You know when you read a story with a lot of different points of view and you cant wait to get to the character you like, or skip through a part with a character you don't like? (Think Game of Thrones). Well it wasn't like that with this book. I was excited to read each and every characters POV and I think it helped keep the story moving. Rowling is an excellent story-teller and this book really showcased that. What impressed me was the way she tied the one crucial event (the death of Barry Fairbrother) to the rest of the awful things that happened in Pagford. Almost everything bad that occurred in the book stemmed from Barry's death, the motivations of the characters and their impact on those around all stemmed from the unfortunate incident that opened the story. 
 And now to my opinions...possible spoilers ahead... 
 Krystal Wheedon, I had hoped, would survive, although when all of the characters at the end of the story were seeing Robbie on his own and did nothing I didn't think it would end well. I really didn't think she would die and hoped she'd get away from her mother with Robbie and be safe in the Wall's home or something. Basically I was thinking "poor Krystal". 
 How annoying was Gavin? Did he even know what he wanted from life (other than Mary), he had no interest in the town or it's events at all, so I didn't get him at all, thinking about it now, it kinda seems like he was there to make sure some plot points happened (mostly Kay, and a storyline for the widow). I was only a little surprised about the turn around of Samantha and Miles' marriage, although I think the point was that sometimes the truth really does set you free. Hopefully Shirley gets a bit of freedom and maybe moves to Yarvil away from her awful husband and his hussy. Although I had to laugh when she thought about how her and Howard "had an agreement" about not having sex. I think some of the teens in the town were less naive then her. 
 Overall I liked the story, and if you read it while ignoring that you knew who wrote it, it wasn't hard to get wrapped up in the excellent storytelling and wonderful portrayals of the characters.