I received John Grisham's newest novel The Rooster Bar from my husband as a Christmas present. I received a few other books for Christmas so I didn't get to it right away. But I started it in early February when I started teaching my new semester. When I teach Grade 11 University English, I often write blog reviews of the books I'm reading as a way to model this type of writing to my students who are required to do so for each of the books they read in Lockerby's independent reading program (IRP).
The Rooster Bar is about three law students from Foggy Bottom Law School, a terribly run school with horrible teachers who accept unqualified students and graduate everyone, despite their low scores. Students from Foggy Bottom rarely pass the bar exam and most never find meaningful work as well-paid lawyers.
Mark, Todd, and Zola are third year students who are set to graduate in a few months. However, over the Christmas holidays, they experience a tragic loss of one of their dear friends, and this grief overcomes they, not allowing them to function well. Their friend also uncovered a pretty dark secret about the law school and its proprietors, making these three much less willing to return to the school they hate.
They all owe around $200,000 in student loans and know they will not be able to pay it off quickly. As a result, they devise a plan to skip out of law school and practice law on their own, without actual law licenses. Zola is also working furiously to save her parents and brother from deportation because they are illegal immigrants in America.
I am a huge John Grisham fan; his first book A Time to Kill is one of my all-time favourite books, and as English teacher, my favourites list is pretty long. For a book to make my Top 10 list, it must be great. If you're new to Grisham, please read A Time to Kill before any others! Then watch the film because it's also great! Please do NOT start with this book. While this book is okay, it's not nearly as great as his earlier works. I'm not sure if he's spitting out books too quickly now that he's so famous, because his last few books have been mediocre and his first 10 or so were fantastic.
What I dislike about this book is that these three students make terrible choice after terrible choice and really fail to see their own stupidity. I had a hard time feeling any empathy for these characters because I was so annoyed by them. They are not characters with whom I could easily identify. In their illegal practices, they also negatively impact a lot of innocent lives, something I find morally reprehensible.
However, the book is still appealing because these three students ban together to protect one another at all costs. They are fiercely loyal to each other and they actually do manage to scam some bad people too. I recommend reading this book if you're looking for a lighter read as I found it a bit predictable at time.
I give this book a 3/5 stars and recommend it with caution, only if you're familiar with Grisham. As I said, if you're new to him, read his books from the 90s, not his more recent works.
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