PositiveThe Washington Post\"Readers looking to One Way Back for a magic bullet to prove Kavanaugh’s guilt or innocence are out of luck. Ford doesn’t remember anything more than she’s already publicly recalled; there are no new witnesses or unearthed diary entries. What she gives instead is a thoughtful exploration of what it feels like to become a main character in a major American reckoning ... At times, she comes across as either deeply optimistic or unfortunately naive ... A blisteringly personal memoir of a singular experience. But it was most piercing to me as a memoir of the past half-decade ... If you believed Ford in 2018, One Way Back will give you a deeper appreciation for the woman behind the headlines. If you didn’t — well, I don’t know if the book will change your mind. But it might wiggle your mind a little bit.\
J. K. Rowling
PositiveThe Washington Post...the very existence of The Casual Vacancy represents a truckload of moxie...At another level, this book represents a truckload of shrewdness. In her first grown-up novel, Rowling has chosen to construct her plot around a local municipal election... One man suffers an untimely death, the gossip mill churns... The storylines interweave as characters interfere with one another’s business. Nearly every character gets a narrative point of view ...Rowling re-traverses the Potter series’ entire tonal journey: a gradual darkening in which snide comments on small stakes give way to sharp commentary on big ones ... A lazy critic might coyly query whether The Casual Vacancy contains enough magic ... This book would be a little better if everyone were carrying wands.