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Gray Mountain
John Grisham has a new hero . . . and she’s full of surprises
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back.
In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.
Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her old job back.
In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.
Her new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published October 21, 2014
About the author
John Grisham
435 books83.5k followersJohn Grisham is the author of forty-nine consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge's List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.
Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
When he's not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,614 reviews
October 30, 2015
I enjoyed writing this book very much in spite of knowing how it would end.
November 25, 2014
Samantha (Grisham's new heroine) was a complete bore. She was a fence sitter in every aspect of her personal life-- friendships, career, love and family. Even if she were a young impetuous lawyer who grew and matured during the book, that would be fine, but she wasn't.
I think her personality took any fun out of any suspense that was being created. She didn't really care, so I didn't care.
I did enjoy reading about coal mining, flat top mining and black lung disease.
I think her personality took any fun out of any suspense that was being created. She didn't really care, so I didn't care.
I did enjoy reading about coal mining, flat top mining and black lung disease.
November 10, 2014
I think John Grisham forgot to write a story. The entire book was simply a way to preach about the injustice of strip mining and poor old down home mountainfolk in Appalachia. Interesting stuff. Worthy of investigation. Boring presentation. The whole book felt sketchy - nothing had any depth to it: shallow characters, quickly resolved legal issues, shady bad guys, annoying protagonist. The only true observation: working in Big Law can be mind-numbingly exhausting and cutthroat. Skip this one.
October 26, 2014
This is by far the least enjoyable John Grisham book I’ve read. The book starts fine with “heroine” Samantha Kofer being furloughed in New York – but when she relocates to Virginia to work for a legal aid clinic the story is at turns silly, boring and contrived, but definitely not exciting.
Samantha is a “real lawyer” for the first time and the problems she solves for her clients are certainly emotional, but the first half of the book felt like a collection of random short stories about impoverished families getting shafted by big coal companies.
The second half of the book is supposed to be tense with Samantha and Jeff Gray behaving like spies as people are eavesdropping on their conversations and following them around … Jeff is hiding a cache of documents that will blow the lid off a case against a coal company and a big law firm … eco-terrorists are shooting out tires at coal mining companies … an evil company might have committed murder … Samantha is weighing her future … go back to New York and get back on the career track or stay in rural Virginia and help impoverished people who can’t afford lawyers …
And all of it felt silly.
I don’t understand the book description promoting Samantha Kofer as “a new hero” – at least not in any legal/thriller/mystery genres because this book isn’t any of those things. GRAY MOUNTAIN is really about a city lawyer realizing that rich real estate developers aren’t the only people in the world that need lawyers. The fact she didn’t know that already makes her heroic once she figures it out?
Uh, no.
I just don’t get it at all.
Samantha is a “real lawyer” for the first time and the problems she solves for her clients are certainly emotional, but the first half of the book felt like a collection of random short stories about impoverished families getting shafted by big coal companies.
The second half of the book is supposed to be tense with Samantha and Jeff Gray behaving like spies as people are eavesdropping on their conversations and following them around … Jeff is hiding a cache of documents that will blow the lid off a case against a coal company and a big law firm … eco-terrorists are shooting out tires at coal mining companies … an evil company might have committed murder … Samantha is weighing her future … go back to New York and get back on the career track or stay in rural Virginia and help impoverished people who can’t afford lawyers …
And all of it felt silly.
I don’t understand the book description promoting Samantha Kofer as “a new hero” – at least not in any legal/thriller/mystery genres because this book isn’t any of those things. GRAY MOUNTAIN is really about a city lawyer realizing that rich real estate developers aren’t the only people in the world that need lawyers. The fact she didn’t know that already makes her heroic once she figures it out?
Uh, no.
I just don’t get it at all.
November 11, 2014
I have to write a review of Gray Mountain to balance the ones on GoodReads which persuaded me to spend money on this book.
It's terrible. In fact, I managed about a quarter of it and had to stop. It's a long time since I've given up on a book like that but ...
