Cherie’s Reviews > The Casual Vacancy > Status Update

So close, you must be finished right?? What did you think?

I am finished. Liked it, but thinking about it a little more before I give it a review. Definitely glad to have read it.

Yay!! I love how she just slapped the faces of all the selfish turds out there who couldnt care less what happens to these people. I love it when the very rich are liberals and not so greedy. I think she made some great statements wi this, so glad she wrote it. The kids in this broke my heart. They were all so real.

I agree--she did a neat job of showing how easy it is to become smug and complacent with our own sense of virtue and to be dismissive of others who choose differently in life--without ever understanding the motives behind their choice (or even knowing if they had other options). The scene that hit this home most for me: Mary bitter about Krystal not attending Barry's funeral and falsely assuming that Krystal was incapable of caring. In reality, Krystal made a tough decision to tend to her little brother. Few people understood or cared to know the good that Krystal was capable of achieving.

I know, see how she bloomed with Barry?? This is so real for me, people have no compassion, no idea what life is like for these kids who didn't ask to come here!

Also I think this book gives a real incentive for people to look out and reach out to others. It brings it right home. I think she did a great job with this. She knew that it wouldn't be *popular* with everyone but she needed to make this statement, after her own experience as a single mom on benefits after leaving an abusive marriage. I'm so glad she did this. I love her now even more than I did after HP.