Book Reviews: The Casual Vacancy

Being a massive fan of the Harry Potter books I was pretty nervous when I picked this up.   I knew it was going to be nothing like Harry Potter, and by all accounts nowhere near as good, but my curiosity forced my hand.   I needed to know what J.K. had been up to.   It centres around a local election.   It turns into a pretty fierce and dirty fight and brings out the worst in a lot of the characters.   It's told from the point of view of lots of different characters.   Perhaps a few too many to be honest.   It takes a while to get them all sorted out in your head.   I thought I might like it because I enjoy her humour and characters more than her storytelling, and even a book with no magic in it would surely still have just as many funny bits and characters just as appealing.  I was wrong.   Just about every character in this is detestable.   And while the humour is definitely still there, it's a lot more well hidden.   The humour in this comes from the skilled way J.K. depicts a small, claustrophobic rural community and its small minded petty people who care more about image and their own comfort than their neighbours' welfare.   I think just about every character reminds me of one or more of my parents' friends.   It's surprisingly gritty.   There's plenty of sex, drugs, self-harm, poverty, bullying and people generally being awful to each other.   And it's convincing too.   I never thought J.K., the author of Harry Potter, would be able to do grit, but it's properly shocking and dark.   There's so much conflict between children and parents too.   There doesn't seem to be a single happy family in the village.   Really makes you think about what's under the surface and what seemingly happy people are hiding.   And of course it doesn't have a happy ending.   The wrong person wins the election, the socialists lose their fight and children die.   I can't say I really enjoyed this book.   It's well-written, interesting, insightful, moving, but not really my sort of thing.  I much prefer my books with some magic in them.