The Casual Vacancy

The general consensus of last Saturday's meeting was that The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling was only "okay". While Heidi felt that the book got more easy to understand as the story went on, the whole group agreed that the story got off to a very slow start. There were simply too many characters to keep track of, the British slang got confusing, and some of the adult themes seemed just a bit too - well - adult.

We felt that Rowling was trying far too hard to sound like an adult writer, to break away from the sort of young adult, fantasy, family-friendly writing that she had done with the Harry Potter series. Her depictions of sex, violence, drug use, and language seemed mostly unnecessary; like Kyra said, "It's like someone trying to sound smart by using a bunch of big words they just looked up." And actually, it seemed as though Rowling had done a bit of that, too.

Overall, the book was probably a solid C-. It had a story that eventually got resolved and a few interesting moments and characters, but the ins and outs of English small-town politics were little more than a complicated distraction around Rowling's (somewhat poorly organized) depictions of suburban duplicity. What she managed to capture in the very first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the two-faced nature of a nosey neighbor, trying to hide their dirty laundry) took Rowling an entire novel to accomplish this go-round, and it was still only so-so.

However, those of us who have read the Harry Potter series all agreed that nothing could ever really make us think less of good ol' Jo. We'll just have to remember her for the good times.

Our Next Book is...

Next month, we'll be reading The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling.  Her first book for adults, this is a very different story than Rowling's previous books- the eternally popular Harry Potter series.  Instead of magic, The Casual Vacancy is more about real life in a small English town.  We'll be meeting to discuss the book on Saturday, April 13th from 1-3pm at the Ladysmith Branch Meeting Room.  I'll be posting the review and discussion questions online the same day.  Hope you all enjoy this book and happy reading!