The prose is amateurish, the characters barely make it to 'wooden'; the dialogue is embarrassing — consistently implausible, with non sequiturs everywhere; there are interminable passages of exposition where a conversation turns into a local history lecture ... honestly, I used to teach adolescents and got better writing from plenty of them.
And as for the "issue" ... well, if you're going to tackle something as important as corporations using financial muscle to sidestep the law and wreak havoc on delicate ecosystems, you really have a duty to do it with intelligence. I read enough of this to feel like I was being harangued by one of those adolescents I used to teach, just around the time they'd just discovered their social conscience. You encourage it in a twelve-year-old, but you hope it'll one day grow into something a bit more considered.
John Grisham may have been born a country boy but his world view now feels like off-the-shelf affluent metropolitan sentimentality. If you want a book about man's complex, sometimes destructive relationship with the natural world, maybe try some CJ Box, especially his first Joe Pickett novel Open Season. Box actually gets the country, understands the conflicts which arise from mankind's need to exploit the natural world.
I feel a bit guilty rubbishing a book this extent, and if it was by some first-time, unknown author I would just say nothing and move on. But I really do have a bee in my bonnet now about publishers churning out junk under the banner of big-name writers, knowing that the brand alone will guarantee big returns. We deserve better. And yes, I know I could just shun all big new releases, that there's plenty of great work out there still to be read. But for those of us who love books a new novel from an author who has delivered in the past is an event. It's something we look forward to, picking up our copy like a child lifting a present from under the Christmas tree. And that makes the disappointment all the greater when it turns out to be something that would never have seen the light of day without the big name on the manuscript. Big Pharma, Big Coal, Big Oil ... yeah, we know all about them. But maybe we ought to talk a little more about Big Publishing.
Every author has his not-so-great books, the ones that didn't quite work out, and readers understand that. But Gray Mountain is so shoddily done it just doesn't deserve anyone's forgiveness.
Report card on all concerned: must try harder. F-
It's terrible. In fact, I managed about a quarter of it and had to stop. It's a long time since I've given up on a book like that but ...
The prose is amateurish, the characters barely make it to 'wooden'; the dialogue is embarrassing — consistently implausible, with non sequiturs everywhere; there are interminable passages of exposition where a conversation turns into a local history lecture ... honestly, I used to teach adolescents and got better writing from plenty of them.
And as for the "issue" ... well, if you're going to tackle something as important as corporations using financial muscle to sidestep the law and wreak havoc on delicate ecosystems, you really have a duty to do it with intelligence. I read enough of this to feel like I was being harangued by one of those adolescents I used to teach, just around the time they'd just discovered their social conscience. You encourage it in a twelve-year-old, but you hope it'll one day grow into something a bit more considered.
John Grisham may have been born a country boy but his world view now feels like off-the-shelf affluent metropolitan sentimentality. If you want a book about man's complex, sometimes destructive relationship with the natural world, maybe try some CJ Box, especially his first Joe Pickett novel Open Season. Box actually gets the country, understands the conflicts which arise from mankind's need to exploit the natural world.
I feel a bit guilty rubbishing a book this extent, and if it was by some first-time, unknown author I would just say nothing and move on. But I really do have a bee in my bonnet now about publishers churning out junk under the banner of big-name writers, knowing that the brand alone will guarantee big returns. We deserve better. And yes, I know I could just shun all big new releases, that there's plenty of great work out there still to be read. But for those of us who love books a new novel from an author who has delivered in the past is an event. It's something we look forward to, picking up our copy like a child lifting a present from under the Christmas tree. And that makes the disappointment all the greater when it turns out to be something that would never have seen the light of day without the big name on the manuscript. Big Pharma, Big Coal, Big Oil ... yeah, we know all about them. But maybe we ought to talk a little more about Big Publishing.
Every author has his not-so-great books, the ones that didn't quite work out, and readers understand that. But Gray Mountain is so shoddily done it just doesn't deserve anyone's forgiveness.
