Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jan 18, 2011

babyhippoface rated it:

This book has made me angrier than any I've read in years.

Okay, first off --what is with the absolutely horrid neon orange color of the jacket back? Who picked this? Must have been colorblind. Each time I reached for this book my eyes felt violated.

*SPOILER ALERT* If you haven't read it yet, stop reading now...

Second, well, let's just say it: the ending was even more offensive than the neon orange jacket back. The book was well-written, compelling (and yes, po More...

8 comments like (22 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2008

Melissa rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2008

Jason rated it:

John Grisham's books have been getting steadily worse, ever since the Painted House (another lame book). What happened to the excellent author that produced such books as The Client, The Pelican Brief, The Street Lawyer, and Runaway Jury? I think he's out to lunch. I keep reading his new books, hoping he'll come back, but so far, no luck.
This is his worst in a long line of bad books. Stay away from this one, as well as his other latest, The Innocent Man. They are boring, long, and a c More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2008

Rick rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Johnny rated it:

The Appeal wouldn't make a successful film. At times, it appears to accede to the Hollywood formula, but then, it retreats to Grisham's forte'--realism. Oh, I know Grisham's work isn't as gritty as the descriptions of the world of meat-packing in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the vivid characterizations of a couple fighting in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned, or the depiction of blatant sexism in Sinclair Lewis' The Job (or even in Ann Vickers, his thinly veiled roman a clef ba More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2008

Alicia rated it:

As I began reading this book, I was very worried that it sounded too familiar. It reminded me of "Law & Order" episodes that are "ripped from the headlines." Whenever I hear that, I think, come on, can't you guys think of anything new? Saying that, the storyline of Grisham's latest began in that similar sort of way. I was pretty convinced that it was going to be boring.

I was very pleasantly surprised that only after a few chapters, I started to find it pretty inte More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Daniel rated it:

I read this in April of 2008 after Justice Nehring (of the Utah Supreme Court) told me he was listening to it on CD during his commute each day. Three quarters of my way through it, he told me it was not worth finishing. He was right.

Talk about much ado about nothing. The novel starts strong, provides an interesting conflict, and than (spoiler alert) completely drops the ball. Not that the bad guy has to lose and the good guy has to win every time, but the characters are skewed a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Johnny rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Emily rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 17, 2008

Marcy rated it:

Another amazing book by Grisham! At this time of elections, we are facing a few judicial seats to be elected instead of appointed by a non-partisan board. This, as Grisham has so aptly pointed out, is not what the judges should be doing . . . running a campaign for a judicial seat! These people, for the most part, are judges with a full time job on the bench and should NOT have to try to go out and stump the campaign trail while trying to decide very important cases in front of them at this v More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Shevawn rated it:

I admit, I like a lot of Grisham's novels; I especially like them when spending long hours on an airplane, as I did recently. I found this book to be very disturbing; it has definitely affected the way I will view future election campaigns for judges. I also liked how his Christian characters were reflective of the current Christian culture, even though they bothered me at times because of that. The ending surprised me, as it took some surprising turns the last 60 or so pages.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Laura rated it:

I'm a Grisham fan and enjoyed the book, but don't think it was one of his best. The plot twist at the end came kind of late to impact the story correctly and parts in the middle were a little slow. I fear that the book's premise that judgeships are too political and people are too easily bought is likely all too accurate, and the story causes some thought in that area. One has to wonder, however, how appointments would necessarily resolve that problem -- especially in light of the problems Il More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2008

Claire rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 27, 2009

Eliece rated it:

What I learned from this book is that supreme court justices should be appointed not elected like politicians because then they get bought out by big businesses and the one with the most money wins and this is BAD, BAD, BAD. (point made, Mr. Grisham) This book is lacking a storyline, character development, excitement of any kind, and all other desireable elements of a novel. I usually like John Grisham but this book is BORING, BORING, BORING. In Grisham's honor I will recommend The Innocent M More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2009

Ty added it

don't read this piece of shit. what the hell grisham?, you're usually so solid.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 09, 2011

Fabio added it

(ITALIAN VERSION HEREUNDER) Great Novel. After the short "break" from fiction with the trues story depicted in "Innocent Man", now back to close-to-fiction. Why close and not pure fiction? Because it's a novel to talk about the controversial fact of a judicial system where judges are elected from the People and not nominated on the grounds of their merits. Hence leaving space for "buying" an election and therefore buy jurisprudence! A great novel, well written with More...

