The Casual Vacancy

Once upon a time, there was a small town in the south of England. This town, Pagford, was filled with nasty, petty people who hid their vices and small-minded hatreds behind a mask of stereotypical British politeness. Then, a beloved member of the town dies, and the brittle facade that all these people were hiding behind slowly falls apart. I suppose we're meant to feel sympathy for them and their quiet tragedies, but the book is so fatalistic and depressing that you don't really empathize or identify with any of them.

And that's about it. After having read it, I'm not quite sure why Rowling wrote it, or what point she was trying to get across other than that people are often cruel, vindictive, and selfish, but I respect that she did.