Report card on all concerned: must try harder. F-
January 9, 2015
This is one of Gresham's best. I grew up in the area this book is about and saw what he is talking about first hand. It is very accurate and though he does talk about some of the stereotypes of uneducated people in the area, he does not belabor the issue and he does show there are also educated people and that the general personality of the area is one of love and caring about each other. He also shows how absentee owners are raping the land to get and sell coal for the biggest profits for them but at the expense of the health of the people and environment of the region. So sad that many of the people need the coal jobs to live but to do that they are being forced to destroy their own health and their environment--neither of which will ever recover. Great book
October 27, 2014
Disappointing...didn't read like Grisham. Characters, dialogue, plot, all were not up to even the worst Grisham novel. Seemed like someone else wrote this, or he just phoned it in. Hope the next one gets him back on track.
Read
January 24, 2015I am unable to finish this book. I guess Grisham has decided to follow the lead of most best selling authors today and write a book that will ensure him high praise from the wacko left wing media. He certainly didn't write the book to tell a good story that would pull in his readers and keep them hooked for 400 pages. If you want to read boring page after boring page about the coal industry then this is the book for you. I read because to enjoy a good story and escape for a little while. There is no story here just an author wanting to seem like he really, really cares about those poor, poor people in Appalachia that those big bad coal companies take advantage. We get it Grisham....you really care.
November 4, 2014
I don't know if I can come up with the words to describe how much I disliked this book. While described by other characters as a "brilliant lawyer," the lead character Samantha was a cowardly idiot. Or at least all the dialog attributed to her made her seem like she should never have graduated from high school. I think the premise of the story gave us the idea this would be similar to "The Pelican Brief," but in reality it was just a jumble of unrealistic characters and evil employees of large coal companies. Do yourself a favor and re-read "The Pelican Brief" and throw this drivel into a fire somewhere. Then you won't be contributing to the profits of big coal and maybe Grisham can leave this whole part of the country behind.
January 18, 2015
Well, it is Grisham, and I adore his style and plots, and as his Serbian translator and editor for years, I must be honnest and say this is not his usual masterpiece... But he is only human after all... :) But worth reading for sure! :)
August 9, 2018
Samantha Kofer thought she would be on the fast track to making partner at her law firm in Manhattan with her long hours and dedication. What she didn’t expect was to walk into her job as an associate at the firm and find out that she’d been laid off due to the current recession.
With jobs scarce to come by in the legal field Samantha takes the firm up on the offer of finding work in legal aid for the next year with the possibility to return to her job. Heading to Brady, Virginia Samantha never expected to find the tough cases and the people that she did.
I’m a huge fan of legal thrillers and don’t read them often enough and being a long time fan of Grisham’s work I thought I would grab one of his books and immerse myself into some legal excitement. Gray Mountain however seemed to lack that exciting spark that I was searching for when picking this one up.
The book has all the basics of a Grisham novel that one would expect with a determined and gritty young lawyer and an interesting setting filled with legal potential. Being in the backwoods certainly led to some creative characters to fill the pages too and there was some quite unexpected moments. What I found lacking though was those courtroom brawls and excitement. Still a solid read in the end though while it wasn’t my favorite of his catalog.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
With jobs scarce to come by in the legal field Samantha takes the firm up on the offer of finding work in legal aid for the next year with the possibility to return to her job. Heading to Brady, Virginia Samantha never expected to find the tough cases and the people that she did.
I’m a huge fan of legal thrillers and don’t read them often enough and being a long time fan of Grisham’s work I thought I would grab one of his books and immerse myself into some legal excitement. Gray Mountain however seemed to lack that exciting spark that I was searching for when picking this one up.
The book has all the basics of a Grisham novel that one would expect with a determined and gritty young lawyer and an interesting setting filled with legal potential. Being in the backwoods certainly led to some creative characters to fill the pages too and there was some quite unexpected moments. What I found lacking though was those courtroom brawls and excitement. Still a solid read in the end though while it wasn’t my favorite of his catalog.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
January 14, 2021
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
🌟🌟🌟
I have always said John Grisham never disappoints me, unfortunately “Gray Mountain” was a disappointment. Nice to have the story based on a female lawyer for a change but definitely lacking the courtroom excitement. I still look forward to my next book and adventure with John Grisham.
