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Book Review: The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling

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Book Review: The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling

Book Description from Goodreads.com: 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?


Okay, in the end I did read The Casual Vacancy, and live to regret my own decision.

Note: To me it's a Do Not Finish Book, I struggled my way to pg. 200 and then gave up

Plus, please note that I went into the book with low expectation and I didn't expect to find Harry Potter here.

What an awful piece of work, I simply can't find a single thing to like.

I know, J K. Rowling wrote a book for adults. But the problem is, judging from her writing, she was too self-conscious about this adult novel part. Every single page seems to scream: A.D.U.L.T. Look at me, this book is for adult audience. LOOK AT ME! TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!

Wow, all the fun has just been sucked right out.

Not to mention her attempt on dry British sense of humor is in fact very dry--lifeless desert dry. I can't even laugh.

It also doesn't help that Rowling was being very greedy, stuffing her book with an overcrowded group of characters and throwing in a lot--I mean a lot of social problems, family problems and mental problems, etc. Well, sometime more doesn't equal to better, you know?

Talking about more doesn't always equal to better, Rowling's giving us every single detail of her characters' daily affairs and their inner thoughts doesn't make the book look like it has more depth. Instead it makes it a very boring read.

I think I am just not enough of a voyeur to enjoy all those details, not when they're down to many characters' sex life and sex fantasies. I don't want to get inside every character's mind, I only want to know about the parts which actually matter to the story, is that too much to ask for?

Her characters aren't helping the matter neither. Most of them are unlikable in every single way imaginable. Well, I know to some readers it's a sign for 'realism' and good character building, but if I want to remember how bad and selfish and small minded and full of shits human beings really are, I would have watched the news. There're a few characters who are actually alright. That Barry Fairbrother fellow seems to be a descent human being but he's dead in the first few pages, there's a girl who has a troubled home life and a junkie mother, she actually shows a lot of promise for character depth. But sadly one or two acceptable characters can't save a whole book.

Don't get me wrong, flawed and unlikable characters are alright, but stuffing the book with unlikable *boring* characters? That's a crime.

Since I only (with a lot of struggling) read up to page. 200. I can't tell you what the remaining part is like, but from what I can see, there's no improvement in sight.

Suggestion: Skip this one, from what I can see you would hardly miss anything. Plus, curiosity really can kill the cat.
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Burnouts3s3's avatar
Interesting take. I plan to get this on audiobook and see what the ruckus is all about. If all else fails, I might check out "The Cuckoo's Calling", the book J.K. ghostwrote.