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Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Casual Vacancy. My review.

I will start by saying this. I have never read a single Harry Potter book. I have never had any interest in reading them. So when I picked up J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy  at a local used book store I thought I had an advantage of those that had. Because unlike them, I did not have the ability to judge this book based upon the beloved series.

I will also say I wanted to like this book. I had heard so many mixed reviews but did not allow myself to judge until I read it myself. 

I found it hard to follow in a lot of ways. I did not like the way there was no breaks in between scenes. Rather just an endless amount of ramble from one to the next. Perhaps this is my biggest qualm about the book itself. I also found there were far to many characters for my liking. I should have kept notes to figure out who was who and often got lost in determining who belonged to whom.

Maybe in this case, it was more like a scene from Love Actually. In fact perhaps I could see it being more of one. It may even be better in that sense. Along with a supporting cast.

As for the story itself, I thought it dragged on a little to much, and at times dull. Yes I said it. I thought about giving up on it, but am not that kind of person and I really really hoped it was going to get better the further I went into the 500+ page book. Sadly it did not and I found myself seemingly just going through the motions to finish. I will go as far as admitting there were several pages I probably flaked out on towards the end of the book. I just wanted it done.

Was it the worst book I have ever read? No. There were some good pages, as few as I saw there was. But I doubt I will consider this one to add to my must read again books.

In fact, it will probably be going right back to the used book store where it will sit with the five other copies that was available. 

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