Rating: 
Summary: Provocative
Review: This may not be Grisham's best novel -- no tense action, no constant new thrilling plot turns and stuff -- but this book fulfills the intention of being a provocation. I am a supporter of the death penalty but this book made me think about the rightness of legal murder. What Grisham meant this book to do is achieved -- it arouses serious doubts.Moderately-paced, "The Chamber" depicts the life of a death row inmate with astounding detail. Everything from the daily routine to the last hours before the execution is beautifully narrated by John Grisham. The main character, Sam Cayhall, is about to be gassed for killing two children who died in a bomb blast. However, he was just an accomplice and he did not want the bomb to kill anyone. But there are some unknown hideous crimes he had committed before. So the whole setup of the book is that letting Sam live is too weak a punishment but gassing him is too much. You feel sorry for the victims, but you unwillingly feel sorry for the convict as well, who wakes up each morning with the thought that he is one day closer to death. The death penalty argument will never be over and Grisham does a fine job of describing all the controversy of capital punishment. Again, it's not his best work, but Grisham still hits the bull's-eye.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Review: After a cursory glance at the reviews given this book by fellow readers, I am surprised to see that people cannot appreciate this book for what it really is. Grisham apparently intented to abandon his normal commercially appealing style in order for him to bring an important issue to the forefront. Grisham does an excellent job of weaving through the the processes involved in evoking the death penalty and infuses the story with sentiment from both sides. It would have been easy for him to stack all the cards against the death penalty, and have the main character merely be a pawn which was framed in a crime. Rather every time the reader feels excessive sympathy for Sam, another vile act from his past is exposed, and once again the readers sympathy is put in jeopardy. I think Grisham did a masterful job with this book, the only fault being its unecessary length. This book could have been easily abridged by approximately 150 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Readable, but not Grisham's best
Review: Basic story is... Adam Hall, 26-year-old attorney fresh out of law school and working at the best firm in Chicago finds that grandad is on death row for killing two men (grandady's a card-carrying member of the KKK.) Hall races to the rescue and puts his career at stake to try and rescue the old-timer from inhaling the wrong type of gas! The plot has the makings of an action-packed novel, but Grisham handles it at a much slower pace, heaving in sentimentality in places. Being a writer of proven commercial abilities, Grisham gets away with it - just! He's better off in courtrooms and car chases and his handling of the final pages is, frankly, weak. Nevertheless, Grisham's ability to pen a decent plot raises The Chamber from what could otherwise have been a disaster. If you're looking for Grisham's best, look elsewhere. If you just want to be sure you've tried the whole gamut of his offerings, you find worse, but you'll find better.
Rating: 
Summary: Ready for the "Chamber" after reading it
Review: This is Grisham's worst work. What should have been a short story, rambles on for hundreds of pages. Anyone who reads The Chamber will receive a tremendous education about the intricacies of cigarette smoke. If that thrills you, by all means waste a few hours with this text. If not, read something less laborious, like the dictionary.
Rating: 
Summary: I recommend you skip this one.
Review: My least favorite of the Grisham books, The Chamber is a slow-paced story made up of tons of dialogue and very, very little action. For me, it started out boring and remained consistent to the very end. It's true, that it became a "page turner" near the end, but not the way you might think... I was hoping that something exciting might actually happen, but mainly just wanted to be done with it. I knew better than expect a good ending from Grisham anyway. Grisham once again revisits the racial issues of the South and even references his other "racial" book (the A Time to Kill) in the process. Unless you've been living in a cave, this is a topic beaten to death and he really has nothing new to ad. I wish I hadn't read it and could not, in good faith, recommend it to you.
Rating:
Summary: A very emotional book
Review: While reading The Chamber i cried many times. Sometimes this book will make you smile, other times it will make you cry, and other times it will make you cry out in anger. Sam Cayhall is on deathrow because in the sixties he was in the KKK and bombed a jewish lawyer's building. But something went wrong when he bombed the building;instead of it going off at 5 in the morning when it was vacant, it went off at 8. Unfortunately, it the lawyer's two five-year old sons were in the building and the bomb killed them. Now, his only chance is his 26-year old grandson lawyer who will try everything to help him, and to keep him from getting gassed in the Gas Chamber. Before reading this book, I was stongly opposed to the death row, but after reading it, well, it makes you think about that. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An overall good story line
Review: Of all the Grisham legal thrillers this is my least favorite. An excellent story line but excessively long. It could have been done better in my opinion. Otherwise this is an okay book.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner.
Review: A thought-provoking tale of the last days on Death Row. Grisham has written believable, flawed characters in the racist old Southerner convicted of planting a deadly bomb in a Jewish lawyer's office 30 years earlier, and the idealistic young attorney fighting for a stay of execution. My husband and I listened to the audio version while driving through the Utah desert. When we arrived at our hotel, after an 8-hour drive, we didn't want to get out of the car because we would have to stop the tape! I've also read the book. I recommend both the tape and the book.
Rating:
Summary: Made for Grisham fans...2 1/2 stars
Review: This book tries to stir debates about the death penalty, but it only stirs debates about Grisham waning talent. If you are a Grisham fan, you will read this book. If you are not a Grisham fan, and you want to see what the fuss is about, pick another Grisham novel.
Rating:
Summary: Very good but could've been a little better.
Review: A great book...maybe not one of Grisham's best. I have to say it was very unpredictable and not usual Grisham. I say it could've been better in that if it had a little more action, for example: Lets say Sam decided to talk and Wedge decided to take action...That in my oppinion Grisham could have made very interesting, but none the less the book got its message through even to me, a thirteen year old without a whole lot of reading experience, and made me want to read more Grisham.
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