The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Synopsis from www.goodreads.com

A BIG NOVEL ABOUT A SMALL TOWN ...

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?

My Comments :

The story was painfully slow. Up to page 200, the author was still building up background of various characters in the story. However, the last 100 pages or so saved the story or else I would say it's a waste of time reading this

The words used here were rather stilted. It was like something out of Enid Blyton's fairy tales genre. Not very suitable for modern days story.

For example page 118 " Fats had been told by a reliable informant that the one fail-safe way of quitting the Winterdown grounds without being spotted from a window was to climb over the side wall by the bike shed. "...it would have been easier to say Fats decided to skip school. .." the word "quit" makes it sound so dull and "old English". 

I don't feel the sense of urgency to know what willhappen next nor want to know who will win the post. 

But as i have said earlier, story only pick up speed in the final 100 pages or so. The book could have done with more trimming off unnecessary long winded portion.

For me this book is worth two starts out of five.