🌟🌟🌟
I have always said John Grisham never disappoints me, unfortunately “Gray Mountain” was a disappointment. Nice to have the story based on a female lawyer for a change but definitely lacking the courtroom excitement. I still look forward to my next book and adventure with John Grisham.
September 17, 2015
John Grisham has written several fine novels but unfortunately this is not one of them. If you are interested in reading this author take a look at his earlier books and give this one a miss.
December 25, 2014
I'm disappointed in this book. The first half is mostly about the evils of coal mining. The action picks up in the second half, but when I got to the end, I said "That's it?" No bad guys got their comeuppance.
I didn't really like any of the characters. There were various kinds of lawyers: rich corporate lawyers, high power lawyers, legal aid do-gooders, corrupt lawyers, disbarred lawyers, government lawyers. The clients were mostly poor, uneducated, drug addicts, wife beaters, greedy relatives none of whom could stand up for themselves. All stereotypical. Even the "good" guys did illegal things, and there were no police to be seen.
This book basically boils down to what kind of lawyer did Samantha want to be. She comes from a posh NYC law firm working a hundred hours a week to the backwoods where she flies an airplane, rides a 4-wheeler, floats in a boat, paddles a kayak, and camps out in an unheated cabin during the winter. She wins her first courtroom case and voilà. A very predictable and unsatisfying ending.
I didn't really like any of the characters. There were various kinds of lawyers: rich corporate lawyers, high power lawyers, legal aid do-gooders, corrupt lawyers, disbarred lawyers, government lawyers. The clients were mostly poor, uneducated, drug addicts, wife beaters, greedy relatives none of whom could stand up for themselves. All stereotypical. Even the "good" guys did illegal things, and there were no police to be seen.
This book basically boils down to what kind of lawyer did Samantha want to be. She comes from a posh NYC law firm working a hundred hours a week to the backwoods where she flies an airplane, rides a 4-wheeler, floats in a boat, paddles a kayak, and camps out in an unheated cabin during the winter. She wins her first courtroom case and voilà. A very predictable and unsatisfying ending.
October 30, 2014
One of Grisham's weakest books, in my opinion. I was interested in the female lawyer as the main protagonist and the focus on coal mining and its human toll. However, I was at first convinced that there must be a secret female co-writer, as much of the dialogue and romantic situations read like a YA novel. Then, I thought maybe Grisham is just so talented he can summon the voice of a shallow young woman! Either way I was disappointed and will probably not follow any upcoming sequels featuring Samantha Kofer.
October 5, 2023
3.5 stars
Samantha Kofer is a third-year-associate at the Scully & Pershing law firm in New York when she's 'furloughed' because of the economy. Advised that she might be rehired after a stint as an unpaid intern Samantha takes a position with Mountain Aid Legal Clinic in Brady, Virginia, an all-women firm.
Brady is in coal country, where coal mining provides numerous jobs as well as plenty of work for the free legal clinic.
Within days Samantha - a real estate attorney who never litigated a case - is dealing with spousal abuse, check garnishment, and black lung disease - a horrible affliction associated with coal mining.
Samantha becomes friendly with a local attorney, Donovan Gray, whose family owns 'Gray Mountain', a site that's been destroyed by strip mining.
As Samantha learns, strip mining - besides devastating the environment - produces cancer-causing sludge and leads to additional deaths from careless practices and reckless driving of coal trucks.
One of Donovan's current cases concerns the death of two children when a boulder, pushed off the mountain by miners, rolled down and destroyed their trailer home.
It's almost impossible to win lawsuits against the mining companies because they employ powerful law firms that fight dirty. They also have politicians and judges in their pockets. Donovan does manage to win sometimes, though, because he's willing to fight as dirty as the coal companies.
As the story proceeds Donovan plans to file a couple of huge lawsuits against mining companies that would embarrass them and potentially net millions of dollars in damages - and he wants Samantha to help him. The coal companies fight back hard, even pulling in the FBI to assist them. But, as it turns out, Samantha has some useful contacts of her own.
