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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
It all felt too good to be true, and too smooth and easy to be believable (yes, realizing it’s still fiction!), and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Eventually, it did. Processes that take a lot of time and effort (e.g. immigration, starting a foundation) we’re over and done in a paragraph. Best friend type relationships formed in sentences. It all made for a quick read and a story that I liked, it just had a hard time connecting with and believing it.
Storyline was unrealistic, but not in a fun way, just in a silly exaggerated way. Partway through lost the plot of Sooley’s family in the refugee camp, then after the horrible twist near the end, tried to salvage the family-centred plot. Certainly an easy read and not a horrible book but not a favourite.
Liked the overall arc of the story, but there were a lot of descriptions of basketball games. The last several chapters seemed a bit rushed.
There were parts of this novel that I did enjoy--learning about South Sudan, learning about the cut-throat world of NCAA basketball. But I'm not a sports person; I'm a bookworm. So a blow-by-blow account of game after game was not enjoyable for me. And the women in this book, with the exceptions of the two mothers, were all sexed up vixens looking to seduce the basketball players and ride their coattails to fame. Surely not ALL women who hang around basketball players can be stereotyped like that? Finally, I found the ending so out of character. Overall, this was not the book for me.
Poor Angelina, stripped and taken away in the siege on Lotta, assumed dead and never mentioned again. Very disappointed.
Goodness, that was a beautiful novel. Sooley was a character I was rooting for. I sure felt like I was at those basketball games.
Grisham nails it again!!
Grisham nails it again!!
Haven’t read a Grisham book in yonks and this one was completely different to those earlier courtroom dramas. I was totally sucked into Sooley’s journey to and in America (especially as he landed in Durham!) as well as his family’s trouble in South Sudan. I could hear the squeaky bball shoes on the court and the roar of the crowds and I was most definitely cheering him on. Listened to this one on audiobook and the narrator was really great.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There was so much potential here to both tell a good sport’s story (which Grisham loves to do when he deviates from legal thrillers) as well as bring a lot more awareness to the crisis in South Sudan. Instead, it ends up feeling like both stories are sort of half told and mashed together to come up with a novel length book. I was bored by page 70 but, because it’s John Grisham, I kept thinking it would get better. Or at least end with an important, realistic view of South Sudan and the refugee crisis. This book just fails as both a good sports story and as a more serious look at an ongoing international crisis. This could have been so much more.