Friday 6 September 2013

Review by Nia: Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Review: Casual Vacancy by J.K.Rowling.

Published: 1st September 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company.
Genre: Adult Fiction/ Contemporary/ Mystery
Page Count: 503

Synopsis: 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? 

Review. 
4 / 5 stars. 

I got this book for my birthday way back in October and put of reading it for well months, so instead I took the hulking great hardback on holiday with me. It almost pushed me over the hand luggage limit but it was worth it.

Casual Vacancy is nothing like Harry Potter. Its a completely different book which definitely has much more Adult themes (and when I say adult I do mean adult). It was a little bit weird reading an adult book by my all time favourite childhood author, whose books I've read over and over but Casual Vacancy is still well worth a look.

The book did take me awhile to get into. The constantly changing perspectives are confusing at times, especially in the beginning when you are just getting to know the characters, but once the book drew me in I just couldn't stop reading.

As I was saying about four sentences above the themes are quite adult theres rape, drugs, underage sex and many others included in this book. So if that sort of stuff isn't your cup of tea then the book is probably not for you. Theres also a lot of plotting and infighting between the families living in Pagford which can get a little tiring at times. Shirley and Barry Mollison are the worst for this and when I was reading from either perspective I found myself feeling ashamed for them. Although to be quite honest I didn't like many of the characters, but I feel like that is what this book is meant to do. Its strips the characters bare and reveals all of their secrets, and by the end the only character that I liked was Krystal Weedon who I started off really disliking.

This book is definitely worth reading. Although I found it a hard read in the beginning once the book had drawn me in it became unputdownable. The one thing I would advise against is picking it up because its a J.K. Rowling book, instead pick it up because you like the blurb and you'll enjoy it a lot more.

J.K. Rowling: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Nia

3 comments:

  1. great review. I haven't read this one, but I've been curious about it. I might try it out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nia!!! I missed you!!

    The book did take me awhile to get into. The constantly changing perspectives are confusing at times, especially in the beginning when you are just getting to know the characters, but once the book drew me in I just couldn't stop reading.

    This was the reason why I DNFd this. I only got to page 100 and gave up. I felt like it's a test and only the worthy can read to the finish LOL. It was a super slow start but I did like the teenagers, their POVs were interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I still haven't read this author, which means that first of all I have to read Harry Potter: I always say that I'm going to start the series, but the moment never comes :P
    Anyway, this book has disappointed a lot of people and I'm glad you are not one of them.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by and commenting, we'll stop by and return the favour soon so feel free to share links.

Captcha is turned off for your convenience, if its magically turned on let us know.