Being an
avid (avid being an extreme understatement) fan of the Harry Potter series I
would be lying if I said I didn’t have high expectations for J.K. Rowling’s
first adult book since said series.
Perhaps this is why I found myself having extremely mixed feelings about
the Casual Vacancy. It seemed that in an
effort to write something as opposite as Harry Potter as she could J.K. Rowling
conjured up the Casual Vacancy. Not only
is it an adult book (extremely adult, not for the faint-hearted), it is as far
away from fantasy as it could be. It is
almost so opposite of Harry Potter that it seems deliberate.
J.K.
Rowling goes into heavy detail with every single character in the novel, which
I usually love, but the characters in this book are dark and depressing
people. For the most part they are
selfish humans with very few redeemable qualities. Usually in books I become enthralled to the
point where I cannot put it down and I start to ignore things like laundry and
my child (kidding). Reading this book
felt like a chore at times in the fact that I had to navigate through all of
the elaborate back stories and try to keep each character straight. Basically it is the story of how a town fell
apart after the death of one citizen, Barry Fairbrother, who was holding the
town together in more ways than one.
One aspect
I did enjoy about the Casual Vacancy was the writing style of Rowling. Her ability for description and observations
about human nature reminded me pleasantly of why I fell so in love with Harry
Potter. Despite the darkness and rawness
of the book I did notice a few underlying positive themes. The most prominent that I noticed was the
importance of family. As much as the
characters were appalling at times they still supported and cared for their
family when it mattered most. As much as
I wanted to fall in love with this book, I just couldn’t. J.K. Rowling’s talent shines through the
mundane storyline and characters and makes me hope that she will continue to
write in the future. Next time, please, choose
something a lot more interesting to write about.
Reader Beware: Once you start you might not be able to stop no matter how unpleasant the journey.
I heard it was awful. So disappointing! I'm so hoping she writes another fantasy... maybe about the adventures of Albus Severus?? One can only hope!!
ReplyDeleteShe really needs to write another fantasy! If not Albus Severus (which would be amazing) she should do the Adventures of Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs!
ReplyDeleteShould I read it, or no? I started listening to it on an audio book, but the characters got too confusing to keep straight, I figured I need to actually read it instead.
ReplyDelete