The Casual Vacancy

This book is one of those ones that I didn't love, but I also didn't hate. I won't say it wasn't a good book, because it was a good book. But I found the characters of the sort that I struggled to have a favorite character. Actually, my favorite character might have been Barry who dies right at the beginning of the book, but even then I didn't love his character.

Throughout this book, each character has negative qualities - a lot of them. At the beginning, they are often just alluded to. It's as if each character is introduced in his or her best light and the longer you read, the more real they become. Their flaws were slowly exposed over the course of the book and you discovered that the people who were all pushing for one side or the other on an agenda for the small town of Pagford were doing so for their own selfish reasons.

Characters that I loved at the start of the book, I discovered I despised at the end. Characters that I hated at the beginning endeared themselves to me.

The Casual Vacancy is a huge deviation from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, but that's ok. I just expected something different out of this book. But, it's still a good book and I enjoyed reading it.