The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Hardback, 503 pages

Published 27th September 2012 by Little, Brown

My shelves: abuse, adult-fiction, awful-cover, books-i-own, death, drink-and-drugs, let-down, lgbt-characters, medical-conditions, mental-health, rape, read, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, self-harm, suicide, too-much-hype

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Little Brown for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really know where to begin with this book. Very rarely, I avoid reviewing certain books - I haven't reviewed a few of the big names in books (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games) as I find it very difficult to try and review such widely read and highly acclaimed books. I didn't know whether or not I'd review this one - J.K. Rowling is probably the biggest author out there at the moment and there will already be a lot of reviews for The Casual Vacancy. However, as a dedicated book blogger, I decided that I'd give reviewing this a go! 

Despite the excitement surrounding The Casual Vacancy, I must admit that I wasn't really that excited about it. Sure, I love Harry Potter, but I knew that it would be something entirely different. On the release of the blurb of the book, I was underwhelmed - I thought that the story sounded quite dull and uninteresting. However, the fact that this was written by the Queen of today's literature, I still wanted to try it, at least. All that aside, when it was release day I had the need to get out and buy the book - I just had to have it (I actually ended up with two copies, one bought and one for review)!

Onto the book and the story itself... it's difficult to describe it, really, as I still have no idea how I feel about it - in one way I liked it, but at the same time I hated a lot of things about it. The thing about this book is that the main, interesting events happened in the first ten or so pages and the last fifty or so - this meant that the four hundred plus pages in between became tedious. The story revolves around around the fact that there is a Casual Vacancy in Pagford's council. I have to be honest and before reading this, I had no idea what a casual vacancy was and even after finding out, I don't know anyone who would care if there was a casual vacancy in our area. However, there was plenty of substance and the characters were certainly well developed, as expected. There was a definite history behind the village of Pagford and of the characters who lived there. 

Before I read this book, I read that some people were criticising it due to the adult themes and the amount of swearing in the book - I thought that was ridiculous - why should a book aimed at adults be criticised for such things? After reading, I can understand why it bothered people. I still stand by my thoughts that an adult book should have adult themes - it's not exactly wrong. I can understand why people were uncomfortable by this book. All of us associate Rowling with Harry Potter and a lot of people see her as a gentle figure to look up to. I didn't think I'd be affected, but yes - I did feel weird reading some of the sexual references at first. Thankfully, it was easy to get over after a while and I got used to it. 

However, I do feel as though Rowling was trying to put too many adult issues into the book. I enjoy reading about taboo subjects and serious issues, but I don't like to be overwhelmed by them. Amongst other things, abuse, death, substance abuse, mental health issues, self harm and suicide were all explored in this book. Although very emotive subjects, they didn't weigh me down and I didn't find them hard to read about - but sometimes that difficulty of reading about them is what makes them so effective. I was taken by one of the main characters, Krystal Weedon's case, but she was the only character I could really feel for - though the others were reasonably developed, I found it difficult to empathise with so many characters at once and the rest of them never seemed to grab me or strike me as someone important to listen to or to read about. 

The Casual Vacancy is a very political books, but to be honest, 1. I don't want to get into politics in one of my book reviews and really and 2. this book didn't have a massive impact on me nor my thoughts. Actually, I am not entirely sure what the message of this book was as I battled through most of it. I do think that Rowling made a superb job of putting across the fact that some people are like Krystal and have to live her difficult life, but I don't think the book was very balanced. The Weedon's issues were interesting to read about, but I felt that they overshadowed some of the serious problems that the other characters also faced. 

Overall, I don't think that this is a poorly written book but, for the most part, it bored me. There is so much thrown into this book, but for me, it was certainly not exciting nor particularly memorable. If someone told me that they wanted to read it, I wouldn't discourage them - I realise that there will be people who are into the deeper political messages of this book, but unfortunately I'm not one of those people. J.K. Rowling still stays in my mind as a phenomenal writer with a fantastic imagination and despite my difficulties with this book, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another of her books.

Listen to the song that features most in The Casual Vacancy - I have to admit that I think that every time I hear this in the future, I'll think of Krystal Weedon.

Saving Daisy

Saving Daisy by Phil Earle
Paperback, 288 pages

Published January 5th 2012 by Puffin

My shelves: arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, contemporary, mental-health, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, self-harm, series-or-companions, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Losing love, fighting guilt, seeking hope.

Daisy’s mum is gone. Her dad refuses to talk about it and as far as Daisy’s concerned, it’s all her fault…

Saving Daisy is a powerful and moving story that follows the life of Daisy Houghton who first featured in Phil Earle’s critically acclaimed debut, Being Billy.
As Daisy struggles with misplaced guilt over her mother’s death, she turns to extreme and violent measures and soon her life starts spiralling out of control. This leads to tragedy and suddenly Daisy finds herself left all alone. But sometimes the kindness of a stranger can turn things around. A stranger who desperately wants to save Daisy – if she’ll only let herself be saved. 

My thanks go to Puffin for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that I'm going to say about this book is simply 'Wow'. I didn't know much about this book when I picked it up, only that I liked Daisy's character in Being Billy, Earle's debut novel. I could see a lot of potential and depth in Daisy from her appearance in Being Billy and this book certainly reached and topped that potential. This is a sort-of prequel to that, though it is a standalone, and so it's not necessary to read Being Billy before you pick this one up.

It is very clear from the start that Earle has had experience in the children's care sector of work. He has worked as a carer in a children's home and also in a therapeutic community. His  experience allows him to portray an extremely raw and realistic tale of a very troubled girl, Daisy. Although she is only fourteen for the most part of the book, she is very developed in her complex thoughts and feelings, even if they aren't positive ones. For this reason, I think this book would appeal to adults as well as older teenagers. The setting for this story is mostly in Bellfield, a therapeutic community and a very frank, good representation of life there is given. A lot of different mental health care aspects are explored, from fitting in with others, medication side effects, the positive affect of charities and the need for trust with any therapists.

The general atmosphere for our protagonist is set straight away. From the beginning, the novel is full of mystery and intrigue. It is clear from the first lines that Daisy is not just a two dimensional character, but much more complex. I was drawn to her and wanted to know more. We get to see the reasoning behind some of her thoughts quite early in on the book, though there is certainly a lot more to learn about Daisy, and the people she meets, throughout. My attention was completely captured by her mental health issues. Earle deals with emotional and behavioural issues such as self harm in an experienced, tactful manner. He shows how methodical it is for Daisy and gives the reader a real idea of what it is like for someone who self injures. Daisy has a huge weight burdening her and she has done for all of her life. I often felt as though I was sharing this weight with her and at a lot of points, it was very difficult to read. 

Daisy has a lot of important relationships - with her father and with Ade, her key worker, in particular. I loved Ade - she was so connected to Daisy, so caring and managed to put me at ease - there was definitely an air of confidence and security about her. Naomi and the several other characters she meets whilst in the therapeutic community also play important roles in her life. Everyone who is introduced has a unique personality and it was fantastic to read a book in which people with mental health issues weren't stereotypical. 

There are several twists and turns in this book which made it compulsive reading, though I often did have to put it down as some of the subject matter was very difficult, emotionally, to read about. There are an abundance of subjects tackled, from student-teacher relationships, self harm, friendships and differences, grieving, love and loss. Different coping methods are explored, as are the difference in our thought processes. The action and change in this novel is almost non-stop which makes it a real page turner. I think that Earle does manage to, despite all the difficulties, give us a real sense of hope. This is a very touching, sad but inspiring story that I'm very thankful that I read. I can't wait to see what Phil Earle has to offer us next.