The Casual Vacancy - J. K. Rowling Book Review


I'd been looking forward to reading this book as I am a HUGE fan of the Harry Potter series! I know this book is nothing like the Harry Potter series but I love the way J. K. Rowling writes. The was she weaves in twists and turns in her stories and the amount of planning and dedication she puts in. I still cannot fathom how she managed to put together the Harry Potter series. How she managed to plant pieces and hints in the story in the first few novels that came into fruition towards the end of the series still has my mind boggled.

The Casual Vacancy opens with Barry Fairbrother's sudden death, a beloved parish Councillor and the effects that his death has on the families in the council and his friends in the small town of Pagford. The story then goes on to the conflict between the families in the small town vying for the seat his death opened up.

I admit that when I first started reading this I found it somewhat boring and hard to keep all the characters straight and not mix them up. You get to see from the point's of view of not only the families that were affected by his death but also their children's. Halfway through the book I was starting to keep all the characters separate from each other and I was also staring to feel for them.

This book is certainly targeted for an older audience as there are some adult themes, violence and substance abuse. At times I felt that maybe J. K. Rowling was just adding this for the shock value more than anything else.  I do not recommend young children to read this novel.

By the end of the novel I was so invested into the character's lives and stories that when the novel finished I was left thinking 'yeah but then what happened?' and trying to turn pages that didn't exist. I think if you start this book and don't immediately like it then try to push through and keep reading as I did really enjoy this in the end. I didn't realise how much I liked the characters (they kind of sneak up on you) and how interesting this novel ended up being. Perhaps this isn't the most exciting/interesting of novels but it does paint a realistic picture of small town life and what can happen when something upsets the well ordered life of it's citizens.

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