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The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling


Ron

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The literary queen who's sold more than 500 million copies of her blockbuster Harry Potter-franchise, returned yesterday with her first work since Harry Potter, called 'The Casual Vacancy.' Rowling has been reportedly working on the story for the past couple of years, having had the idea for the story 'drop into her head' yet again while on a plane (kind of nice to think in retrospect, with the "then" and "now" aspects of her own personal story).

To me, The Casual Vacancy is like Desperate Housewives. While attending a dinner at the country club, Barry Fairbrother, a respected and councilman for the small city of Pagford, drops dead. Word spreads, and the city is left in turmoil as an election to replace him draws near. Amid lies, deception, backstabbing, and an ensemble cast of characters, JK Rowling writes 'unbelievably realistic characters' with a 'page-turning plot.'

I read the first chapter, and I'm actually really interested. I'll buy the whole thing (I got a sample on my iPad) once I get the money. :P Anyone else interested/planning on reading this/already bought this?

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Coming from the most famous children's book author of the 21st century, this book surprised me, to say the least. I knew that it would be more mature than Rowling's previous fare, but I didn't expect her first non-Harry novel to tackle rape, suicide, cutting, drugs, and prostitution all within the first hundred pages. If it didn't have Rowling's name attached to it, I doubt that it would be nearly as successful as it is right now, not only because of the content, but because of the fact that it's not really that exceptional. It doesn't have the charm of the Harry Potter series, it has very little of the humor, and since all of the characters are either corrupt or incompetent, you can't really sympathize with any of them.

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