Chapter Twenty: The Casual Vacancy

I was finally able to get a copy of Rowling's first non–Harry Potter book from the library, and it was well worth the wait. I'm glad I read it now that I'm on vacation because I didn't want to put it down, even after I finished reading it! My only complaint is that, in this fairly dark read, there were a few moments where I felt like Rowling goes a bit overboard in her emphasis of the horrible aspects of life to the point where I wondered if she isn't trying a bit too hard to show that this is a book for adults (whatever that means--and of course Harry Potter has its dark moments as well, but nothing like what's in The Casual Vacancy). However, one thing Rowling does particularly well here, as in HP, is making very real a large cast of primary characters and successfully investing my interest in all of them. They really kept me reading, and I'm still wondering what will happen to them after the end of the story (although I don't expect a sequel and I don't think this story calls for one).