The book has a large array of interesting and entertaining characters, including Samantha's parents (both lawyers), her co-workers, and her clients. There's even a spot of romance.
The book makes it clear that the author is appalled by coal company practices. I enjoyed the story and learned a lot about corporate dirty tricks. My biggest criticism is that the book leaves a couple of story lines unresolved and seems unfinished. Still, it's a good story as far as it goes. Grisham fans would probably enjoy the book.
You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/
November 22, 2019
When I was about 75% through the book, I realized that if the main character, Samantha, died in a fiery plane crash at that point, leaving one of the other female attorneys to rise up and take on the mantle of hero, I wouldn't have felt any emotions. Somehow, most of the characters in this book were flat. The two brothers who were love interests (one potential, one actual) weren't compelling. The bad guys were cartoons. The ending was foreshortened. There were some editing deficiencies.
It's too bad, because there was so much potential here. Although I have long enjoyed John Grisham's novels, his last couple of books have felt like he's bored with writing. I used to open up a Grisham and feel like, "Yeah, I'm home, baby." Just his opening descriptions of place and people would elicit that happy feeling of settling in, knowing every chapter would be enjoyable.
No longer. Now, it feels as if he's shoveling it out the door. It's like watching Tiger Woods play golf the past few years; kind of sad. If JG doesn't want to write anymore, he should stop. He's made his mark. We'll think highly of him anyway.
It's too bad, because there was so much potential here. Although I have long enjoyed John Grisham's novels, his last couple of books have felt like he's bored with writing. I used to open up a Grisham and feel like, "Yeah, I'm home, baby." Just his opening descriptions of place and people would elicit that happy feeling of settling in, knowing every chapter would be enjoyable.
No longer. Now, it feels as if he's shoveling it out the door. It's like watching Tiger Woods play golf the past few years; kind of sad. If JG doesn't want to write anymore, he should stop. He's made his mark. We'll think highly of him anyway.
August 26, 2016
If you had no opinion on coal mining, strip mining, or mountaintop removal before, or if you are in favor of it all because it means jobs and cheap fuel for America, John Grisham will surely turn you around to his opinion, or die trying. But since I already agree with him on practically everything he says and don't need convincing, after a while it does get repetitive and soapbox-like (soapboxie?). This tale of rich vs poor, and big business vs the common man went on a bit too long IMO. The narrator on the audiobook was OK but she sounded really young and gave every character, male or female, the exact same voice. The protagonist Samantha was a whiner and not very likeable yet everyone in the book fell in love with her right and left, which I just didn't get. I'm glad I read it; but on this same topic, The Secret Wisdom of the Earth is better by far.
I think I just talked myself into lowering my rating from 3 stars to 2.5 but since half stars aren't possible, will leave it at 3.
I think I just talked myself into lowering my rating from 3 stars to 2.5 but since half stars aren't possible, will leave it at 3.
February 25, 2015
I did a little happy dance when I finished this book. Was it that good? No, it was opposite. I was so happy that I had finished this piece of drivel that I was jumping for joy. John Grisham has always been a mediocre writer but a good storyteller. He was neither in this book. His writing was appalling bad and the "plot" (I use that word loosely) was so hackneyed as to be almost unreadable.
It's a shame because the issues dealt with in the book are important. The strip coal mining in Appalachia is horrific and why this is allowed to continue is beyond me. The loss of American jobs is an important story as more and more communities turn to drugs to support themselves. Sometime we might elected a politician who actually cares about these important issues. This book will never galvanize anyone to take needed action and it should. Grisham has let us down in more than one way.
I would never ever recommend this book to anyone. Go find something good to read and avoid this drivel like the plague.
It's a shame because the issues dealt with in the book are important. The strip coal mining in Appalachia is horrific and why this is allowed to continue is beyond me. The loss of American jobs is an important story as more and more communities turn to drugs to support themselves. Sometime we might elected a politician who actually cares about these important issues. This book will never galvanize anyone to take needed action and it should. Grisham has let us down in more than one way.
