Good Girl Gone Bad

“Choice was dangerous: you had to forgo all other possibilities when you chose.” Truth.

57.12 A Casual Vacancy

I wonder about the negative reviews of this book, they seemed to stem more from the Harry Potter books than from this book.  I have zero understanding about people being offended that Rowling has written a book for adults and it has - GASP! - sex, drugs, and swearing!  Some even complain about all those big words she uses.  I mean... Since when are readers in charge of what writers write?  Because she wrote a book our children (and most of us) loved?  Why does that make people turn away from her instead of embrace her?  It makes no sense to me.  Thank god I ignored the crazy reviews and read it anyway.

This is a grown up book, and it is one hell of a book.  It had more painful moments than hopeful but it was real. There are a lot of characters to keep track of which left me off kilter in the beginning but I knew I would eventually keep them all straight and I did.  They live in a small village and their lives, and the lives of their children, are hugely intertwined and this is what keeps the plot moving. I am not sure why it is being billed as a murder mystery as it really isn’t; it is more a character study. Many of them are rather awful on the inside, but mostly they are just human and trying to find happiness in their lives in the aftermath of the sudden death of a friend. 

The most well-written and interesting characters for me were the teenagers.  No surprise there – Rowling can write teens, and, as she showed us in the HP books as well, she has a true grasp on the fact that they are not just mindless mini-adults who mind their parents’ every command – they are smart and aware of what is going on around them.  Maybe this is the true reason people are giving the book bad reviews; maybe acknowledging your kids have power and may be flawed is the only thing scarier to them than Voldemort - as in the truth of it cannot be named. These kids are taking part, making things happen and we need to remember and respect that.  In fact, most of what is to be taken away from this book comes from the children: how to be brave, how to change your outlook, how not to ignore what is right in front of your face before it’s too late, how to celebrate and remember what made you care about people in the first place, and how to honor them when they are lost regardless of how you feel about them now.  I mean Rihanna as funeral dirge?  It’s brilliant, really.  The whole thing was bloody brilliant in fact.