The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
With the sudden death of Barry Fairbrother the quaint and perfect town of Pagford is thrown into a tizzy and the true colors of its inhabitants comes to the fore. Fairbrother was on the town council and was the major proponent of some controversial legislation. With his death there is now a casual vacancy on the council and the fate of this idyllic town is in the hands of his replacement.
This is a dark book but it’s got a lot of humor. It is definitely an adult book – there are large helpings of sex, drugs and swearing – but I can see older teens not only reading it, but enjoying it. It shows the dark side of adult life and how youth thinks they have all the answers, but they don’t even know what all the questions are yet.
I didn’t think I’d like this book. And to be honest, I may not have liked it as much as I did (and I liked it a lot) if I had read it. The reader of this audiobook was wonderful. All the voices were distinctive and really made the characters come to life. I actually got teary-eyed and laughed out loud while listening to this one. It is now on my favorite audiobooks list.
Of note: You can drive to Maine and back (and make loads of cool stops along the way) in the time it takes to finish a 15 disc audiobook.