I would never ever recommend this book to anyone. Go find something good to read and avoid this drivel like the plague.
December 1, 2014
Gray Mountain
John Grisham has done it again! This was an amazing novel. I can easily say that I think this is the best novel he has written in a very long time and it may be the best novel he has ever written. I would love to see him write a sequel to Gray Mountain. John Grisham is another one of the first authors that I started reading as a teenager and as the years have gone by and I have gotten older his novels have just gotten better and better. Don't pass up on reading this you will definitely be missing out on a great read.
John Grisham has done it again! This was an amazing novel. I can easily say that I think this is the best novel he has written in a very long time and it may be the best novel he has ever written. I would love to see him write a sequel to Gray Mountain. John Grisham is another one of the first authors that I started reading as a teenager and as the years have gone by and I have gotten older his novels have just gotten better and better. Don't pass up on reading this you will definitely be missing out on a great read.
January 5, 2015
John Grishsam is a great story teller and Gray Mountain is among his best! Grisham tells a story of a NEW YORK lawyer that ends up in Appalachia as an intern to a legal aid non-profit. In kept me hooked from start to finish!
October 10, 2014
John Grisham returns with an "issue-driven" legal thriller that is sure to rekindle the debate about Mountain Top Removal, especially in Appalachia. He weaves this politically/economically/environmentally loaded matter into the thrilling story of a young attorney—his first female protagonist in some time—who loses her soul-crushing corporate job only to encounter the law head-on in rural Appalachia, where she finally learns what it means to be a lawyer. A wonderful and riveting read, old-school Grisham at his best.
December 4, 2015
Sloppy work
Who was this editor? At any point, did he or she look at John Grisham and tell him how terrible this was? The plot wanders about, and at 75% in, I still didn't know in what general direction the book was going in. The main character is unlikeable, and not intentionally so but most importantly, it just isn't well written. I don't know if I've just grown up as a reader or JG has gotten lazy with time.
Who was this editor? At any point, did he or she look at John Grisham and tell him how terrible this was? The plot wanders about, and at 75% in, I still didn't know in what general direction the book was going in. The main character is unlikeable, and not intentionally so but most importantly, it just isn't well written. I don't know if I've just grown up as a reader or JG has gotten lazy with time.
October 22, 2014
Once again John Grisham educates us about a shocking and compelling subject matter: coal mining and the companies who so blatantly disregard both human life and nature.
While I enjoyed the book I thought it fell flat in the suspense factor and character development. So much more could have been done with this book.
It is told from the perspective of Samantha who is touted as John Grisham's new hero in the book description. While she did go through some personal growth and development I would hardly call her a hero. Any role she did play was reluctant in uncovering any wrong doing against the coal companies. She never fully committed to any one or anything which I believe is why this novel fell flat of Grisham's usual powerful stories. This certainly was no Pelican Brief and Samantha is no Darby Shaw, which I believe was Grisham's last strong female character.
While I enjoyed the book I thought it fell flat in the suspense factor and character development. So much more could have been done with this book.
It is told from the perspective of Samantha who is touted as John Grisham's new hero in the book description. While she did go through some personal growth and development I would hardly call her a hero. Any role she did play was reluctant in uncovering any wrong doing against the coal companies. She never fully committed to any one or anything which I believe is why this novel fell flat of Grisham's usual powerful stories. This certainly was no Pelican Brief and Samantha is no Darby Shaw, which I believe was Grisham's last strong female character.
October 30, 2014
Gray Mountain pulled me in with the first few beats. Samantha a youngish lawyer with prospects is put out on her butt during the 2008 financial crisis. She has the option of keeping her health-care if she signs up to pro-bono work, the only available option legal-aid near Gray Mountain.
Then the story started to get a bit too preach. by a bit too preachy I mean almost 50% of the book was spent information dumping all the problems with the coal mining industry. Heck, I don't like strip mining, I don't like coal and I'm concerned about environmental issues. Nonetheless i don't need to read a fiction novel about the perils of the process. There was some attempt to build tension with descriptions of the bully-boy nature of the small town, and in the second half there was more goings on. Unfortunately after slogging through the preaching it was hard to connect to the characters.
