it's written by JK Rowling.
2. DON'T expect it to be like Harry Potter - i.e, magic stuff. (Read the blurb, nimrod)
3. DON'T expect a murder mystery - it isn't one.
4. DON'T read it if you are not comfortable with the fact that the woman who might have moulded your childhood, is writing about drugs, teen sex, prostitution, rape etc. - this book isn't for you.
5. DON'T compare this with her previous works, for the love of God!

When it was announced that Jo Rowling was coming out with a new book, comparisons with the Harry Potter series were inevitable. No matter how many times, and in how many interviews, Jo insisted over and over again that 'THIS IS NOT A HARRY POTTER BOOK NOR IS IT ANYTHING LIKE IT', a small part inside every fan, desperate for another book in the series (understandably), hoped for it anyway.

(And so, when they were invariably proved wrong, there was backlash. Half the negative reviews on Goodreads are because it's 'not a Harry Potter book', which just pisses me off, so let's not go there)

The Casual Vacancy is as steeped in reality as the Harry Potter books are removed from it. There's nothing fantastical about the story - it's simple and plain, told by holding nothing back.

The characterization in this book is simply mind-blowing. Each and every one of the characters is so very real (I know this word's been thrown around a lot, but seriously, there's no other way to describe them) and has such depth! Through the course of the book, they are all ripped apart, dissected with unflinching honesty and laid bare for the readers to see. There are very few likable characters in the book, whom we can root for and hope that things work out for them eventually, but all of them end up earning our sympathies in the end.

People have said that the characters in this book are not relatable at all. I disagree. Which one of us hasn't felt like a victim of the circumstances - hopeless, unloved, desperate, bullied, frustrated, at the end of our tether - at some point in our lives? We are all in the pages of this book. It's just that our stories are different. I think Jo has expertly managed to capture and show the best and the worst of human behaviour in the book; the worst being the inability to see beyond ourselves and our petty problems, while the best being our capability to change ourselves.

Having said that, the biggest strength of the book is also, unfortunately, its biggest weakness. The setting up of the characters and their lives just takes too long. The plot, if you can call it that, begins to move ahead only after about 300 pages or so. Which was probably the reason why it took me this long to finish the book - I was plodding along until I was so caught up that I couldn't put the book down.

The final few pages of the book were brilliant and typically Jo - sad, yet beautiful and touching at the same time. I don't understand why people say the ending was abrupt. For me, there was absolute and complete closure which left me smiling and feeling content long after I finished reading (Always a sign of a good book!).

I would like to reiterate that 'The Casual Vacancy' will not be for everybody. Some of you will probably give up after the first hundred pages, others will crawl along because it's Jo, and in the hope that she might pull a rabbit out of her hat at the end and surprise you with something "magic-ky" (she doesn't). Quite a few of you will hate it, but that's probably because this not your genre and you only picked up this book because of Jo, so, in that case, it's not her, it's you.

With this book, Jo has proved beyond a doubt that she can WRITE no matter what the genre is, that she still has that magical ability to tap into some part of us, connect with us and make us care, despite ourselves. However, unlike the Harry Potter books, this book will probably not be changing any lives any time soon (it certainly didn't change mine), but I'm glad to have read it, nonetheless. ...more

4

Apr 12, 2012

J.K.Rowling gave a whole generation of kids an amazing fantasy to dream about (*).

Then she wrote this book that has many of the same elements, only without the safe haven of magic (**). Basically, this is a real world where a strange man showing up at your family's doorstep at night is less likely to be a magical school groundskeeper but more likely your family's drug dealer who, by the way, may not be adverse to beating and raping you for good measure.(***)

It's the world left for Dudley J.K.Rowling gave a whole generation of kids an amazing fantasy to dream about (*).

Then she wrote this book that has many of the same elements, only without the safe haven of magic (**). Basically, this is a real world where a strange man showing up at your family's doorstep at night is less likely to be a magical school groundskeeper but more likely your family's drug dealer who, by the way, may not be adverse to beating and raping you for good measure.(***)

It's the world left for Dudley Dursley and friends after Harry gets whisked away to magicland, and it ain't pretty. (*) I confess - I'm a Potter fan, too. Just look at my t-shirt in my profile picture. I would also redo medical school in a heartbeat if only Hogwarts offered a med school curriculum.

(**) Abusive family, closed-mindedness, thinly veiled prejudice, bullying and constant threats - all that is just the beginning of the first Potter book. Later we have iron-pumping Dudley hang out at deserted playgrounds, taking pride in physically abusing small children.

(***) A tasteless joke to follow - well, drugs may be one plausible explanation for all that followed for the Potter kid, including Harry's fantastic magicland TRIP. Hehe. Okay, having got the Potter references and tasteless humor out of my system, I can start my actual review.
------------------------
The Casual Vacancy is a book about the pettiness and selfishness and often quite unintentional cruelty of mundane human life, which does not have to be dramatic or poignant or in any other way remarkable to be tragic. It's not about any grand battle between good an evil, or any significant confrontations, or any remotely heroic feats - no, it is about how small little seemingly insignificant things can combine into a depressing picture of everyday tragedy.

'Dark and gritty' (the description that I've heard a few times about it) it also isn't - it's simply realistic and does not shy away from life's unpleasantness. This is a book that is never about the destination ((view spoiler)[it doesn't really have one, actually (hide spoiler)]) but about the journey, cliché as it may sound.
-------------------------

What the town of Pagford would really like to be seen as.

The Casual Vacancy is a book about a seemingly quaint English town of Pagford which, to the dismay of many well-meaning citizens, has a less than desirable area known as the Fields (you know, one of those neighborhoods filled with drugs, drugs users, drug dealers, and terrifying poverty. And kids from there who go to the respectable town school, and some of whom grow up to be respectable, and some of whom punch other girls' teeth out. That kind of neighborhood).


What the rest of Padford sees the neighborhood of the Fields as.

So the well-meaning town officials are locked in the battle that involves either keeping the Fields or shuffling it off onto a neighboring town, and also whether to keep or to close a local methadone clinic. And when Barry, one of the town councillors, dies because of an unfortunately timed brain aneurysm, leaving a town council seat unoccupied, the real ugly of small town politics rears its head.



Add to the mix surly teenagers, drugs, sex, casual rape, bullying, domestic violence, lies, cheating, indifference, prejudice, self-mutilation, neglect, verbal abuse, desperation, almost-murder - and you have some idea of what The Casual Vacancy is about. And none of it is even remotely magical.

What I like most about this novel is that it's basically a character study. There's not that much plot, little action of any kind, and - *spoiler* - not that much resolution of existing conflicts by the end of the book. It is really just a sketch of a bit of small-town English society, quite nicely done. But hey - if character studies are not your cup of Earl Grey, you will definitely doze off over the 500-plus pages of this novel. Luckily for me, this is a genre I enjoy."Life, for Colin, was one long brace against pain and disappointment, and everybody apart from his wife was an enemy until they had proven otherwise."We get to see the life in Pagford from the point of view of quite a few of its inhabitants. Normally I'd find that distracting, but here it's served its purpose - making every character grey, nobody black-and-white. Those who seemed destined to be 'the bad guys' in the first few chapters are not; they are very regular everyday people with regular flaws and charms, whose views are presented such that you see both flaws and reason in them. Those who seemed destined to be 'good guys', similarly, are not (see above). Everyone is just an ordinary person, both likable and unlikable at the same time, and instantly recognizable as a 'real' person."He tried to give his wife pleasure in little ways, because he had come to realize, after nearly two decades together, how often he disappointed her in the big things. It was never intentional. They simply had very different notions of what ought to take up most space in life."Actually - and it must be my old age speaking - the person who I found to be the most antagonistic was a confused teenager searching for 'authenticity' with the utmost boneheadedness, I must add. Get off my lawn, I scream, get off my lawn! Everyone else, whether antagonistic or repulsive, felt firmly set on their unremarkable chosen road; Fats, on the other hand, was caught in a spiral of finding himself while quite deliberately hurting people around him, and I found it to be one of the most painful parts of the book.


Authenticity, as Fats Wall, a middle-class suburban teenager, sees it.
-------------------------
J.K.Rowling is definitely NOT a one-hugely-popular-series wonder. No, this woman can definitely write very well (and with properly placed punctuation!) Her prose is well-chosen, simple, and very non-distracting. As a writer, she never demands attention, never jumps out with a writing gimmick, never over-emphasizes her cleverness; she instead tells her story in an even and well-modulated voice, occasionally full of sadness, occasionally humorous but never overwhelming."‘Stone dead,’ said Howard, as though there were degrees of deadness, and the kind that Barry Fairbrother had contracted was particularly sordid."All in all, I thought it was a very well-executed and interesting book which will undoubtedly appeal to a much smaller audience than the Potter series, but among the ones that love it, this love will be well-deserved. I will be gladly waiting for anything else that Rowling chooses to write - and not only because I love Harry the wizard but because I'm sure now that she is a damn fine writer. 4.5 stars. ...more

0

Feb 24, 2012

(view spoiler)[

WARNING: CAPSLOCK ABUSE. BE WARNED.





Accio new-JK-Rowling-book!

...

*nothing happens*

I'm a muggle. *whimpers*

DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS MEANS??? MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!! *BAWLS*



That's alright. That's fine. I'LL WAIT. I CAN WAIT! SIRIUS DID HIS WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!

