J.K Rowling Never Fails to Impress

I heard mixed things about J.K. Rowling's first foray into adult fiction (like the world of Harry Potter is limited to young adults). After reading her non-wizarding book, I can only assume the naysayers were just sour that she wasn’t writing about muggles and Hogwarts anymore. I love me some HP, but I wasn’t going to NOT read her new book just b/c it didn’t have my girl Hermione in it.

J.K. Rowling is a storyteller. One of the best of our generation. And her talents aren’t just limited to the magical world of witchcraft and wizardry. As proved by The Casual Vacancy, which was really good. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, considering the plot summary didn’t interest me at all and I was reading in good faith that Rowling would never publish anything less than brilliant. 

Boy, did she deliver. It was written in varying viewpoints by the key characters. There were a LOT of characters, but once you knew the families, it wasn’t hard to keep them straight. I like books written like this (one of the reasons I like Jodi Picoult so much), so I was engrossed pretty quickly. 

There were the characters you were rooting for and the slimeballs you hated. There were small-town heroes and folks you felt sorry for. All of the main characters had such a depth that even if you didn’t like them, you understood where they were coming from (*SPOILER ALERT* except Simon, who was just a shit). I got angry from time to time because so-and-so was acting like a shit, until I realized that I would probably have done the same thing in that situation. Hmmph.

Like most of her other books, it’s massive. Not Order of the Phoenix massive, but 500+ pages. It doesn’t read as quickly as Harry and his escapades, but it’s worth your time. Rowling doesn’t disappoint.