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3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Not sure I've ever given a Grisham novel any rating less than 5 stars but, ya know, this one kinda sucks. I was so excited to read a sequel to The Firm. But alas. The characters are flat, the story gets real boring real quick. And the ending? I had to check to see if I missed some pages somewhere. Damn.
Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley folk.
Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley folk.
This book is the equivalent of a legal continuance hearing where literally nothing happens. The entire plot is revealed in the blurb, lawyer kidnapped, ransom needs to be paid. And the rest of the book is just chapter after chapter of failed meetings and thousands of miles of Mitch flying on private jets.
This is billed as a sequel to The Firm but that is as meaningless as the entire book. There's four chapters at the start that turn out to be entirely unrelated to anything in the rest of the book and some mild connections in the last 50 pages but a sequel? Hardly. Grisham seems to have written this book and then some editor realized nothing happens so he had Grisham write a few more unrelated chapters and change the characters so it'd sell a few more copies from people who like The Firm.
I only kept reading assuming something, anything would happen in this book. It doesn't.
Also, it's kind of sloppy. At one point there's a meeting with the junior senator from New York, another pointless meeting. The junior senator is in his third term and the senior senator is “showing no signs of fatigue or vulnerability." The thing is, this book is set in 2005, meaning our junior senator was elected no later than 1992. The senior senator is explicitly stated as having been elected in…1988.
This is billed as a sequel to The Firm but that is as meaningless as the entire book. There's four chapters at the start that turn out to be entirely unrelated to anything in the rest of the book and some mild connections in the last 50 pages but a sequel? Hardly. Grisham seems to have written this book and then some editor realized nothing happens so he had Grisham write a few more unrelated chapters and change the characters so it'd sell a few more copies from people who like The Firm.
I only kept reading assuming something, anything would happen in this book. It doesn't.
Also, it's kind of sloppy. At one point there's a meeting with the junior senator from New York, another pointless meeting. The junior senator is in his third term and the senior senator is “showing no signs of fatigue or vulnerability." The thing is, this book is set in 2005, meaning our junior senator was elected no later than 1992. The senior senator is explicitly stated as having been elected in…1988.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Felt rushed but meandering. So many opportunities and “set ups” for a satisfying twist or conclusion that just fell completely flat or weren’t addressed. Concluded in a very anti-climactic way that felt like it just “ended”. No real story… no character development. Not sure what the purpose of the book is.
I really didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first one in this series..
What a disappointment. This felt more like some kind of training manual for airline pilots (this flight left from that airport and took X number of hours to reach the other) than it did a suspenseful mystery. The bad guy was amorphous, no character felt real, and it was incredibly blah. Skip it.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An ok read but I wish he hadn’t waited so long to write this McDeere life update. It just felt so dated . Also, if you didn’t read The Firm ( a better story IMHO ) back in the day you really have no point of reference
I love John Grisham, and thoroughly enjoyed The Firm before this book, I thought the storyline was amazing and there was plenty of action going on. However, The Exchange did not go the way that I was expecting it to go, which is fine, but I was kinda hoping for it to tie more into the first book. I just think the storyline of The Exchange just toned on and abruptly ended. Not a whole lot of excitement as the first book.
Yeah. Like many other reviewers, I am just dissatisfied. Reread the firm first, what a page turner! I was excited for this book. Surprise! it’s NOT a sequel. It may use the same names for a few characters, but their past is irrelevant to this story. It feels like he took a novel he had already written, and just modified to fit the brief of a sequel. As a stand alone it may have been a good idea/ but billing it as a sequel creates expectations which are not met by a long shot. Grisham had an opportunity to expand on Mitch and Abby’s life after leaving Memphis, and he failed.