*few minutes later*

ARE YOU HAPPY, JK ROWLING? DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO MY LIFE? ARE YOU WATCHING? ARE YOU WATCHING ME FALL APART, JK ROWLING? DO YOU ENJOY SEEING ME LIKE THIS?! YOU HEARTLESS WITCH, (view spoiler)[

WARNING: CAPSLOCK ABUSE. BE WARNED.





Accio new-JK-Rowling-book!

...

*nothing happens*

I'm a muggle. *whimpers*

DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS MEANS??? MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!! *BAWLS*



That's alright. That's fine. I'LL WAIT. I CAN WAIT! SIRIUS DID HIS WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!

*few minutes later*

ARE YOU HAPPY, JK ROWLING? DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO MY LIFE? ARE YOU WATCHING? ARE YOU WATCHING ME FALL APART, JK ROWLING? DO YOU ENJOY SEEING ME LIKE THIS?! YOU HEARTLESS WITCH, YOU! ...I love you. No, really. Please forgive me. (hide spoiler)] ...more

0

Jan 31, 2014

Not since Peyton Place has a writer so enthusiastically stripped the lace covers from small-town life to show the maggots of greed, lust, snobbery, and ambition squirming beneath—only Grace Metalious didn’t have Jo Rowling’s wicked sense of humor. The village of Pagford may be British, but the human foibles there are universal. Like the best social comedies, The Casual Vacancy features wit on top and outrage simmering below.

5

Feb 24, 2012

The Casual Vacancy = Mind Blowing.

There is a quote in J.K. Rowling's newly released book, The Casual Vacancy, that sums up the tone of this novel perfectly.


"The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were, lying about it, trying to be somebody else. Honesty was Fats' currency, his weapon and defense. It frightened people when you were honest; it shocked them. Other people, Fats had discovered, were mired in embarrassment and

The Casual Vacancy = Mind Blowing.

There is a quote in J.K. Rowling's newly released book, The Casual Vacancy, that sums up the tone of this novel perfectly.


"The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were, lying about it, trying to be somebody else. Honesty was Fats' currency, his weapon and defense. It frightened people when you were honest; it shocked them. Other people, Fats had discovered, were mired in embarrassment and pretense, terrified that their truths might leak out, but Fats was attracted by rawness, by everything that was ugly but honest, by the dirty things about which the likes of his father felt humiliated and disgusted. Fats thought a lot about messiahs and pariahs; about men labeled mad or criminal; noble misfits shunned by the sleepy masses."


Rowling's departure from the world of children's fantasy takes us in an entirely different direction - truth. This book focuses on the truths that exist between people in a community and, more importantly, the lies that tear them apart.

The book starts with the death of Barry Fairbrother, a parish council member and much loved bloke about town. This leaves behind a casual vacancy - a much-sought-after spot on the town council. Barry's death shakes the town of Pagford to the foundation from the council to teens on his rowing team. Everyone has been affected. After his death Barry becomes the most omnipresent, oft-spoken-of-but-never-seen dead character since Rebecca haunted Manderley. Barry is a cause and a catalyst for everything that happens in this book.

This book has been much maligned in reviews. I have read a number that decry it as boring, laughable, and a waste of time. This made the defiant part of me rise up - everyone hates it, so I have to like it. Strike that, I have to love it. For the record it's not a waste of time. Not one second. I have spent the last week reading it and I feel nothing but pleasure, and aching, gut-wrenching sorrow in tandem. To call this novel boring is a slap in Rowling's face. This novel is heartfelt and exciting. At first it's a heavily character driven romp, but then the story sweeps you off your feet and you just can't look away. Rowling touches on so many factors of the human condition within the pages. Emotions range from sorrow to laughter, passion to pain, and all of the spectra in between.

I'm not sure what book the readers who claim it was boring were reading but, trust me, this wasn't it.

My theory is that the people who gave up are the fans that she acquired who are not readers - those who read the books because they are "the in-thing" so they could talk about it with their peers. Their contempt for this book makes me think they are jaded, that they feel duped for buying this (or any) book when "It's not Harry Potter!".

It's really their loss for giving up. They're missing an otherwise perfect literary experience.

On that note, if you go in expecting Harry Potter you will be disappointed. I never thought I would say this but forget Harry Potter... Especially while reading this book. Harry Potter ended five years ago and since then Rowling has gifted us with this unexpectedly wonderful book. To bemoan the fact that it's not another book set in that world is a second slap in her face. Rowling is a writer. Was she not supposed to write another book after finishing THE series of her career? Absolutely not. If anything she has a hell of a lot to prove... and she proves her chops in The Casual Vacancy. Where else would you find jealousy, illegal drug usage, prostitution, teenage sex, LGBT relationships, parental abuse, neglect, cutting, hope, pedophilia, boy band obsession, social politics, power struggles, rape, fear, betrayal, unrequited love, (and more f-bombs than Sam Jackson drops in the average movie)... all together told in a beautiful language that makes the reader laugh, smile, and cry at unexpected turns? Sometimes within sentences of one another.

Sound boring? It's not. Like I said, I don't know what book they were reading. I was completely riveted. And I sobbed at the end. Another truth.

Sadly, there is no mention of magic, or Hogwarts, or wizards, witches, and house elves. It didn't need that - it has it's own unique brand of magic. It doesn't mention Muggles either, but it does delve heavily into their lives and the way they interact with one another.

I am very impressed by Rowling's first adult book. It's literary, it's rough, it's blisteringly poignant. I will miss every single character.

5 out of 5 stars. Brava, Rowling. You have made magic out of the extraordinary ordinary. Brava.

- review courtesy of www.bibliopunkkreads.com
...more

4

Apr 17, 2012

28 Sept. '12
I have to start by saying, that if you're expecting a (murder-)mystery novel; a plot submerged in conspiracies and political maneuverings, you will be sorely disappointed. If you're hoping to be transported to another magical adventure, you'll receive an even greater plummet back down to earth.

Look. If you're going to read this just because it has JK Rowling's name splattered on there, I strongly advise you to sit back, take a look at your computer screen, and read that book 28 Sept. '12
I have to start by saying, that if you're expecting a (murder-)mystery novel; a plot submerged in conspiracies and political maneuverings, you will be sorely disappointed. If you're hoping to be transported to another magical adventure, you'll receive an even greater plummet back down to earth.

Look. If you're going to read this just because it has JK Rowling's name splattered on there, I strongly advise you to sit back, take a look at your computer screen, and read that book description. Does it sound like something you would enjoy? Does it attract you, in the least bit, at all? Or does it sound utterly boring you would rather do something more productive like watch Desperate Housewives back-to-back?
The Casual Vacancy is everything the title and book cover promises it to be -- plain, straightforward, something so commonplace and ordinary that you wouldn't even notice it's there. This book doesn't try to impress anybody, I think looking at the drab red and white cover would tell you that much, but it will elicit some sort of reaction depending on how you interpret things.

The Casual Vacancy reminds me a lot of the Australian drama film, 2:37 (view spoiler)[which is a great, thought-provoking film, I must add (hide spoiler)]. Not because the plot is in any way similar, but rather that they provoke the same general reaction out of their audiences. Some parts are gritty, vile, and just plain offensive.
I've heard a few friends, read a few reviews, that mentioned how Rowling just seemed to arbitrarily slop down a bunch of cuss-words and sex scenes simply to get it across to her readers that this is not Harry Potter, yo! but I could not disagree more.
I think we have it all in our heads that Rowling is somehow pressured into differentiating this adult book of hers from her popular children's series, that we're assuming too much of her. Although it does seem sometimes that she's playing a game of how many penis jokes can I slip into my adult-novel, the real and horrible fact is that in the real world out there, people do cuss -- some much, much more than others. Teenagers do have unabashed sex -- sometimes in public places, (view spoiler)[if you think the sex scenes here are simply there for the sake of shock value, wait until you meet my having-sex-in-the-mosque friends! (hide spoiler)] and there are horrible, violent, incompetent parents out there.
Truthfully, I quite enjoyed the way Rowling gave distinct voices to her characters . Some needed their mouths washed, some needed to grow a pair, some needed to be slapped across the face. It is a pity that her portrayal of real people is being watered down to her attempting to assure us this is an adult novel.

There is almost no theme that this book does not touch. There are unhappy marriages, failed relationships, dysfunctional families ... there are issues of depression and cutting, bullying, teenage delinquency -- in short, this is a book about life. This book is a drama. A slow-paced, character-driven drama ; an in-depth look, if you will, at the lives of multiple people. There is no main character in The Casual Vacancy. Instead, we look into the lives of a number of residents of Pagford, we make our own decisions on their personalities, which is one great strength of this novel, and we get to see reflections of our own society - perhaps our own selves - in the inhabitants of Pagford.

I have to admit, that contemporary fiction is not my genre. I find them dull, I find them boring, I find them - more often than not - shallow and poorly developed; poor, romanticized attempts of uncovering human nature and the world we live in.
But the way JK Rowling handled her characters is well-rounded and completely believable . I know only too well, the same type of gossiping, drama-mongering women who secretly crave to be in the limelight. I know only too well the hypocrisies and selfishness of people who do not even ever mean to be hurtful.
Perhaps, the main reason I got through this novel and enjoyed it, is because I simply find character studies fascinating - and that is, in large, what The Casual Vacancy is about. That said, I have no doubt that you will utterly loathe a majority - if not all - of these flawed, only too-real characters. It seems as if there was not a single inhabitant of Pagford with redeemable characteristics. And yet, you do get to sympathize with a few, every now and then.

