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Original poster

A Casual Vacancy - losing the will to finish it

11 replies

shoppingbagsundereyes · 04/09/2013 19:49

I'm about a quarter of the way through. Generally my book rule is if I'm not enjoying it by page 100 I ditch it, life is too short and there are plenty of other books to start. However, this is a book club book and I feel obliged to read on.
The stereotypes are driving me mental, particularly the sections about the families who live in the Fields estate. There are too many characters to keep track of and none of them are particularly interesting, except perhaps Krystal Weedon.
What do you think? Persevere?

OP posts:
Quejica · 04/09/2013 19:52

I really enjoyed itSmile

cherrytomato40 · 04/09/2013 19:52

I didn't particularly enjoy it- in particular the 'accent' of Krystal Weedon etc drove me mad. BUT... the ending was good.

AuntySib · 04/09/2013 19:54

Sorry, same as you. Not interesting enough to finish, stereotyped characters. Can't believe it was written by the person who had the imagination to write Harry Potter!

Vatta · 04/09/2013 19:57

Read it all. Didn't get any better, rubbish all the way through.

GnocchiGnocchiWhosThere · 04/09/2013 20:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AltogetherAndrews · 04/09/2013 20:04

I've just finished it, and liked it I think.

Certainly, I was driven to finish it, which I won't do if I don't like it. But I'm not sure what the point of it is.

I thought the teenagers were well done, Krystal maybe not as much.

Nerfmother · 04/09/2013 20:07

I hated it so much. Fucking stereotypical shite. Poor people all live on council estates, take drugs, get touched up by dealers but are saved by rowing. Ffs.
And breathe.

Nebraskanell · 07/09/2013 11:39

I quite liked this, but I found the ending - with the little boy and Krystal a bit obious and predictable - also really depressing!
i couldn't help wondering if she had written the part of Howard Mollison with Richard (Harry Potters Uncle) Grittiths in mind!

raelene · 10/09/2013 13:06

I also found the characters difficult to deal with and the names. I kept getting muddled up with who belonged to who (or should that be whom).
Anyway I persevered and I'm really glad that I did as once I had the characters under control I really enjoyed the actual story.
My advice - stick with it.

bimblebee · 10/09/2013 13:58

I struggled with it too. Some of the characters' names were similar which were confusing and there were quite a lot too keep track of. I didn't like the way that big chunks of information were just slotted in (in brackets) - it's like JKR couldn't be bothered to work the information into the story properly and had added it as an afterthought just to clarify. I did read it all though - only because I bought it as a hardback and couldn't bear to waste the money by leaving it a third of the way through. I kept hoping that it would get better, but it didn't really deliver and I'm not sure that I would bother reading her adult offerings again.

DuchessofMalfi · 10/09/2013 14:57

It's bleak and depressing. Just my kind of novel. Don't like cosy reads (apart from the occasional romance Smile ). Sad ending. I thought it was very good.

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