J.K. Rowling’s new book for adults, "The Casual Vacancy", is a dark, intense story that centers around a small town’s reaction to one man’s sudden death. This book is NOT FOR CHILDREN. The subject material becomes increasingly bleak and grim throughout the story, including such things as drug use, sex, abuse, rape, and death.

After Parish Councillor Barry Fairbrother dies suddenly, a small town is thrust into a local war as a campaign to fill his seat creates factions within the town and some of it’s member’s darkest secrets are revealed.

This story is incredibly written and unspeakably heart-wrenching. There are no secondary characters in this story; everyone has a back-story and a major part to play, from the upper-middle class citizens fighting to remove the blemish that is “The Fields” from their precious town, to the teenagers just trying to survive each day. These characters will become your friends and neighbors and enemies as you delve into the small town with dark roots beneath it’s pretty face.

"The Casual Vacancy" will tug at your heart strings and leave you feeling shocked and dismayed, but also refreshed and better for having read it. Rowling’s writing style is brilliant as always, and her passion for each character and their particular story really comes through. This book is incredible, despite it’s heavy subject matter. It’s a unique story written in a way that only J.K. Rowling could accomplish.

Excerpt:

“Disgust rose in Samantha like vomit. She wanted to seize the over-warm cluttered room and mash it between her hands, until the royal china, and the gas fire, and the gilt-framed pictures of Miles broke into jagged pieces; then, with wizened and painted Maureen trapped and squalling inside the wreckage, she wanted to heave it, like a celestial shot-putter, away into the sunset. The crushed lounge and doomed crone inside it, soared in her imagination through the heavens, plunging into the limitless ocean, leaving Samantha alone in the endless stillness of the universe.”

This book was incredible. It was captivating, engrossing, and beautifully written. For a book that's 925 pages long, I never felt for a moment that it was dragging or slow. I loved every page.

It's a decent concept. A world in which the Library of Alexandria was never destroyed. The Library now rules the world and is very stingy with knowledge. The tech is pretty cool and the story is alright but I didn't care much about the characters and so the extensive violence didn't bother me like it might have if I actually cared about the characters. Decently written, but not something I'm going to highly recommend to people. It felt like there were threads that were never followed up and the plot it did follow wasn't the most interesting it could have been. Maybe the sequels are better but I won't be reading them to find out. Not bad, but not what I was expecting.

Solid thriller, same vein as Gone Girl and Girl on the Train.

Poseidon narrates this bawdy retelling of the myth of The Minotaur with quick wit and snark. His narration brings to mind that of Pocket from Christopher Moore's "Fool".
For such a quick read (less than an hour!) the characters are pleasantly distinct and distinguishable, each with their own unique voice and rhythm. Especially poor Asterion, who's chapters get dark (literally, the pages get darker) as he descends deeper into the labyrinth and madness.
I didn't know the myth of the Minotaur before reading this, but now I suspect I'll never forget it.