The only character whose perspective we didn't get to really experience was perhaps the one who was most affected by Barry's death - his widow - whom, by the way other characters interact with her, I have come to despise. It may be a shock, but it isn't the physically abusive father who I hated the most, nor the good-for-nothing druggie mother (view spoiler)[alright, maybe it comes to a tie (hide spoiler)] -- it was Mary, Barry's useless, whinging, annoying widow.
Cut her some slack, I hear you say; her husband just died.
It's a good thing we never got to see into her head, because I'm sure I would have found more reason to hate her. Her entire sadness and mourning is based upon selfish, egotistical reasons. She has no respect for her husband's efforts, nor the selfless work he so evidently found important. She also just walks around moping, breaking down every two seconds, doing things and making decisions that her husband would have no doubt disproved of.

Anyway. The head-jumping may be daunting at first, and yes, some people will be highly turned off by this. I myself think that if it had been handled any other way, the continuous flow of the world would have been interrupted; like a sudden cut-to-black scene instead of a camera constantly filming events as they transpire, following one character from another as they pass each other by.
Also, Rowling sure likes her commas. But that is a minor detail, which I myself am often guilty of - so I don't find it too off-putting. I could complain that her sentences were often winding, multiple clauses abound, sometimes causing confusion and forcing re-reads - but that is the distinct style she so often uses, which is something I have come to enjoy; and once I got going, I almost didn't notice it.

But anyway. Enough about that. What about the actual story? Well, we begin with the death of Barry Potter Fairbrother.
**As a sidenote -- it might seem, if you read the novel, that he was the only redeemable character in this entire tale; and yet the entire purpose of The Casual Vacancy was to show us how rotten and imperfect people are once we get inside their head. It is only a blessing we never got to experience Barry's perspective, otherwise our enchantment of him, I suspect, would have been rudely awakened.**
Barry's death had an impact on the entire community of Pagford, for he had left an empty seat on the Parish council, and whoever takes his place may have a defining role on the future of a rehabilitation clinic and, by extension, the lives of people who depend on it.

And that is all there is to it, ladies and gentlemen. No mysterious murder plots, no sudden evil lord rising from the dead. Of course, we are entertained by the everyday dramas that you will find in such a small, close-knit society. There is sabotage, teenagers courting, MILFs on the prowl ... we have an abundance of little events that lead up to the final climax of The Casual Vacancy: some would say, an unnecessary scene that acts as a turning point for our characters.
But in that scene, like the entire premise of the movie 2:37, we are reminded of the brutal truth of life; of how selfish and self-absorbed people are. Of how immersed we are in our own petty problems and little closed world, that we become so ignorant and shrug off the rest of the world.

It is a pity that something bad had to take place before we see some semblance of change in our characters - although some characters do not change at all. And some readers, I believe, will find this to their distaste. But for me, this is a simple fact of life. Some people need mistakes to learn from. Some people never learn at all. And JK Rowling's beautiful, if brutal, portrayal of life; of actions and consequences; of people and society, would have been just another romanticized happily-ever-after if it had ended on any other note.



27 Sept. '12
Alriiiight! I finally have a copy of this so I'm gonna say "screw it" to all the other books I'm currently reading and get started on this like, right now. JK Rowling, bring it!



5 July '12


Is it just me, or don't you prefer JK Rowling's face as a cover?

I think we're part of some elaborate social psychology experiment. The hypothesis is that us suckers will buy any book written by such a long-anticipated author, even if it had a picture of dog turd on the cover.



14 June '12


Not final cover art??? You mean, she won't have a picture of her own face as the front cover of her novel?? I am disappointed.



17 Apr. '12
Look. I know we all love J.K. Rowling to bits and tiny pieces she would just die in our smothering worship ... but this book is not even out yet. HOW does it already have practically 5 stars?? HOW? Do people have access to a hidden manuscript that I am not aware of? Have people traveled back from the beautiful future just to put up their stars before everyone else?

...more

4

Dec 04, 2017

Small town gossip, big town problems

By no exaggeration, the entire community hinged on Barry Fairbrother. He was the glue, the tape, the old piece of string.

And, they are left scrambling to hold things together when he unexpectedly passed.

Why? Because the entire idyllic town is festering over a cesspool of drugs, prostitution, self harm, rape, class divisions, abuse and sexism.

Told through ever changing narrators, we see just how Barry Fairbrother held their families - their community - Small town gossip, big town problems

By no exaggeration, the entire community hinged on Barry Fairbrother. He was the glue, the tape, the old piece of string.

And, they are left scrambling to hold things together when he unexpectedly passed.

Why? Because the entire idyllic town is festering over a cesspool of drugs, prostitution, self harm, rape, class divisions, abuse and sexism.

Told through ever changing narrators, we see just how Barry Fairbrother held their families - their community - together through his kindness and willingness to care.

And without him, the whole town begins to crumble. Will they pull everything together? Or will everything be lost forever?

Whoa. This one was intense - not at all what I expected from JK Rowling.

It was still good - just completely unexpected.

The characters were well fleshed out and the plot was absolutely riveting. It's a bit like watching a train wreck.

So many people, so many ways to uniquely ruin lives.

After learning all that Barry did, I'm surprised that his aneurysm hadn't come earlier.

The book did get to be a bit overwhelming - there's only so much I can take. About 3/4, the book got a bit overwhelming for me...

It ends on a semi-positive note, with a hint of a hope that things will get better - which felt fairly realistic.

I'm glad I read this one but I don't think I'll pick up a copy.

Just as a note, if you are looking for something with the harry potter vibe... this is not it.

The teens in this book are not idyllic or innocent. They are already well versed in abuse, neglect, drugs and sex, courtesy of their upbringing.

Audiobook Comments:
Tom Hollander did a pretty good job of distinguishing the characters through inflections and mannerisms. With such a large cast, I think there needed to be a bit more characterization to help tell them apart.

YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Snapchat @miranda.reads

Happy Reading! ...more

1

Feb 23, 2012

Find more of my controversial reviews at Scott Reads It

After rereading my review of The Casual Vacancy I realized it sounded sloppy and very unprofessional. I decided to edit my entire review and start from scratch.

I had such high expectations for The Casual Vacancy and I was extremely letdown. I'll admit that the only reason that I read this book is because I adore J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series. I was so excited to read a new J.K. Rowling book that I didn't care that The Casual Find more of my controversial reviews at Scott Reads It

After rereading my review of The Casual Vacancy I realized it sounded sloppy and very unprofessional. I decided to edit my entire review and start from scratch.

I had such high expectations for The Casual Vacancy and I was extremely letdown. I'll admit that the only reason that I read this book is because I adore J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series. I was so excited to read a new J.K. Rowling book that I didn't care that The Casual Vacancy was nothing like her Harry Potter series. (That's not to say that I secretly wished that The Casual Vacancy was some sort of spin off or sequel to Harry Potter.)

Though J.K. Rowling's writing style is evident in The Casual Vacancy, nevertheless reading The Casual Vacancy felt like a form of torture. I lacked any emotional attachment or connection with the characters in The Casual Vacancy. The only emotions towards the characters in this book were repulsion and extreme distaste. The political structure of this book was portrayed in a manner that was unappealing and tedious.

I felt like The Casual Vacancy unnecessarily dirty and vulgar. I believe that J.K. Rowling was trying to differentiate from her children's books by adding rape, pedophilia, sex scenes, and adult content. How many times can you drop the f-bomb before it becomes irritating?

It is truly alarming how 5 star reviews I have seen that were written by people who have never even read The Casual Vacancy. It truly defeats the purpose of Goodreads to review and rate a book you have never even read.

I wish I had a better experience reading The Casual Vacancy. The Casual Vacancy was very dull and I struggled to read a few chapters. One day I hope I will attempt to finish The Casual Vacancy but for now I'm marking it as DNF. ...more

4

Aug 02, 2013

(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: Its eager vulgarity is akin to Disney actresses trying to shed good-girl reputations by over-correcting their next roles.

0

Apr 12, 2012

Listen, people. I'm not extremely excited for this book because it's not fantasy. And I don't mean Harry Potter's continuation. Please, as much as I loved HP, I don't need to read about his kids because I cannot get myself to give a damn. The end is the end. I can't see how she can continue that series.

Rowling has said that this book is completely different from what HP had given us. It's dark, dreary, a bit personal, and is solely for adults. And even though I love, love, love HP, I didn't Listen, people. I'm not extremely excited for this book because it's not fantasy. And I don't mean Harry Potter's continuation. Please, as much as I loved HP, I don't need to read about his kids because I cannot get myself to give a damn. The end is the end. I can't see how she can continue that series.

Rowling has said that this book is completely different from what HP had given us. It's dark, dreary, a bit personal, and is solely for adults. And even though I love, love, love HP, I didn't preorder this book or went completely crazy about being the first to grab it. In fact, I won't mind spending a few months waiting to read it.

But J.K. ROWLING IS WRITING ANOTHER BOOK! WE GET TO HEAR ABOUT SOME ASPECTS OF HER PERSONAL LIFE THAT I WAS TOO LAZY TO GOOGLE/STALK MYSELF! AND I'M SORRY FOR USING CAPLOCKS WHEN I CAN USE EXCLAMATION MARKS BUT THAT DOESN'T DO JUSTICE FOR THE FACT THAT ROWLING IS WRITING ANOTHER BOOK. ...more

0

Feb 23, 2012

EDIT #2: I'll probably still give this a go out of curiosity. And because I do love our Queen J.K.

