Book Review: The Rooster Bar

Hi All,

This post will be a brief summary and review of a novel I recently finished – The Rooster Bar by John Grisham, published in 2017, which is considered a leugal thriller.

The Rooster Bar is a story about struggling law students, who buy the hype of a promising future through a for-profit law school, only to find the truth is not as advertised – jobs are hard to come by, the school doesn’t adequately train the students for the bar exam, and the real purpose of the school is to make money off the students. The story follows three students and shows the reality of their situation – hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, minimal job prospects and a lot of regret on their life decisions.

While I will not spoil the story, the trio takes an unexpected path to try to get out from under their problems and causes them to be fugitives on the run.

The novel is a page turner and highly entertaining. The story is fascinating and takes lots of unexpected course changes. My only criticism is that the author, John Grisham, shows his political biases too overtly – mostly in the areas of illegal immigration and corporate greed. While I appreciate many points of view (even if they are not my own) I could have done with a little less agenda pushing.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel and give it a 4.5 out of 5.

I hope this post motivates a few people to check it out!

Take care,

Brian