Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Casual Vacancy is a dull and dismal book, about dull and dismal people living in a dull and dismal village. I did read it right though to the bitter end, hoping and hoping for one tiny gleam of brilliance among the dross. I didn't find it and I didn't enjoy it. There is no magic in this book and, no, I'm not talking about Harry Potter style magic. I'm talking about the simple magic that every good book has, that takes you out of your world into the world that the book is set in. This book just doesn't do that. The scene is never really set, the characters are wooden and unreal. There is very little real emotion in the story. I felt like I was reading a third hand account, perhaps written by a social worker, of many of the events. The characters just did not connect with me, they seemed like caricatures rather than real people. I am at a complete loss trying to understand what the author was hoping to achieve with this story. I'm not even sure I could call it a story, it's more a rambling, incoherent account of a few sad and miserable characters that ends with a pathetic whimper. I'm sorry to say that J.K. Rowling is no longer one of my "must buy" authors.