EDIT: I am extremely disappointed in that cover. *cringe* It screams "no effort." I was excited, but after reading the synopsis and seeing the cover, not so much.


Words can't express how excited I am about this book!

Oh, yeah and the Dark Lord approves too.

4

Oct 01, 2012

6.11 A casual vacancy is deemed to have occurred:
(a) when a local councillor fails to make his declaration of acceptance of office within the proper time; or
(b) when his notice of resignation is received; or
(c) on the day of his death …
Charles Arnold-Baker
Local Council Administration,
Seventh Edition


Barry Fairbrother, local councillor of Pagford lay dead on the ground in pool of his own vomit. His death creates a situation called ' casual vacancy '. A lot of people of people are willing to fill 6.11 A casual vacancy is deemed to have occurred:
(a) when a local councillor fails to make his declaration of acceptance of office within the proper time; or
(b) when his notice of resignation is received; or
(c) on the day of his death …
Charles Arnold-Baker
Local Council Administration,
Seventh Edition


Barry Fairbrother, local councillor of Pagford lay dead on the ground in pool of his own vomit. His death creates a situation called ' casual vacancy '. A lot of people of people are willing to fill Barry’s vacant seat on the parish council. Thus, begins the story of a small English town called, Pagford.
A part of Pagford is ‘the fields’, pretty fucked up place. Many members at the council never accepted the fields and its people as their own and now they want to separate that filthy place from their own Pagford. And now this task seems much easy than ever, since Barry is dead. Barry, who dedicated his entire life to make people realise that the fields has always been part of Pagford.

'The Rowling Experience'

This is the first time I have read a novel by J. K. Rowling. Yup! No Harry Potter for me. So unlike many fan of hers, I have no reason to measure the goodness of her other novels against the scale, based on Harry Potter novels.
I read this book for simply what it is, not because I have been missing Harry Potter or her writing. I don’t know, how good is she as a YA-fiction writer, but she is damn good as a writer of an adult and a realistic novel.
What I liked most about her writing is characterization, this novel is all about characters and each and every character is so well developed that you can connect with their thoughts and action, moreover you can recognize the characters from their dialogues without any reference to speaking person. Need I say more about her writing skills?

'The Casual Vacancy: As It Is'

Adults Only! For some reason when I heard that it’s going to be an adult novel, I conjured up an image of a mature book, with some deep embedded thoughts and thought provoking writing. Basically, mature.
Well, surprise! This is seriously an adult novel. Many reviewers say that Rowling has tried to make this adult by unnecessarily using all kind of dirty words. Word count of few such 'dirty words'
Arse: 5 times
Bloody: 61 times
Fuck (my favourite, and given the count looks like Rowling’s favourite too): 214 times
Shag: 13 times
Wank: 2 times
Shit (second favourite): 43 times

But the thing is that these words have very less or no contribution in making this an adult novel. Strip this novel of these words and it will still remain very much adult as it was before. It is the issues and situation that makes it what it is. And these words are not forced in any of the character’s mouth; they say it like they own it.
Moreover, whatever is being termed here as adult, is fucking reality of our society.

Things that other reviewers have said (mostly those who have read around 50–pages and therefore abandoned):
-crappy story of a town rocked by death of some Barry Fairbrother
-no likeable character
-simply not interesting; in other words, nothing like Harry Potter

The story of this book is not about Pagford and how it was affected by Barry’s death and definitely not about Barry. The death of Barry is just a pretext of starting a story.
For the first 50 pages only thing that happens is introduction of various families (characters) living in Pragford. These introduction are connected through passing message of Barry Fairbrother’s death. So in these pages what one will come across is that; Barry is dead. Rating the book at this point is like rating a YA-novel after 10-15 pages.

If you ask about the plot of the story, then I’m afraid I can’t tell you much because this is not an exactly plot driven story. Those who think of this book as such have complained in their review that ‘ending is abrupt’. Well, the ending is not abrupt, but my friend, you were holding the wrong thread of the story.
This is more like character-driven story, this is all about characters, as I told before. This story is about the people of Pagford, who have constructed themselves in all the wrong ways possible and this story make them realise this fact and gives them a once in a lifetime opportunity by destroying them, so that they can start all over again. When they restart, that is the end.

No likeable character. I disagree!
Well, there are many likeable and very very interesting characters, but if you meant that there is no protagonist, whom you can cling to throughout the story, then only I can agree.
Consider this as a story with no protagonist or many protagonists. I don’t consider anybody in this story as an antagonist because this is a politics based story and in politics everybody is right and everybody is wrong.

I agree that starting of the story is not at all interesting. Reason: there are many characters, actually too many and everyone is important, so this leads to lot of confusion and it takes time to settle this confusion. Every time a character give their following appearance, it is hard to remember whose son/wife/husband they are and whether they are anti-field or pro-field. But, once I got accustomed to characters, setting and their relation to everybody, this story flowed better than ever.

I liked Rowling's writing so much that I can say: Very much magical, even without magic. ...more

2

Sep 28, 2012

Synopsis:

When Barry Fairbrother dies suddenly of aneurism in his early forties, leaving his family and a lot of unfinished issues behind, the town of Pagford is in shock. He was a well-known councilor and a coach of the local female rowing team. He was also a man with a mission. Who will fill his shoes? Will his death benefit his allies or his enemies?
Surprisingly there are more than one or two token candidates. Pagford, seemingly an English sleepy town like many others, with a cobbled market Synopsis:

When Barry Fairbrother dies suddenly of aneurism in his early forties, leaving his family and a lot of unfinished issues behind, the town of Pagford is in shock. He was a well-known councilor and a coach of the local female rowing team. He was also a man with a mission. Who will fill his shoes? Will his death benefit his allies or his enemies?
Surprisingly there are more than one or two token candidates. Pagford, seemingly an English sleepy town like many others, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, becomes a war zone and, like in every war, there will be casualties. Who will prevail? Is it important at all?

My impressions:

First of all let me state the obvious: hearing the name of J.K. Rowling you will immediately think ‘Harry Potter’ even if you haven’t read any of the books or haven’t seen the movies. But HP series was finished some time ago and now Ms Rowling decided to branch out. I am far from criticizing her for that, let me just say it was a very bold move, rejecting a genre which made you famous, renowned and super-rich, trying something entirely new and different. I grant it, she could afford that little experiment without breaking out into a financial sweat, a rare luxury among authors. My question is rather why it was done the way it was done especially that it could have been done practically any way?

My first surprise: the new book was still published under the name of J.K. Rowling. Let’s face it – whether the author likes it or not that name belongs firmly to Harry Potter. Using it to market a contemporary fiction novel for adults is like trying to sell e.g. BMW shoes or Manolo Blahnik computers. Of course it has its short-term advantages: plenty of people have bought the book out of sheer curiosity or loyalty so I suppose the publisher and the author will make a nice, fat profit, no problem. Still most of those casual readers will be confused and disenchanted at best, getting not exactly what they have expected or used to expect. I suppose next time they won’t fall for the magic name alone.

The novel itself is a solid piece of writing, planned and executed decently well, but the topic isn’t either fresh or original, let alone ground-breaking. I am not an especially well-read person in English literature and even I have read many similar position by Kate Atkinson or Sue Townsend; I can even add Agatha Christie to the bunch here, and I must say their books were actually better – funnier, more edgy. Do not expect in The Casual Vacancy any magic, even of the metaphorical kind, or fireworks of humour and wisdom. While reading it I didn’t feel that intense urge to find out what happened next, or to devour the book as soon as possible. It was a tepid story set in a banal, industrial-grey world; after finishing it I could shrug my shoulders and move on. I related to none of the characters, I didn’t hate anybody in particular, I am not curious what will happen to them in the future. If I have to be honest I could live without meeting them at all.

I suppose I would be far more comfortable if the book was published under an alias. Now it seems to me that Ms Rowling decided to minimize any risk and to capitalize shamelessly on her previous success, selling readers something which is supposedly connected to the HP series but in reality as far away from those books as it can only be. Only after the lecture of reviews or the book itself you see you have been conned. . Had this one been penned by a debut author, without all that glamour of a world-famous name, it would have still been published but I am sure it would have also passed unnoticed and would have been forgotten soon.

By the way would it be such a bad idea to write something new (heck, even starting a new series) for adults but with fantasy elements included? Do only kids deserve a bit of fun? Taking into account how many mature readers have enjoyed the adventures of Harry and his friends, not to mention his enemies (yours truly among them) it seems like a completely rhetorical question, right?

Final verdict:

A decent novel about contemporary Britain but nothing outstanding you must or should read or you miss out on an important book. Rowling has said pre-emptively: ‘ I'm a writer and I will write what I want to write.' Ok, fine. I am a reader and I will read what I want to read. Not something like this one, though.
...more

4

Sep 29, 2012

This book is utterly heartbreaking, but real, gritty, and slightly sickening.

I had no idea what this novel was going to be about when I bought it yesterday. Being 17, I have grown up living and breathing Harry Potter. It is correct to assume that this novel is an utter contrast to the Harry Potter series. But I think it is a most naive error to try to compare the two works. It goes to JK Rowlings credit that she can produce such varied pieces, and write them so well!

