The Casual Vacancy certainly takes a different (and undeniably bleaker) perspective on life, but it should not be written off as inauthentic simply because it differs so greatly from the tone of her previous works.

That she does not go around seeing things exclusively through Dumbledore's half-moon spectacles, interpreting everything she encounters in terms of herbology and wands and dementors. Rowling has more to say about the world than she said in Harry Potter. This, also, is unfair, as it assumes that the more optimistic, kid-friendly, clean style of Harry Potter is the only writing style that comes instinctively to Rowling, and anything else is forced, a sort of teenage rebellion against her 'goody goody' Harry Potter days.įew readers seem to be considering the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Ms. Other reviewers have said that the adult content in the book is Rowling's awkward attempt to push as far away from Potter as possible, as though she has something to prove. Well, guess what, JK Rowling never intended this book to be anything like Harry Potter. Many of the negative reviews I have read have thus far have been from Harry Potter fans disappointed that this book is nothing like Harry Potter. I thought: This book, Rowling's first since the final Harry Potter was published in 2007, has been received thus far with mixed reviews, which I wish to address before offering my opinion of the book. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?' 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. It's about: (taken from GoodReads) 'When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. *I received a complimentary review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

The casual vacancy goodreads