The Casual Vacancy: 5 reactions to J.K. Rowling's adult-oriented novel

The creator of Harry Potter moves away from kid-lit to take on a decidedly un-magical world of sex, drugs, and profanity

The Casual Vacancy
(Image credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Harry Potter's saga may have ended in 2007, but his creator J.K. Rowling still casts a spell over the literary world. On Thursday, Rowling's first novel for adults, the heavily hyped The Casual Vacancy, officially debuted after massive preorders. The 512-page novel, which chronicles the squabbles in a small English town after the unexpected death of a local politician, has heretofore been largely shrouded in secrecy; many reviewers were required to sign an unusually lengthy non-disclosure agreement if they wanted to read it at all. But with The Casual Vacancy's official release, critical opinion and analysis about Rowling's first foray into the world of Muggles has flooded the internet, with Potter fans discovering that The Casual Vacancy contains 100 percent fewer magic spells and 100 percent more references to characters' genitals. Will Rowling succeed in adult fiction or should she have stayed within the walls of Hogwarts?

The Casual Vacancy is a stunningly assured adult debut

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