I love this novel. I find This book is utterly heartbreaking, but real, gritty, and slightly sickening.

I had no idea what this novel was going to be about when I bought it yesterday. Being 17, I have grown up living and breathing Harry Potter. It is correct to assume that this novel is an utter contrast to the Harry Potter series. But I think it is a most naive error to try to compare the two works. It goes to JK Rowlings credit that she can produce such varied pieces, and write them so well!

I love this novel. I find that I am attracted to it for the same reasons I am attracted to Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men: it is fast paced, never boring, develops characters well, and most importantly regularly sheds truthful insights into the workings of the human mind, and how we perceive life.

Basically, it cuts through the bullshit. It doesn't matter how pretty the prose one may read in a novel today, if you can find a book like this, one that will rip your heart open and expose it for the world to see, making you consider who you are as a person, you are lucky.

Rowling is a brilliant writer, and with such fluency and articulation she shows her characters to be three-dimensional, giving the reader no reason to hate any of them, but no reason to love them either. My favourite character would probably be Krystal, although I grew to love both Tessa Wall and Sukhvinder Jawanda increasingly. Rowling produced such strong characters in these three women, writing them so non-stereotypically, giving them unique viewpoints it's hard to believe that they were strictly fictional. In Samantha Mollison you found a 'Emma Bovary' type, types that I often have love/hate relationships with (a women so bored of her conventional married life, that she acts outrageously to fill the void inside of her.)
The only male character I had any fondness towards was Andrew Price and perhaps his poor younger brother. I found them both endearing, and could relate to their struggles.
What I like most about how she wrote her characters was the way she saved judgement; she let readers weigh up each characters strengths and weaknesses, to make a decision on how they felt about them theirselves.

Living on and off in a country town for 10 years, I found that Rowling's portrayal of country life was extremely accurate. The narrow-mindedness that is often expressed, the idea that there is no life that matters outside the town, the loyalty and defensiveness around it, the nosy community, the hunger for gossip, the rebellious adolescents.

In the end, I don't think this book as a particular agenda. I think in its brilliant 500 pages, its sole purpose is to portray life as it is. It's direct truthfulness stuns me. Those who criticise this novel for its 'dark themes' or 'foul language' simply remind me of Howard and Shirley Mollison, who don't believe terrible and dirty things actually happen in their own little universe and if they do, they are more than happy to write them off.

Bad things happen. So do good things. If you're unable to stomach this, and want Harry to defeat dark wizard after dark wizard without failure, this novel isn't for you. If you're able to accept that life isn't always sunshine and lollipops, I guarantee you will be able to relate to, and even enjoy (what a thought!) this novel.

...more

1

Apr 12, 2012

The Casual Vacancy is Rowling deciding in her junior year of high school that she doesn't want to be the quiet good girl anymore, so she goes out and dyes her hair some shade of neon and starts dressing all in black and listening to screamo and leaves her debate club and choir friends for the poetic crowd. She gets a few piercings and smokes about two cigarettes, and her parents are worried, but they don't need to be. It's all experimental, part of her development as a person, her learning who The Casual Vacancy is Rowling deciding in her junior year of high school that she doesn't want to be the quiet good girl anymore, so she goes out and dyes her hair some shade of neon and starts dressing all in black and listening to screamo and leaves her debate club and choir friends for the poetic crowd. She gets a few piercings and smokes about two cigarettes, and her parents are worried, but they don't need to be. It's all experimental, part of her development as a person, her learning who she is and who she isn't and who will love her anyway. It's just a teenage rebellious phase, and it will pass, and in the long run, she'll benefit from it. But right now, she really needs that ankle tattoo.

You know, metaphorically.

I respect her for being brave and trying new things, which a lot of authors don't have the nerve to do, and I appreciate the difference between the Wizarding World and the world of Pagford, England. However, IMO, this is her worst work to date, and The Casual Vacancy is a mess, not only in comparison to her previous works, just as a whole. Had it been a debut, I would have disliked it, but said that if the author could develop the ability to focus in on only a few subjects, she could show some potential. Standing next to her seven previous novels which ranged from 'pretty good' to 'I don't ever want to write anything else because I know it can never compare', the Casual Vacancy is just kind of embarrassing. It takes the few flaws of the HP books and elaborates on them.

The Casual Vacancy has Order of the Phoenix's annoying teenage angstiness, Half-Blood Prince's general lack of structure and punch, Deathly Hallow's self-indulgent misery and bleakness (but, like, times a million), and the general bloatedness that plagued her last three books. Only this time, it's all grays and groans and there's no humor or fun anywhere in its excessive length.

The cover flap for this book talks about how the small town of Pagford, England, is shaken after the death of one of the town council members, Barry Fairbrother. However, the actual story was mostly about the problems of the Pagfordians, with the occasional feeble return to the idea that Barry's death, or at least the empty town council seat, is universally important to all of them. But mostly it's about how everyone--and I do mean everyone--is really messed up in some way or other.

The biggest problem that this book had was its lack of focus. Within the first 100 pages, we're introduced to at least 20 characters and 20 problems. The narrative continues to jump back and forth between the, oh, at least 15 leads and their various issues, which makes it kind of hard to keep track of who's who and who's dealing with what, as well as difficult to allow us to feel any kind of connection with any of the characters. The book is 503 pages, and felt both overly long, and too short, with the pages too heavy.

You see, Rowling was determined to make this an Adult Book, which apparently means taking on "real life" issues of the Rated R variation. That includes, in no particular order, adultery, pornography, bullying, self-harm, politics and its evils, rape, teen sex, drug use, prostitution, child abuse, lawlessness, pedophilia and other mental illnesses, homosexuality, death, grieving, swearing, immorality, suicide, sex obsession, early stages of alcoholism, and the beginnings of psychopathy (though to be fair, the last two are only my inferences/unprofessional diagnoses).

When I list it out like that, it sounds worse and dirtier than it is, I think, because while all of these things are addressed, most of them aren't developed beyond a glancing mention or a quick scene or two. I just felt that Rowling wanted to make sure people could understand that she's willing to take on serious themes. However, they were all so poorly handled that it all just felt like a few superficial additions to prove that she wasn't writing for children anymore.

Also, she was probably looking for some kind of substance, because at the end of the day, this book really doesn't have a lot going for it plot-wise. It was all over the place, yet came off as oddly dull; I was bored for most of the book. There were a lot of problems to various degrees of awfulness and significance, but somehow they all seemed rather mundane. There was no scandal and none of the excitement that comes with it. It felt like a laundry list of Important Issues that needed to be discussed in some way or another, wrapped up in the form of a book and in no way similar to the well-planned and marvelously plotted Harry Potter series.

Of course there were some similarities. Oddly enough, it starts with the death of a beloved, similar to the first chapter of Sorcerer's Stone. The reactions of the townsfolk to Barry Fairchild's death are much the same as Professor McGonicall's and Hagrid's to Lily and James' murder: shock, disbelief, tears, despair.

Seeing this array of emotions was a really odd thing. With the way Rowling wrote it, I had no doubt in my mind of what the citizens were feeling, and yet I myself felt mostly indifference. There was also a sense of triteness about it somehow; the emotions weren't poorly written, just predictable, and as you watch the fourth group of people react in much the same way as the first, it starts feeling overly scripted and somehow false.

That's how I felt about pretty much everything here; it wasn't that the problems were unrealistic, just that the way people reacted to them was exactly what was to be expected, and that disappointed me somehow. The more she would talk about what a character felt, the less I could believe it.

Remember the Prince's Tale chapter of Deathly Hallows? Rowling showed us this character who, despite his complexities, has been pretty consistently soulless throughout the series (in the best possible way), and in a few pages she tore him apart. We just watched a few moments of his life, with no real narrative or commentary from him; it was all just actions and yet we knew and felt exactly what he felt. And when he does cry and scream and pray for death, we feel it so acutely we're doing it ourselves.

Or almost. I'm not that dramatic (although some fans...). But she made me feel something. It kills me that she couldn't do that here.

A big part of it was the characters. Like I said before, I didn't know any of them well enough to care that much about what they were doing. They were paper cutouts of people, nothing more than they needed to be to address a few problems, and none of them were real to me.

That's sad, because almost everyone in the Harry Potter books, minor characters included, was real to me, and they were all so very human. From Harry to Snape to Narcissa Malfoy, there were so many tangible shades of people, some more good and some more bad, but at the end of the day, (with the exception of Lord Voldemort, which was a characterization in itself) they all had some humanity in them.

I think that's the biggest thing lacking here: there are no good men, or women for that matter. No one in this book shows any interest in anyone other than themselves. There aren't any bonds of love or friendship, and if Rowling says there are, I never felt them. She spent so much time showing the dark side of humanity, the gritty underbellies and manifestations of the world's evils, so much time making sure that everyone suffers and everyone makes everyone else suffer, that it seems she forgot that people are more than just bad. She forgot about the humanity in humans.

One of the prevailing themes of the Potter books was love. Everyone felt it, and brought out the best in everyone and redeemed the worst of them. It was beautiful, and gave so much more meaning to everything. Maybe Rowling didn't want it to feel like she was repeating herself; maybe she wanted to show that life is hard, and yet...