It turns out the story hinged more on Samantha's decisions and whether she wanted to pursue the more lucrative possibilities of practices law or stick with Gray Mountain. Potentially interesting but underdeveloped, it looks like Grisham is building a whole series but did not bother to keep the first chapter entertaining.
Then the story started to get a bit too preach. by a bit too preachy I mean almost 50% of the book was spent information dumping all the problems with the coal mining industry. Heck, I don't like strip mining, I don't like coal and I'm concerned about environmental issues. Nonetheless i don't need to read a fiction novel about the perils of the process. There was some attempt to build tension with descriptions of the bully-boy nature of the small town, and in the second half there was more goings on. Unfortunately after slogging through the preaching it was hard to connect to the characters.
It turns out the story hinged more on Samantha's decisions and whether she wanted to pursue the more lucrative possibilities of practices law or stick with Gray Mountain. Potentially interesting but underdeveloped, it looks like Grisham is building a whole series but did not bother to keep the first chapter entertaining.
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April 24, 2023
<★★✩✩✩: no no nooo ! It was too boring for my taste/something was missing. 🧷>
⊹☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎⊹
Yeahhh i don't think i ever made a book a 2-star rating. But i just felt like the main character
-Samantha- was too much of a bore. Like her character wasn't at all interesting and i just don't find her a likable character. Through every situation she encountered in this book made her have little to no reaction. Some situations, given if someone experienced them in real life, would even be scary! But she seemed like she didn't even care that she could possibly die. Although i liked some aspects of this book it took me forever even to finish it! Even if i had other things going on in my life. The fact that you fell for both mountain boys and had s*x with one of them is laughable to me. Samantha completely moves on too fast and just hooks up with the brother of her dead-somewhat-best friend. So to say, even the side characters had somewhat, more personality than the main character itself. This being said i give it 2 stars, even though i do like death!😅👍
⊹☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎⊹
⊹☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎⊹
Yeahhh i don't think i ever made a book a 2-star rating. But i just felt like the main character
-Samantha- was too much of a bore. Like her character wasn't at all interesting and i just don't find her a likable character. Through every situation she encountered in this book made her have little to no reaction. Some situations, given if someone experienced them in real life, would even be scary! But she seemed like she didn't even care that she could possibly die. Although i liked some aspects of this book it took me forever even to finish it! Even if i had other things going on in my life. The fact that you fell for both mountain boys and had s*x with one of them is laughable to me. Samantha completely moves on too fast and just hooks up with the brother of her dead-somewhat-best friend. So to say, even the side characters had somewhat, more personality than the main character itself. This being said i give it 2 stars, even though i do like death!😅👍
⊹☁︎☁︎☁︎☁︎⊹
July 20, 2023
This is an older Grisham novel, published in 2014, but its theme is centered around the time of the recession of 2008.
Its main character is Samantha whose career as a Wall Street lawyer finds her downsized and furloughed for a year to a nonprofit legal aid clinic in the heart of Appalachia – a small town in Brady, Virginia. Her new job challenges her, just as the various characters do, and the lifestyle is much different than what she experienced in New York.
But what we witness as readers, learning about what is behind the scenes of the coal mining industry will break our hearts.
What will Samantha decide to do with her life at the end of her year experience with the legal aid clinic?
What more can we learn from the cases and the town she inhabits during her stay?
Will the coal mining industry pay in the end for what they do to their employees and the mountains they destroy?
Some reviewers weren’t happy with this book – felt it spent too much time on the coal industry – and not enough on character development…but, for some reason, I felt differently.
I thought the stories, the cases, were compelling and important and relevant. Even today in 2022.
Its main character is Samantha whose career as a Wall Street lawyer finds her downsized and furloughed for a year to a nonprofit legal aid clinic in the heart of Appalachia – a small town in Brady, Virginia. Her new job challenges her, just as the various characters do, and the lifestyle is much different than what she experienced in New York.
