There’s some overlap with Harry Potter, but it’s not obvious. One thing is that the last HP novel was naturalistic in the sense of having a lot of wandering around in the woods and (if I recall correctly) bickering.
Another is that HP shows a lot of mistrust of institutions. Personal loyalty in small groups takes up the slack. In A Casual Vacancy, the one person who’s maintaining loyalty in a small town dies, and we see the consequences of a moral keystone being taken away.
There’s some overlap with Harry Potter, but it’s not obvious. One thing is that the last HP novel was naturalistic in the sense of having a lot of wandering around in the woods and (if I recall correctly) bickering.
Another is that HP shows a lot of mistrust of institutions. Personal loyalty in small groups takes up the slack. In A Casual Vacancy, the one person who’s maintaining loyalty in a small town dies, and we see the consequences of a moral keystone being taken away.