The Casual Vacancy

[laceblade]

I feel like this entire book is a big middle finger to the white middle class.

Trigger warnings for self-harm, suicide, domestic violence, rape.
Also casual fatphobia, cultural exoticism, racism, transphobic slurs, etc. It's a devastatingly realistic portrait of a town. But reliving all those things might not be for everyone, and if any of those things are triggering for you, I would strongly recommend avoiding it.

Due to the mass of awful-ness, I wavered a bit partway through the book, especially due to Rowling's use of fatness as a marker for moral bankruptcy.
Still, her writing style and scathing portrait of class tensions made this book worth it for me.

This book is definitely a downer; highly recommended for masochists.

Comments

[lileyo]

Man, that's rough. I have no idea if I want to read this now or not. :-/

[bibliofile]

Excellent summary: I think I know exactly what to expect from this book, now.

"...highly recommended for masochists" is not a phrase I'd normally expect when reading about a JK Rowling book. Or used for much fiction outside of traditional S&M (de Sade, that pseudonymous Anne Rice stuff).

[miss_odalisque]

Wish I'd known this before I started reading. The bullying and the whooole self-harm section gave me a horrible surprise this afternoon. So triggering :-(

[laceblade]

Ahh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Yeah, I really wasn't expecting some of it & wish that readers could somehow be warned for content like this :/