Title: The Casual Vacancy
Author: J.K. Rowling
Released: 2012
Rating: 6/5
Basic Plot: Barry Fairbrother dies in the town of Pagford. This sweet little town's darker side is shown.
------------------------------------
This Ain't Harry Potter
For all those who haven't yet heard: This is not a kid's book and far removed from the world of Harry Potter. The language used in this book includes harsh swearing as well as words you need a dictionary for. As well as a more adult tendency for the words, the situations reflect what the intended audience can handle. Among other things in this book: drug, sex, and rape are all shown. Though there is only one rape scene near the end of the book to the character who least deserves it. All I mean to say with this is that if you're a Harry Potter fan it doesn't mean that this is a book for you. Also, if you're a kid with a love of Harry's wizarding world: that hopeful magic isn't in this book.
Three Dimensional Characters
These aren't black and white characters. There are those who appear good at first glance but there is always some dirt hiding under their masks. The one character that I loathed (and didn't mind if anything bad happened to him) was Stuart "Fats" Wall. Besides him, every character had at least one good characteristic about them. It's almost scary with how realistic characters are portrayed (I'm talking more about their three dimensionality more than anything else) and made me disturbed every time I picked up the book. I must congratulate Rowling with this superb feat.
The Dark Tone of the Novel
This novel isn't happy. By the end there are a few 'happy' ends to a few subplots, but the majority of them don't have overly happy outcomes. Besides the ending (which I recommend getting a few million tissue boxes before you read), the novel is very dark in tone. Andrew (aka Arf) is the son of an abusive father; Samantha is married to a man she has lost sexual interest in long ago; Stuart (aka Fats) believes in doing what he wants over what is decent; and a character gets raped. So if you're looking for a feel good story: stay far away from this book.
Final Thoughts
I picked up this book because J.K.Rowling wrote it. I wasn't pretending to myself that this book would be like Harry Potter, but I wanted to see if Rowling was just a one hit wonder. While reading this book I could hardly believe Rowling wrote it because of how different the tone and feel of it was. I had heard that it was a sad book but I didn't realize how sad it would actually be. Maybe something is wrong with me because I like books/movies/comics that make me hurt, but I don't care. This book made me hurt so bad but the journey it gave was very much worth it. I would highly recommend this book to any mature person that wants to see how three dimensional characters are written. Finally, the book is a little hard to get into, but once you get past the beginning stage you'll be pleased you stuck with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment