When I saw the poster for this book in Barnes and Noble this summer, I couldn't wait to read it...I will forever love the Harry Potter series, but I am so impressed with this novel and appreciate what Rowling is able to do with words, that I am sure that she is one of my favorite authors.
This book takes place in a small town, Pagford, in England. When a parish council member dies unexpectedly, his seat is left empty, and this changes the dinamic of the whole town. After reading this book, I realized that this story isn't about the town and how it deals with the death of Barry Fairbrother (yes, his name is representative of his character), the open parish council seat, and the politics of Pagford; instead, it is a story about people.
Rowling developes a number of characters throughout the book and tells the story in second person perspective, by the end, sometimes alternating between characters from one paragraph to the next. Not only are we let into each character's mind, we also witness how these characters are viewed by the others around them. While this kind of writing sounds very confusing, Rowling developes each character and their story so well in the beginning that by the end of the book, we have such a connection to them that it is easy to jump back and forth between them.
This book took me a while to read, but I enjoyed every single page of it. Rowling's characters are so rich, realistic, and unique that I felt by the end of the book that I was part of the story. While the ending is not surprising, I was amazed at the way that Rowling wove together all the different parts and perspectives to create a sad but perfect ending.
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