I know this is her attempt at serious realistic fiction, but ironically, I feel like there was more realism in the Harry Potter series. They might have been fantasy, but they showed so much of real life: good vs. evil, strength vs. weakness, love vs. hate, discrimination, grief, loneliness, friendship, how annoying the media can be... The only theme I felt here was that life is hard, but most of us knew that already and don't need to be reaffirmed of it. And for the innocent, let them be. Beyond that, Harry Potter made more sense as a whole; it was mapped out without being rushed, whereas the plotting here is clumsy at best and nonexistent at worst, the conclusion coming out of nowhere in another attempt at realism that feels merely contrived and melodramatic, another awkward attempt at making us feel.

Maybe Rowling was trying to prove herself as a "serious author", but it kills me; she never needed to. The Harry Potter books were so good, and there was so much heart, and this just feels like an uninspired attempt to be the antithesis of that. If Stephenie Meyer had written this, it would be a huge step up, but Rowling's career didn't need this; we were never in doubt of her ability. I get what she was trying to do here, I just don't feel that she accomplished it at all. For me, it was too sprawling yet too short; she should have either narrowed in on a few characters or gone full Gone With the Wind and made it about 1500 pages so she could get everyone developed properly (and let's face it; if anyone these days could get a book that long published, it would be her).

Oh, well. With all evidence to the contrary, The Casual Vacancy hasn't really sullied my opinion of her; I still think she's brilliant, now I just know she's human. People make mistakes, and then they learn from them. That being said, I hope Rowling sticks to YA and MG books; there's less pressure, and besides, her writing has a kind of precious quality to it that makes talking about penises and masturbation fairly uncomfortable.

Overall, I personally wouldn't recommend this book, but if overplayed suffering with literally no bursts of sunshine in between is your thing, you're gonna love this one. Or, more likely, if you're a Harry Potter fan and can't stay away, just read it to end the wondering. Some fans have loved it; others have been unimpressed, but at the end of the day, you have to form your own opinion. I've made mine without any real emotional or psychological harm (it wasn't as nasty as Gone Girl and therefore couldn't touch me), and so you must make yours. Unless, of course, you absolutely cannot deal with any mention or allusion to the topics previously listed, or under the age of 16, in which case, it actually is a good idea to stay away. Your call.

--

My pre-reading review, like I hadn't gone on for long enough already:


UPDATE 10/2:

Wow. A lot of negative reviews for The Casual Vacancy thus far, and an interview with Rowling in Entertainment Weekly bragging that yes, her book has sex scenes and other forms of adult content.

I dunno. I don't want to judge The Casual Vacancy prematurely because that's not fair of me, but I don't know that I want to go out and spend thirty bucks on a copy if it's as dirty (and... non-engaging) as people are saying it is.

I will read it. Or try. Because no matter how bad the reviews are, I (and a lot of other people) can't just walk away without knowing for myself. I have to read it, and if I don't like it, my review will reflect that. However, it may be a while before I get to read it; I intend to check this one out from the library and probably won't have my hands on it before December.

--

So I'm scrolling down the list of Goodreads updates when I see that someone's added a coverless book with a rather bland title.

With the words 'by J.K. Rowling' underneath.

And then, like an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, my eyeballs bulged out of my head and exploded into flames from sheer excitement.

It's not like I didn't know she was writing another book. Because I did. It was on the target thing on the back page of Entertainment Weekly. And my friend mentioned it to me. And, you know, you can't just write seven epics and then drop off the face of the published planet. Well... you can, but I read somewhere a while ago that Rowling didn't intend to.

So I knew there was going to be a book. But it didn't become a reality until I saw the little coverless marker on Goodreads.

And... it is real. And there's even a description. And... I had to read it twice to really understand it.

I still don't understand it. Like, I read it, and my brain registered all of it, but, like, I can't remember it because it was weird.

All these people, these characters she's mentioning, they appear to be... ordinary. Muggles, one might say. I didn't see the name 'Harry' anywhere. No mention of magic. Quidditch. Not even Privet Drive.

How do I feel about that?

We shall see.

Where are my expectations?

I don't yet know. On one hand, my opinions of the last, say, three books in the series are on the low side; I felt like the HP books peaked at Goblet of Fire, which remains one of my absolute favorite books ever. But with Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, she just kinda got wordy and boring and not a lot happened and I still kinda loved it and everything, cuz it was Harry Potter, but...

If The Casual Vacancy is like that, I won't love it. Because I won't have that love of the characters and the setting to make the boring good. I'll just have guilt from my love of the HP books that'll make me lie to myself and pretend that I'm enjoying it.

Plus... it's gonna be an adult book. I'm not sure how that's going to work out. There was something very childish about the writing of the Harry Potter books. That's not a bad thing at all; they were written for children, so it was fitting. It made them charming. But if she holds onto that same writing style and tries to bring it to an adult book... well, like, knife at a gunfight. It could ruin the entire thing.

So, in that way, my expectations are already low to spare me the agony of not having them met.

On the other hand... it's not like J.K. Rowling isn't an amazing author, because she is. She wrote the most hyped books, like, ever. In my lifetime, at least. And they weren't overhyped, they deserved it. She continually gave us wonderful characters, a gorgeous world of magic and muggles, excellent story lines (with the exception of the last few, but I've already been there), and yet had them all tie together for one blood-soaked conclusion. The Harry Potter books were great.

So here's to hoping this one will be.

If it isn't, here's to the tears of millions of fans.

The world is watching. So good luck, Ms. Rowling, and may the odds (and editors) be ever in your favor. ...more

0

Feb 24, 2012

Update 7/3/2012: Well... I can't lie. That is one seriously disappointing cover.

A 2012 release date?!?!?!? SO EXCITED.



Enough said.

4

Jul 24, 2016

My desire to read this book stemmed purely from a love of J.K. Rowling's previous work (You-Know-What). I knew to expect something different as it was stated categorically that her new book was for adults. Once the book was out, I heard a number of bad reviews. However I was not disappointed with this book. I can understand the responses because of the theme and some of the scenes are gritty with some unpleasantness, very real-life and honest.

In The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling has made a My desire to read this book stemmed purely from a love of J.K. Rowling's previous work (You-Know-What). I knew to expect something different as it was stated categorically that her new book was for adults. Once the book was out, I heard a number of bad reviews. However I was not disappointed with this book. I can understand the responses because of the theme and some of the scenes are gritty with some unpleasantness, very real-life and honest.

In The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling has made a successful transition to the real-world. Especially when she gets into the minds of 16 years old boys is class. All human traits are here – love, hate, anger, romance, betrayal, envy, jealousy (you name it) all taking place in the aftermath of the untimely death of a parish councillor. All of the characters in this book are flawed, some seriously. You will find yourself casting judgement on an individual, only to have your opinion receded by the next chapter. Gritty and controversial themes are explored throughout. This is a great story-telling.

The prejudice, the judging, the conversation behind closed doors, the circumstances surrounding the addiction and poverty and dependencies, all of it, is so spot on. The complicated inter-relationships of small communities, the clash of cultures that is such a feature of the present day life and the pettiness of some of the local politicking, again, J.K. Rowling does an incredible job describing it all. I also loved the Dickensian approach she made here, of telling the story of a town, rather than a character. It is a marvelous example of just how good an author she is when she weaves a rich tapestry of characters and situations together in a masterful and undeniably thought-provoking way.

Don't pick up this book if you are expecting the same sort of Harry Potter style because it is quite graphic with a lot of swear words. Don’t be distracted by naysayers or negative reviews. If you enjoy reading a gritty story with characters anyone can relate to, then this is the book for you.

Read it and judge for yourself :) ...more

0

Oct 04, 2012

I didn't have any giddy expectations for Rowling's first foray into the world of adult fiction, but will admit to being curious as to how she would approach it. Now with 64 pages under my belt, my personal verdict is in: Did not Finish.

It's not a badly written book, but what little I read I found dull and pedestrian, which surprised me more then anything given Rowling's richly imaginative mind. In addition, the crude language seemed more forced then natural, almost as if Rowling needed to drive I didn't have any giddy expectations for Rowling's first foray into the world of adult fiction, but will admit to being curious as to how she would approach it. Now with 64 pages under my belt, my personal verdict is in: Did not Finish.

It's not a badly written book, but what little I read I found dull and pedestrian, which surprised me more then anything given Rowling's richly imaginative mind. In addition, the crude language seemed more forced then natural, almost as if Rowling needed to drive home the point that she was writing an A.D.U.L.T piece of fiction rather then have the words make sense within the context of her characters and story (if that makes any sense). And on a purely personal note, I think the inclusion of the c-word in any work of literature not exclusively hard-core erotica is a lame excuse to look edgy. Must be the new buzz word in the literary world, although to me it always denotes a lack of taste and style. My opinion only. You are welcome to disagree, as I'm obviously not the target reading audience for this genre (whatever genre this is).

So take these scribblings more as observations then a proper review, and note that I am assigning no rating to it. My overall take on what little I read is that it's probably a so-so book to the right audience when all's said and done, but would never receive the hype it's gotten had John Smith written this and not J.K. Rowling.

My only recommendation to anyone (fan or not) interested in this book would be to test drive it at the library before forking over your hard earned dough for it, and read some of the reviews coming in from readers who actually finished the book. Afterwards, you may find you can't live without it permanently displayed on your bookshelves or e-reader. If so, good on you. Or you may find yourself bemused by the hype but glad you saved yourself a few dollars. ...more

5

Apr 12, 2012

First off, a confession, I was predisposed to not so much like this book. I had read many positive reviews yes; even so, positive or negative, they all shared a common theme. That is to say lack of plot. And I’m here to tell you, it’s all true, although it is not so much a lack as an absence.