0 comments like

Feb 22, 2009

Corey rated it:

The story is ok, but the political statement is quite prescient. Big corporations must engage in extremely hazardous activities in the ordinary course of business. Often it is expensive and disruptive to follow rules and basic common sense. Sometimes ordinary people get in the way and happen to die of nasty things like leukemia. When this happens they sue. Big law firms drag these cases out for many years, spend many millions, and avail themselves of many procedural tools to delay, obfuscat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Michelle rated it:

I have read numerous John Grisham books and have continued to pick them up because I have enjoyed them. I have always found his books to a be an entertaining and easy read. Once I pick up the book, I usually have to keep reading until the end. With this book, I was bored by page two. The book is about the big bad company that poisons the water of the unsuspecting small town. The company is bad, bad, bad, and the small town villagers are good, good, good. The lawyers for the company are BAD More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Schnaucl rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 11, 2009

ambimb rated it:

I picked this up in the Minneapolis airport on Christmas day during a 4-hour layover on my way to Montana. It was the number one paperback bestseller at the time and I had interviewed for a job three days previously where the book and the related real-life SCOTUS case were part of our conversation, so it was a natural choice. I've also always enjoyed the Grisham stories, although I think the only other one I've read (rather than seen in movie form) is "The Firm."

In all res More...

0 comments like

Dec 30, 2008

Regina rated it:

Like most John Grisham novels, this book is a fast, entertaining read. As always, I was intrigued by the legal facts: in this case, that supreme court justices are elected rather than appointed in many states. At the conclusion, I immediately went to the Internet to find out what is done in my home state. Also, I found myself constantly telling my husband the plot line while reading the book and he and I kept laughing at our speculations on who will get the roles in the blockbuster movie that More...

0 comments like

May 17, 2008

Vince rated it:

This is a suspenseful tale of an attempt by a wealthy polluter to overturn a jury's finding of his fault by arranging for election of a pliable new Supreme Court justice. You almost feel that the unconscionable characters behind the plot are over the top and overly drawn. Then you recall that there actually have been folks, some caught and held responsible and some not, who match and surpass them in what they were found to have done. Good plot and an ending more realistic than expected!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2011

Tim rated it:

The Appeal not the best-written book in the world. John Grisham is clearly more of a "tell" rather than a "show" kind of writer -- so much so that he barely even bothers to write dialogue for his characters, and as a result they end up as cardboard cutouts with no voice, no personality. We have the mustache-curling villain and the saintly minister. He does a little better with the exhausted plaintiff lawyers, but none of them really come alive in the way you want them to. More...

0 comments like

Oct 28, 2011

Joel rated it:

As Grisham claim in the epilogue following this work, many of its elements are made up although the setting is fairly realistic. It takes place in a fictional town in Grisham's native Mississippi. The case involves an unrealistic chemical being unleashed into the drinking water supply of this community in the southern part of that state. The illegal dumping is responsible for some of the cancers and other diseases reported in the area, some of which happen to threaten the health of young chil More...

0 comments like

Oct 17, 2011

Michelle rated it:

Alright...well, I admit that I read a few one and two star reviews before posting mine because I wanted to read what the nay-sayers had to say about the book. I was pretty sure I knew what they wouldn't like, and I was pretty sure I would disagree. I was right. I understand others' chagrin with Grisham's choice of ending, but I thought it was refreshing. It's about time someone bucked the system and didn't give us a patented ending, all tied up with a pretty bow.

So here is the deal. Mi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2011

Marie-jo rated it:

Frankly, I don't get all the negative reviewing about THE APPEAL. I read about a dozen of Grisham novels and got addicted, not so much for the style, but for the cleverness of the plots and the message of redemption at the end of many of his novels. When I got to PLAYING FOR PIZZA, however, I thought, what's that? Where has Grisham gone? But I didn't give up. I then pickep up THE LAST JUROR. Slow, slow pace there. Still, I appreciated the psychology and the Balzacian approach and I could see Gri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Erika rated it:

I could get into a lengthy discussion about this book, but I'm not going to waste my time on it.

This book is nothing more than a specifically detailed screen play with flat characters and no real dimension to the story other than the author's own opinion about certain issues. He even lists some of personal thoughts and opinions about issues in between descriptions and dialogue. It left my eyes wide and my mouth agape. I guess if you're as successful as Mr. Grisham, you can do what More...

0 comments like

Aug 03, 2011

James added it

Grisham hits with another enjoyable read. In The Appeal, Krane Chemical, a chemical firm that has been illegally dumping carcinogenic chemicals near the small town of Bowmore, Mississippi, is on the hook for millions of dollars because of its pollution. The book opens with the the conclusion of the trial, and the huge verdict against Krane. And that is only the beginning of the action. The real story is what happens next: the appeal.

Carl Trudeau, the majority owner of Krane Chemical, takes a hug More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Tanja rated it:

This book is about two lawyers who have staked everything in a trial against a company which has dumped carcinogens into the groundwater of a town. The jury finds the evidence convincing and the verdict is very much in favor of the plaintiff. Of course the chemical company appeals. This is vintage Grisham with convincing characters and a warm human touch in all perspectives.

Appeals take time. In the state of Missisipp, where the fictive town around which the story centers, judges are voted to th More...

0 comments like

Feb 16, 2011

Janelle rated it:

A little disappointed with this book. I felt like this book was a lot of background into how the election works in the USA for Supreme Court Judges, but not really a strong story line. I didn't really connect fully with the characters for that reason, so didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. Grisham is one of my favourite authors, but this won't be one of my favourite books. I did like that I got an insight into the process of elections, but not within a 355 page book.

War More...

0 comments like