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B19
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12 Mar 2014, 12:38 am

I was impressed by it. The bad reviews surprised me, because JTR created quite believable true to life characters and related them to real social and local body political dynamics. I think the bad reviews may have been politically motivated. JTR in both this novel and the Potter series firmly positions herself on the side of the underdogs, empathizing with their suffering and against the pomposities of those in power positions who view the dispossessed as not quite human. Reviewers who hold different values - particularly those of a "blame the victim" mentality - perhaps weren't prepared to give this book a fair evaluation. It has faults - Kystal's suicide seemed to be too extreme a way to conclude the story. Otherwise the story, characterisation and everyday interreactions that she describes rang quite true and the story moved along at an engaging pace.

Another possible motive for the bad reviews may be simply envy and resentment of JKR's enormous success, she's such a tall poppy that the envious literati are likely to target her slightest faults to try to cut her down.

I really admire her achievements. With the Potter series she turned a whole generation of "keyboard kids" onto reading, and that in itself was/is a magnificent achievement. Yep, she got them actually turning over pages and begging for more.



Robdemanc
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12 Mar 2014, 4:06 am

B19 wrote:
I was impressed by it. The bad reviews surprised me, because JTR created quite believable true to life characters and related them to real social and local body political dynamics. I think the bad reviews may have been politically motivated. JTR in both this novel and the Potter series firmly positions herself on the side of the underdogs, empathizing with their suffering and against the pomposities of those in power positions who view the dispossessed as not quite human. Reviewers who hold different values - particularly those of a "blame the victim" mentality - perhaps weren't prepared to give this book a fair evaluation. It has faults - Kystal's suicide seemed to be too extreme a way to conclude the story. Otherwise the story, characterisation and everyday interreactions that she describes rang quite true and the story moved along at an engaging pace.


I have read this book now. What you describe were my thoughts. It seems she was holding up a mirror to British society and showing us its not as nice as its image. I think she was clever in trying to compress a whole society into a small town.

I think she took advantage of the attention she had after the HP series and used it to make people think. You are probably right that those critics who panned it are of opposing views to her.

But I do have to say the book contained too many characters. Too many for me to keep up with.