The Casual Vacancy
by J. K. Rowling
Published: September 27, 2012
Genres: Adult Fiction
Format: Hardcover (503 pages)
Source: Purchased
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.
Before I start my review of The Casual Vacancy, I want to make it clear that I only read 25 pages of this book (and it took me 5 days to even get that far because it wasn’t keeping my interest). I also want to make it clear that in my life I have not finished about 6 books and this is one of them.
The book starts off with a death at the beginning. Then we get to see a lot of the characters reacting to this death in very different ways which could be interesting, I guess. It does take a long time for the news to even spread. Quite frankly the characters are boring, vanilla and not all that original. There is no plot to speak of. If there is no interesting plot or unique characters, what is supposed to keep me reading this book? I know – it says J.K. Rowling on the cover. I think that does this book a huge disservice. J.K. Rowling is not even her real name. Mrs. Rowling does not have a middle name in real life. I feel like the only reason the publisher put the same pen name that graces the Harry Potter books on this book is so people like me who LOVE Harry Potter will buy it. They are different genres – they NEED different pen names. But that’s just my small opinion. I’m having a hard time reconciling the person who wrote the fun, quirky, complex and immensely entertaining children’s book with the person who wrote this very adult book. They don’t even seem like the same person to me. I wrote as an update while reading this that this book is kind of ruining Harry Potter for me. If I finished this book, I might not look at Harry Potter the same again.
I tried to plow through the zero plot and boring characters, but I found myself not enjoying the writing, either. The writing wasn’t bad, but I didn’t find it immensely interesting either. I heard this was supposed to be funny. I guess I didn’t get far enough to see the funny parts. But there are characters who are married named Barry and Mary. Maybe that was supposed to be funny? Overall, this book was just not for me. J.K. Rowling rocks and I will love her forever. Whatever else she writes, I will read. Sadly, I just had to skip this one. The massive amounts of vulgarity and constant talk of sex was a huge turn-off for me.
Content Rating: High, there was a lot of f-words and frequent talk of sex even in just the first 25 pages.
If you’ve read this book, I really want to hear what you thought. Does it get better as it goes along? Did you like it? Is it just me that didn’t like this book??
About J. K. Rowling
J K (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling was born in the summer of 1965 at Yate General Hospital in England and grew up in Chepstow, Gwent where she went to Wyedean Comprehensive. Jo left Chepstow for Exeter University, where she earned a French and Classics degree, and where her course included one year in Paris. When her marriage ended, she returned to the UK to live in Edinburgh, where "Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone" was eventually completed and in 1996 she received an offer of publication. The following summer the world was introduced to Harry Potter.
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
Wow. I am so glad I read your review. I was planning on reading this as I am a huge J.K. Rowling fan but I would hate the crude language. Thanks for sharing,
Cami
Glad to help.
This is pretty much how every review for this book goes. I wish it weren’t the case, but it seems like this book is a HUGE letdown. I’m glad I didn’t buy a copy and I’m sorry you weren’t a fan.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I kept feeling like “This is J.K. Rowling! What’s wrong with me?”
That’s so sad. I’ve seen things like this in other books, but with all these reviews, even though it’s JK……:(
<3 Inky@ Book Haven Extraordinaire
I’m on the wait list at the library because I wasn’t sure I’d like it and I didn’t want to buy it until I know I did.
I want to see what you think. Aylee from Recovering Potter Addict loved it. She said it’s very character driven and maybe thats why I struggled with it. If there’s not a lot of plot, I lose interest.
Same here. Although I’m not sure I’m even that far in the book yet. To be fair, it’s not really my thing, political dramas and stuff. So I knew I probably wasn’t going to be a big fan. But still, I’m sad I couldn’t get more into. I think this will be a DNF for me as well. I’ll read other JK Rowling books later too, just like you said. But I won’t let this one that I don’t like affect my feelings for Harry Potter. She’s allowed to want to write what she wants and feels like. I’m not required to read it or like it. I will always love Harry and everything the books and Jo did for me and for reading. But I really do hope she’ll go back to the stuff I like!
Don’t worry, I won’t let it affect how much I like Harry Potter, either. She is an extremely talented woman and I’m so glad she is at a point in her career that she could write something so gritty and personal like this. I’m kind of sad that it didn’t work out for me.
I gave up even being on the library hold list for this one after I read some stuff about it. I just don’t think it will be something I will enjoy, so I’m not even going to bother. I hope she publishes something for kids soon, cause I’d like to read more of her fun stuff. :)
Well, I absolutely think you didn’t make it near far enough in the story to truly get a feel for the characters, plot, and writing – which were pure GENIUS, as is the Jo way – but I get that this book just isn’t your thing. It almost wasn’t my thing when I was on page 25 either, but I’m glad I plowed through because I found it was SO worth it. The strong content and language was pretty shocking for me in the beginning, too, but as I grew accustomed to it, I realized it added so much to the grittiness and realness of the story. I mean, I do wish real life wasn’t like that in actuality, but it is and that made the story so much more authentic in my eyes. It’s sad that it didn’t work for you, but you can’t be blamed – I certainly wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who is sensitive to such lewd content! Especially if it would ruin HP for you…
I know I didn’t make it far enough. That’s the biggest reason I have a hard time not finishing books because like you said, the characters come to life further on in the book. By page 25 we are still just being introduced to them all. I’m sad it didn’t work out for me.