The Casual Vacancy question

I just finished reading it and am somewhat dissapointed. The first half of the book, as you mention, is very long and unnecessarily descriptive. I don't she is too "crude" with her words but I do think she is trying to make up for her simplistic vocabulary in the HP series, in CV she uses way too many "Sunday words" (some which I think actually distract more than embellish).
Another thing that bothered me was the unclear genre and story plot, since it keeps changing direction every once in a while and ends without really solving anything about it's "main theme".
To me, JKR used up all of her creative juice in HP.

I actually quite liked it. The first part of the story is a lot of character introduction, which I'll admit wasn't that easy to get through, but the rest of the book is quite good. I really liked the plot, and how messed up everybody turned out to be. It's a great window into small town life and human lives and relationships in general. As to the swearing, I'm pretty sure that's mainly in the dialogue of the teenagers, and teenagers do swear quite a bit, and I thought she was spot on with that.

I agree with most of the above comments. It starts slow because there are so many characters to introduce, but it really picks up in the middle, and the end is a whirlwind.

Judith wrote: "really trying to enjoy this book but sometimes it seems she goes on to long. I like description but seem to have a lot of unimportant length to some areas. Will continue reading and see how it goe..."

I'd really recommend going on. It will continue to have a lot of description for a while, because there are so many characters to introduce, but once the story really takes off, it's such a great book!

I didn't expect anything like Harry Potter. The first half of the book was ok but the second half I was bored to tears. Part of me didn't want to finish it but I did and wished I hadn't.lol Won't be rereading it.lol

given it lacks a main character it does take a while to get all the characters in line and know all their machinations, once you have them all down pat - about 30% in - the book takes off and does not relent.

quite brilliant i thought

i guess the character development is what driving people away and i oddly found that interesting.. i was not satisfied with the ending though!

I thought the book was extremely well written. She takes this little town, introduces you to some of it's main players, and unfolds a week's worth of their lives. This book wasn't about having a driving plot but about the characters themselves. She was extremely realistic in how some people act-everyone is a complete mesh of good and bad; no one is ever perfect or completely evil all the time.

As for the characters and their conversations-I thought it was quite crude but realistic. There ARE people out there who talk like that, believe it or not. I'm related to some (but the American version).

I thought she really showed her skills outside of HP in writing this book and showed how insightful of a writer she is all around.

This book wasn't published to be "the next big thing." or anything like that, she did it because it was something she had been working on and decided, well, why not? She's loaded so what does she care if it makes money?

Anyway I loved it.

I just finished reading this and after an initial struggle, I found that I warmed to it. Outcomes for the younger characters were interesting, whether good or bad. I'm glad I read it.

I was immediately sucked into the world of Hogwarts but Pagford, not so much. I labored through the first two-thirds of CV because I respect Rowling as a writer, but it wasn't until the last third that the pace picked up for me. She still has undoubtedly stellar mad storyteller skills but my heart was more invested in Harry & his friends than in all the poor, pathetic people Barry Fairbrother left behind.

This was a great book! The writing is amazing. It was difficult at first keeping all the characters straight, but I found this site to be helpful.

http://www.hypable.com/2012/10/03/cas...

I think it is hard to get into, but as others have said, once you do you're really rewarded. Personally, Sukhvinder and Krystal shone out in the text, because they were experiencing a youth not unlike a lot of girls. Sometimes Fats and Arf annoyed the heck out of me, because I didn't think that was completely how teenage boys were (I don't think they're that guided by how they feel about their fathers. Sometimes, it felt like Fats was meant to be the anti-Harry).

I really responded in the end, to all of the characters outcomes, and that is the secret and the beauty of Rowling's writing, and it always has been. People cared about Harry because, in 7 books (far more arduous, when you really think about it) they got to know a mulit-dimensional character. Yes, he was flawed, and so maybe was her writing of him, but she came as damn close to perfection as any writer I've seen. I saw an interview on BBC2 where she talked about her writing DNA, and I think that is it, her rich characters. I wanted Howard Mollison to die (seriously, he got to live and swallow up more valuable resources? Did he ever absorb what Parminder told him?), I wanted Parminder to win (I love her a little), I wanted Gavin to lose Kay and Mary, I wanted Gaia happy, I wanted Krystal to get a better life ... because I could envision these characters, this world, these circumstances. I mean, I even wanted Sam to make a pass at Arf, that's how good she is.

As to the language ... yeah, at first I thought it was so she could be like 'I'm all adult and hip and do actually know the word fuck' which, when I read in her voice throws me completely. But once she got into her stride, it was less obvious. Because it suited the characters too (except Shirley, obviously).

Rowling's still one of my favourite authors, if you couldn't tell. I would love for my characters in my writing to be so compelling.