After the Harry Potter series ended, I think that everyone from the "first generation" was excited to switch over to something that was more written for adults. And quite frankly, it is not a surprise, since all of us who grew up on the Harry Potter series are now old enough to enjoy this book.
And oh my god, how I enjoyed it.
At first I had to think about starting to read it - it got so many different reviews from all over the world. A lot of critics said that this was one of the worst book ever written (oh, all right, I might be exaggerating) - but I think that they only had their expectations too high after Harry Potter.
It is true - The Casual Vacancy is something a whole lot different than the Harry Potter series, but I think Rowling did just as a good job with it than with the previous books.
The first thin you have to know about this is that it is quite a "dark" book. Although it is not so over the top that it will make you want to burn it in fire because of your disgust, I have to admit that it provoked some deep feelings.
The story takes place in a small town and is told from the points of view of a bunch of different people. People who are mostly all middle-class. And what does Rowling know any better than how it is to be middle class?
It also has a whole bunch of conflicts and topics that are still mostly considered tabu - drug use, teenage sex, suicide, rape, death, politics, divorce, homosexuality, incest, different illnesses, stealing, prostitution, adultery etc.
A bunch of things that exist out there right now at this exact moment.
This book is about lies and truth and how different people perceive it... and as Rowling said, this books is about responsibility.
The story starts with the death of a well loved and respected guy, which basically is the first drop to start an avalanche.
Because his departure a place opens up on the town council (thus, casual vacancy), and everyone tries to get the chair for different reasons.
Now you might say that the whole book is boring, because it is based on politics. It's not. I also hate it when politics are involved in a book, but for this one it works.
It works because the characters are written in such a way that you either feel really close to them or you just hate them so much, you would like to murder them in their sleep. It works, because NONE of the characters are the perfect characters most stories have.
It works because it has a realistic language, a modern one that all of us modern kids can understand. It has modern music, and technology and a whole bunch of "fucking". In fact, I think I've never read a book before that had so many f-bombs, or mentioned Facebook, and Rihanna's Umbrella (which, even if I hate damn Rihanna, somehow works out here).
Also, for some reason I feel that this book complements the Harry Potter series perfectly. What I mean by this is that it kinda pays a homage to the different "muggle" families from the Harry Potter series - and I'm talking here about the Dursleys, the Evanses and mostly about the Snapes.
I think that Rowling portrayed those families the same way she portrayed the families in this book. And granted - most of these families ended up being hated by the largest percentage of her fans, but there was ONE person who in the end became triumphant.
I talked about him just a couple of days ago.
Yes, Severus Snape.
I have the suspicion that Rowling got her bravery to write this book after she realized how many people came to like Snape - whatever their reason was.
And to be truth, just like with Snape, I came to sympathize with a lot of characters in The Casual Vacancy. Probably because they are all flawed and weird and so....sooooo... human. And because they sometimes reminded me of myself.
So, boys and girls, I highly recommend this book for everyone who is not squeaked by the more out of the ordinary storytelling. As I said, this requires you to look at it from a mature and possibly tolerant point of view, so if you don't considers any of those things, keep away from it.
But I'm pretty sure everyone could learn something from this.
