The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Well I am just disgusted in myself and how long it has been since I have decided to sit down and write one of these things. Can I just defend myself before you hit that big red cross in the top right- hand corner? I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY. As well as being particularly busy with fascinating things including recovering from tonsilitus, spending some much needed time in the sun and getting a new phone. Riveting right? Now in the past 6 weeks, I don't want you to think that my self proclaimed title of official book worm has been lost. Oh no. Train journeys have still be filled with the written word. So brace yourself people. Reviews will be coming at you thick and fast from now on. Whilst I may try and do some catching up on ones I have finished, I may just start from now... I'm still fickle, I'll let you know.

SO in my own style of writing things late, why not give you a review for a book that has been out for quite sometime now? In it's own streak of luck however, J.K Rowling has recently been back in the spotlight, what with her new crime novel being published, as well as finding time to squeeze out a Harry Potter short story. I have not read this, sorry J.K but you must be JOKING if I am signing up to Pottermore just to read it. So this review will focus on her first, well lets say probably first published attempt at an adult novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Now if you are as ignorant as I am, you may think that this is a book about either casual sex or a empty hotel  room somewhere in the depths of England. However, you will soon learn, and I mean literally in the first ten or so pages, so this doesn't spoil it, that it for a seat on a local council that has become available after the death of Barry Fairbrother. The town of Pagford soon descends into a state of shock, and we are presented with a multitude of characters immediately, giving the book a soap opera sense of direction. And this does not relent. Rowling does exceed fantastically at chopping and changing scenes in the local town and its surrounding area. We all already knew she had a knack for telling a story, it was just the way she went about it that was sometimes troublesome and at times extremely immature. But this has greatly improved. Gone are the unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and visible is a sense of a writer who feels much more in her stride.

Do you even need a picture? 

Now this isn't perfect. There are times where, to me, it felt like she was trying a little to hard to reach her mature audience. Some mentions of words like vulva and her sometimes graphic sexual thoughts were misplaced and misjudged. There are times also I feel stereotypes are coming into play slightly, whether it be the troubled teenager Krystal Weedon who is so clichéd it is cringe-worthy, or the pushy Asian parents who bully their children for underachieving, Rowling sometimes slips into boring and unimaginative territory.

But she manages to save it with the other characters. She mixes so well the lives of the people in the small town and displays brilliantly each of the characters internal and family catastrophes. They may all seem like small problems, but if someone thinks it is a problem, then that's all that should matter. Characters including the married cougar Samantha who prays on young schoolboys and boyband members and Maureen who runs a local deli and café with the head of the council Miles, who may or may not have had part of his anatomy somewhere it shouldn't have been, all kept my unrivaled interest, even when a good looking man was standing in front of me on the train. The best character for me was the troubled father and headteacher Colin Wall, who was petrified of even brushing up against his students for fear he would enjoy it too much (if you get me). The sheer panic Rowling has instilled into him almost drips off the page.

All of these domestic issues rotate around the election for the seat, as two sides battle it out to save the Fields, a council estate area that sits on the border. Some want it out of the borderline and some want to keep it. It even starts effecting the teenagers of the local area, as parents run for the seat and they become terrified of what could happen, even meddling with the council website to stop people getting in. What Rowling does so well is to explore each issue in a way that it effects not just one person but everyone around them, truly evident in the run up to the end of the novel where I could simply not put the book down. I wont ruin it for you, but it sure does put many things in perspective for Pagford's residents and Rowling ends it on an extremely bittersweet note.

Now I was extremely cautious about this book. I mean I enjoyed the Potter books as much as the next kid in my generation, but I wasn't the biggest fan. But Rowling surpassed my expectations. Whilst it wasn't perfect and there were a few try hard moments, she writes with an authenticity that has captured modern life in rural towns where urban life is starting to infiltrate, whether it is elder people using the internet, council estates on your doorstep or a multi- cultural community, you get the feeling that things are changing and life for the residents can simply not go on as it has done in the past. A TV series has already been commissioned for the book and I can't help but feel that simply because of the author who penned it, this is why it is going into production. I just don't see it working on screen, it will be far to soap opera-esque. It may prove me wrong, at the end of the day I'm just a poor boy from a poor... Oh wait that's wrong. But you know what I mean.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling is published by Little, Brown in the UK.