This is character development at its finest and even Pagford the community, comes forward in that undertaking. As much a character as say Howard, and despite our narrow view of Pagford’s people, we walk First off, a confession, I was predisposed to not so much like this book. I had read many positive reviews yes; even so, positive or negative, they all shared a common theme. That is to say lack of plot. And I’m here to tell you, it’s all true, although it is not so much a lack as an absence.

This is character development at its finest and even Pagford the community, comes forward in that undertaking. As much a character as say Howard, and despite our narrow view of Pagford’s people, we walk away with an overwhelming sense of the place and the time. Rowling knows how to set a scene, letting it wash over you warm and slow as you read, and learn more about the people that live within these pages.

The author certainly knew them, each and every one, and then set out to draw us, the reader, a picture. It works. You can step into this story and it all seems so easy, a mere sweep of her pen.

Did I have favourites, you bet. But here’s the thing; each and every one of these characters added depth, colour, and the means to better understand the story being told. They were all ruddy brilliant.

It begins with the untimely death of Barry Fairbrother.


As readers, I’m guessing we all share in an instinctual knowledge that comes sometimes when we read. We feel it in our gut. Gripped. Gripped and comfortable with the language, the flow, the pace, the place and the people: comfortable in the claw of a gifted story teller.


Beware though, the only magic you will find here lay in the power of each and every word that pulled me forward. I had to remind myself to slow down, to chew, and to savour.

This is the kind of book that wants reading, feet up, in front of a fireplace, with a glass of the good stuff by your side. Come join me. :) ...more

5

Dec 06, 2012

Where I got the book: my local library.

It took me a while to decide to read this book; I had really enjoyed the Harry Potter books but would not go so far as to call myself a fan of JK Rowling, and why would I be interested in her as an adult-novel writer anyway? I'd seen a fair amount of negativity on reader loops; people didn't like the swearing, the book was too different from Harry Potter, there were too many characters so the story was confusing, etc. And then when this novel won the Where I got the book: my local library.

It took me a while to decide to read this book; I had really enjoyed the Harry Potter books but would not go so far as to call myself a fan of JK Rowling, and why would I be interested in her as an adult-novel writer anyway? I'd seen a fair amount of negativity on reader loops; people didn't like the swearing, the book was too different from Harry Potter, there were too many characters so the story was confusing, etc. And then when this novel won the Goodreads Choice award for 2012, didn't that just mean that JKR won the popularity contest? Wasn't I just letting myself in for a disappointment after all the hype? And so on.

I take it all back. Let me say three things at the outset:

- this novel is officially my Big Surprise Read of 2012;
- it goes on my list of the best novels I've read this year;
- and, after all these years, I will now identify myself as a fan of JKR.

And one more note: I will not apologize for discussing the Harry Potter series in this review. I hope I can raise enough points to claim that The Casual Vacancy is completely consistent, artistically, with its much more famous younger cousin.

If you're having trouble with this book and you're American, I don't blame you. I've lived here long enough to understand that the dialect, the swearing and the peculiarly English way of viewing class may make this novel difficult to relate to. It's an extremely English work; never, as far as I can recollect, has JKR made any concession to the huge and lucrative market across the Atlantic in her books. Harry Potter worked in America because it's based in a fantasy England of steam trains, school uniforms, tuck shops, quaint villages and dark, mysterious olde-worlde London. Not many Americans would be familiar with the Enid Blyton stories that provided such a vast pool of inspiration for Harry Potter, but I believe they would instinctively clue into that early-20th-century image of England as what they want England to be, rather than what it is. The Casual Vacancy gets a whole lot closer to real England and therefore loses much of that advantage of instant accessibility.

Well, I'm a great many words into this review and I still haven't said what the book's about. It begins with the sudden death by aneurism of Barry Fairbrother, a Parish Councillor for the small town of Pagford. Parish Councils, for those who don't know, are a basic unit of local government in non-urban England; their powers can have a considerable effect on the infrastructure and life of a country town. In Pagford, the bone of contention is a low-income housing estate, the Fields, which by historical accident has ended up as a part of middle-class Pagford rather than being absorbed into the more urban conglomerate of Yarvil where, as far as most Pagfordians are concerned, it belongs. They don't want what they see as a bunch of no-hopers sending their kids to the "good" Pagford schools and consuming an inordinate amount of the available social services and unemployment benefits. A related issue is the survival of the addiction clinic, whose clients frequently come from the Fields; again, why support a service that is a burden on the middle class citizens of Pagford, who are far too upright and clean-living to need such help?

The death of Fairbrother--who grew up in the Fields and was a passionate advocate for its children--leaves a "casual vacancy" on the Parish Council, and the two sides of the debate over the Fields and the clinic muster their candidates. While the adults in the novel's cast struggle with fitting local politics into their already messy lives, their teenage children have problems of their own. Andrew's home is a nightmare because of his abusive, violent father; Fats's casual cynicism and pursuit of what he perceives as authenticity but most of us will view as shallow "coolness" will have a destructive effect. Sukhvinder struggles with being the only academically weak member of a high-achieving Asian family and the self-loathing brought about by her victimization at the hands of classmates, Gaia is miserably displaced from her London home, and Krystal, who lives in the Fields, struggles to keep her junkie mother clean and look after her little brother.

Yes, pretty much the characters you'd expect in a socially conscious novel, and you could argue that there's a fair amount of cliché here. The plethora of story lines means that JKR has to keep character development on pretty clear and unambiguous lines, so there's not a whole lot of nuance or big surprises in store. Every adult has a predictably messy life and the adults, to my mind, are not as clearly or as sympathetically drawn as the teenagers.

The real star of the novel is the underdog Krystal Weedon, half-literate, neglected and abused but determined to make her life better in any way available to her. Like Harry Potter she's both underdog fighting hero and sacrificial victim; unlike Harry she is, after Fairbrother's death, virtually friendless in a world where there's no magic to be wielded. Out of all the characters I think this is the one that JKR really invests with complexity and pathos, and ironically Krystal, with her near-feral dialect and her f-bombs, will be the least accessible character to many readers. It's a credit to JKR that she underscores Krystal's personhood and at the same time paints an accurate picture of how the middle-class characters see this courageous, powerless girl as a threat or an object of half-disgusted fascination.

In Harry Potter JKR magnifies class conflict into an all-out war between competing factions; in The Casual Vacancy the action is small-scale and the teenagers rebel and protest in very middle-class ways--getting drunk, smoking cigarettes and a little weed, scoping for sexual experience with that laser-like hormonal focus we probably all remember. The adults in the novel are the ones who do the abstract thinking; the teenagers simply do, and their superior knowledge of computer skills allows them to take part in the parish council election in a retaliatory fashion that's effective because they understand their parents' weakest points and worst hypocrisies. There's a touch of that role-reversal that we see in Harry Potter and, in fact, in many young-adult stories on TV and in film; the teenagers take control of the adult world from their useless, clueless parents. The wish-fulfillment of the powerless? Only, in The Casual Vacancy there's no ultimate triumph.

Above all I found that JKR's ability to tell a story and imagine a world kept me reading on for page after page when I'd decided I really was only going to read one more chapter. A few days after finishing the novel I can see the points where I can criticize, but while I was reading it I was spellbound. I've heard that this is the novel JKR really wanted to write and I'll concede that it probably wouldn't have stood a chance of being published back when she was an unknown. If she had begun her career now, she might have self-published it and achieved a measure of success because it's well written and engaging, but she'd probably have remained an obscure English writer in the realist tradition. Harry Potter has given her the chance to shape herself into, not necessarily Dickens as some of the hype has suggested, but certainly into a powerful force for social criticism in the form of readable, entertaining novels. There are worse ways of exploiting fame. ...more

4

Feb 23, 2012

*4.5*
I went into this book expecting to hate it, and I'll admit, it started off pretty slow. However, as the story progressed, each character grew more and more, and I became emotionally attached to a couple of them, Krystal Weedon in particular. This is one of those books that I know I'll fully enjoy the second time I read it, since now I know all the characters it'll be much easier to follow. Overall, amazing book.

I also get sad whenever I listen to Umbrella now, which I keep doing for some *4.5*
I went into this book expecting to hate it, and I'll admit, it started off pretty slow. However, as the story progressed, each character grew more and more, and I became emotionally attached to a couple of them, Krystal Weedon in particular. This is one of those books that I know I'll fully enjoy the second time I read it, since now I know all the characters it'll be much easier to follow. Overall, amazing book.

I also get sad whenever I listen to Umbrella now, which I keep doing for some reason.
...more

1

Sep 27, 2012

I admit it! I gave up! I've read 20% of this book, and I left it at that. Here's why:

The reason we're all reading this book is because it says "J.K. Rowling" on the cover. Associations: Spellbinding plots, humour, strange characters, action, excitement, magic...
I'm reading it because it's written by J.K. Rowling. And because it's by her, I can't believe I gave up.
I feel bad comparing it to Harry Potter, because it's a totally different novel. It's realistic, and set among ordinary people in a I admit it! I gave up! I've read 20% of this book, and I left it at that. Here's why:

The reason we're all reading this book is because it says "J.K. Rowling" on the cover. Associations: Spellbinding plots, humour, strange characters, action, excitement, magic...
I'm reading it because it's written by J.K. Rowling. And because it's by her, I can't believe I gave up.
I feel bad comparing it to Harry Potter, because it's a totally different novel. It's realistic, and set among ordinary people in a small English town. It seems unfair to compare it to that world of magic that made her famous.
But look at it this way: Would I have bought this book after reading the description if another name was on the cover? No.

