The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Published in 2012, this was J.K Rowling's first adult novel. It has since been made into a BBC miniseries. In the small town of Pagford, the death of a councillor leads to a vacancy on the parish council. A sink estate know as The Fields sits within the parish boundaries of the otherwise genteel town. The council is split between those councillors who would like to see the boundaries changed so that The Fields becomes part of  neighbouring Yarvil, and those who think the people of Pagford should be doing more to help the Fielders. Particularly contentious is the fact that children who live in The Fields are eligible to go to the much sought after local school. Everyone wants the new councillor to be someone who sides with them on the boundary issue. 

The book is about privilege. It shows that bad parenting is not limited to any particular socio-economic group, and that middle class families are usually better at masking their dysfunction than working class or non-working families. 

The characters Rowling creates are both realistic and exaggerated. Hardly any of them are likeable. Teenagers hate their parents, parents bully their children, seemingly dutiful wives quietly despise their husbands; this makes the book truly unputdownable!

I created a character map to help me see where the book was going; it made who the main characters were more obvious. It's definitely something I'll do again.