But what we witness as readers, learning about what is behind the scenes of the coal mining industry will break our hearts.
What will Samantha decide to do with her life at the end of her year experience with the legal aid clinic?
What more can we learn from the cases and the town she inhabits during her stay?
Will the coal mining industry pay in the end for what they do to their employees and the mountains they destroy?
Some reviewers weren’t happy with this book – felt it spent too much time on the coal industry – and not enough on character development…but, for some reason, I felt differently.
I thought the stories, the cases, were compelling and important and relevant. Even today in 2022.
March 25, 2023
Old reviews went missing, how does "save" not work? 🤬
4 stars
4 stars
November 24, 2014
John Grisham has been my guilty pleasure candy go-to writer for ages, so of course I had pre-ordered Gray Mountain before he made his inexcuseable, unforgiveable defense of "-old white men in prison who’ve never harmed anybody, would never touch a child. But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons, went too far and got into child porn.” You would think a lawyer would understand that if there were no market for child pornography there would be no child pornography; that this is not a victimless crime, that creepy old men who like to look at child pornography do INDEED HARM SOMEONE - children. So on this alone I am done with John Grisham.
But I had already paid for the book . . . so of course I had to read it. I love his preachy, "one-issue" books and never get tired of sticking it to the big corporations. I enjoyed the anti-coal company line, but the book itself was tiresome. What disappointed most was his promotion of this book as having his second "female protagonist." Samantha is hardly a protagonist - She is surrounded by and overshadowed by three male characters, one of whom is dead most of the book and still manages to be stronger, more likeable, and more active than she is. She is the most passive, pathetic, wishy washy character who just rides along and lets other push her and make decisions for her. Her dialogue is totally unrealistic - perhaps every male's fantasy of what a woman is like? Ick Goodbye John Grisham.
But I had already paid for the book . . . so of course I had to read it. I love his preachy, "one-issue" books and never get tired of sticking it to the big corporations. I enjoyed the anti-coal company line, but the book itself was tiresome. What disappointed most was his promotion of this book as having his second "female protagonist." Samantha is hardly a protagonist - She is surrounded by and overshadowed by three male characters, one of whom is dead most of the book and still manages to be stronger, more likeable, and more active than she is. She is the most passive, pathetic, wishy washy character who just rides along and lets other push her and make decisions for her. Her dialogue is totally unrealistic - perhaps every male's fantasy of what a woman is like? Ick Goodbye John Grisham.
June 1, 2018
Empieza bastante bien, tiene un trasfondo medioambiental y de denuncia muy interesante, y además la protagonista es una mujer, lo que supone un interesante cambio en los habituales protagonistas masculinos de Grisham. Pero lo que podría haber sido una gran novela termina dejándote casi indiferente, debido a la debilidad del personaje principal (Samantha), que, simplificando, ni come ni deja comer, sacándome de quicio en más de una ocasión.
Es una de las novelas más “lentas” del autor. Tampoco pasa mucho en ella: Abogada pija norteamericana, que sufre los efectos de la crisis y es despedida. Le ofrecen en un puesto en una consultoría para gente sin recursos allá en los Apalaches, … y allí descubre un mundo que cambiará radicalmente su filosofía de vida.
Como ya he dicho, podría haber sido una gran novela, pues tiene potencial, pero la fragilidad de Samantha en todos los aspectos me ha dejado bastante frío. No invita a leer futuras secuelas, caso de haberlas.
Es una de las novelas más “lentas” del autor. Tampoco pasa mucho en ella: Abogada pija norteamericana, que sufre los efectos de la crisis y es despedida. Le ofrecen en un puesto en una consultoría para gente sin recursos allá en los Apalaches, … y allí descubre un mundo que cambiará radicalmente su filosofía de vida.
Como ya he dicho, podría haber sido una gran novela, pues tiene potencial, pero la fragilidad de Samantha en todos los aspectos me ha dejado bastante frío. No invita a leer futuras secuelas, caso de haberlas.
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