My favorite part of Rowling's writing has always been her humour. Sadly, there's not much of that in this novel. It's dark, dirty and realistic, even though I hesitate to use that last word, because the misery in this novel is, if anything, overdone.
It does have a few funny phrases, but it's all pitch-black comedy, and there's not enough of it.
I expected more in terms of language, even though, obviously, her theme is very different from her other work, and I admit I was disappointed.

The town of Pagford is a picturesque English village in my mind, much like something out of Midsomer Murders. That would, however, be the wicked, nasty, dark version of Midsomer Murders. There's heroin, neglected children, abuse, loveless relationships, envy, malice and death.
That would be quite alright with me if I hadn't been constantly asking myself "what are you trying to tell me?" or "what message do you want to put across through this story?". I didn't come so far as to figure out why she would show me all these different scenes of misery without giving me something more.

The book opens with a death, and all the townsfolk are basically overjoyed; some only for the gossip possibilities, and some because they want to take the dead man's place in the community. At first, I thought of Vernon and Petunia Dursley; nasty, suspicious, close-minded people without a shred of compassion, and I found it promising. That is, until I found out that absolutely all the characters in this book are like that. Full of anger, spite and envy, only looking out for number one. And that got old awfully fast. Without a Harry, Ron or Hermione to lighten things up, it's all just downright miserable. Frankly, I need a bit of both; I enjoy a balanced plot.

I can't help but think "who are you, and what have you done with Jo?!", because this novel just feels like she isn't really trying her hardest. I know what she's capable of, but you won't find it in this novel.

So, I'm going to be unfaithful. Jo, we've had a long and happy relationship, but I'm going to bed with John Dickson Carr tonight.

What's more, I can't tell you how much I sincerely regret my pre-order. ...more

3

Jan 03, 2013

***UPDATE APRIL 2014: A BBC/HBO co-production of this book will start filming this summer, and will air in 2015 (most likely). An interesting video talk by Rowling about this book. 35 minutes.

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at ***UPDATE APRIL 2014: A BBC/HBO co-production of this book will start filming this summer, and will air in 2015 (most likely). An interesting video talk by Rowling about this book. 35 minutes.

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils ... Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?


My Review: This was going to be a nastygram to billionairess Rowling, all about setting up expectations and not meeting them, blah blah blah. What cheek. Some little man, well littler than I used to be for sure, sitting with his netbook perched on his lap pillow querulously tapping out a chastisement of one of the world's richest, and most deserving of it, writers.

Plus, I was wrong.

This is in no way an inferior book, it's not badly crafted, it's got some snarky sparkly characters, and it's telling a story quite akin to the one in Peyton Place. And that book's been in print since long before I was born. (Well, maybe not long exactly, but before.) (It was TOO before! Quit muttering.)

What it isn't is the problem. No, not Harry Potter, of course it's not; but it's also not groundbreaking and amazing. It's a solid, middle of the pack read, and we expect Rowling to bowl us over with imaginative flights and eternal verities expressed pithily by wildly romantically named characters. She tells us a right good story. She hits on all imaginable human foibles. She puts some amusing and cutting lines in the mouths of her ladies. I finished the book because I kept thinking about Pagford and its peeps. Now that is an achievement that most writers don't manage, making me think about their characters after I've put a book down.

So why the mingy three stars? Because in the end, I was wrong to be snarky and dismissive of a well-made book, but I wasn't wrong to want a writer with Rowling's track record to wow me again. She's done it seven times before. Why not this time? It's what I'm craving. So please Ms. Rowling, please, tell me another story when, and only when, you feel The Tingle and have the goods to deliver.

And thanks for silently teaching me to get over myself. It's a valuable lesson. Every time I learn it, it gets more valuable.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. ...more

4

Sep 28, 2012

Gritty, realistic, layered portrait of a small town in crisis. In the fallout of parish councillor Barry Fairbrother's death, the stories of a diverse cast of unhappy people are woven together: some likeable, most not. The upcoming election for Barry's empty council seat fuels a sea of pettiness, gossip, and self-interest, and long-simmering resentments come to a head.

Let me start off by mentioning, as everyone else has, that this is not Harry Potter. Muggles only. In addition to the Gritty, realistic, layered portrait of a small town in crisis. In the fallout of parish councillor Barry Fairbrother's death, the stories of a diverse cast of unhappy people are woven together: some likeable, most not. The upcoming election for Barry's empty council seat fuels a sea of pettiness, gossip, and self-interest, and long-simmering resentments come to a head.

Let me start off by mentioning, as everyone else has, that this is not Harry Potter. Muggles only. In addition to the conspicuous dearth of wizards, it lacks the kooky charm, sentimentality, and optimism of the other series. Rowling is pretty unrecognizable. That said, as an adult novel that tackles sobering subjects like drug addiction, child abuse, and rape, it's bound to be a bit denser. I didn't find it as shocking as some people did, though. Yes, there is profanity. Yes, there is violence. Yes, there is sexuality. But it is never excessive or graphic or gimmicky. I got the sense that Rowling just wanted a no-holds-barred look at life in Pagford from all angles. Omitting swear words or the more disturbing events would have seemed far less raw and honest.

Multiple perspectives can be hard to pull off (jarring, choppy, etc), but the transitions are executed smoothly. The realistic, distinctive internal dialogue is the strong point of the novel, creating fully-realized and 3D characters you come to know very well. Some you wish you didn't - the small-minded and pernicious Mollison clan remind me of the Dursleys + Umbridge, and it was hard to read through their prejudiced and self-satisfied small talk. But there are also some fundamentally well-intentioned but flawed folks that I enjoyed following around and seeking to understand (Andrew, Parminder, Fats, etc). All the characters feel, as Fats would say, authentic.

The novel is slow-paced (and drags sometimes), but it carries a sort of slow burn. You detect certain tensions building and building and wonder what the culmination of those tensions will mean. Every action has consequences that echo through the rest of the book.

Ultimately, it's a fairly dark novel, but all the same, I felt reluctant to let the characters go at the end. Which is always a good sign. ...more

4

Feb 02, 2017

Find all of my review at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

The Casual Vacancy has been rated by nearly a quarter of a million Goodreaders and (in case you can’t tell by the 3.27 rating) a good chunk of them weren’t terribly impressed. Although I’ve already trolled my nemesis pal Ron 2.0 about reading this wrong, I’m not entirely convinced he did this time around. I’m also not going to try to convince any of you to read it. I’m fairly certain J.K. Rowling won’t have to resort to prostitution for Find all of my review at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

The Casual Vacancy has been rated by nearly a quarter of a million Goodreaders and (in case you can’t tell by the 3.27 rating) a good chunk of them weren’t terribly impressed. Although I’ve already trolled my nemesis pal Ron 2.0 about reading this wrong, I’m not entirely convinced he did this time around. I’m also not going to try to convince any of you to read it. I’m fairly certain J.K. Rowling won’t have to resort to prostitution for my crap review not generating an additional book sale. Instead I’ll do what I do best – not talk about the book at all.

Stephen King wrote a review on this book and made a spot-on comparison to another seedy little novel about the goings on amongst the population of a quaint little hamlet . . . .



(Although that was the first story that came to my mind, I couldn’t help also thinking this was a less stabby version of King’s own Needful Things due to all of the characters being absolutely wretched. However, it’s in pretty shit taste to name drop your own book so mad props to you for keeping it classy Uncle Stevie.)

When I was a kid I looooooooved movies like Peyton Place (and someone please remind my geriatric self that would be a good selection for Banned Books Week) and I was so envious of Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window . . . .



Who was able to peep on an entire apartment complex across from him when he was laid up (I totally would have been cool with having two broken legs if it meant I could people watch all day). Although Turner Classic Movies was a channel that played on the regular at my grandparents’ house, I had little interest in the happily-ever-after romances and giant production numbered musicals. Instead I tuned in over and over again to films like A Place In The Sun (are you familiar with that one? Dude knocks up his fat white trash girlfriend and then kills her when it looks like he has a shot of living the country club lifestyle with Elizabeth Taylor) . . . .



What can I say? I was a weirdo pretty much from the start and The Casual Vacancy fell in line with those mentioned above as being my type of story. The only decent human in the entire thing? Dead on page 1. Every other character ranged from depressing to despicable. Buuuuuuuut, even though I loved seeing how warped Rowling’s mind could go, this sucker was a slog. It took three solid days of reading to get through and if you know me, you know that’s a long time. It’s also a book where nothing really happens . . . . while everything is building up to happen. The big payout does come at the end but it is not without some serious investment in the lives of these townsfolk.

So read it if you want, don’t read it if you don’t want. And be thankful you won’t recognize yourself in any of these characters. Especially Samantha who is missing something in her real life that makes her develop a bit of an obsession with a member of one of her child’s favorite bands to the point where she buys concert tickets in order to go lust after the young man properly . . . .



Oh, wait . . . . .

4 Stars because even if I gave it less it would be 3.5 and I’d choose to round up for the simple fact that Rowling is savage as a mothereffer . . . .



#7 on the Winter Reading Challenge because:

We can’t stop
And we won’t stop
We run things, things don’t run we
Don’t take nothing from nobody
Yeah yeah ...more