I really wanted to like this. But after reading the first couple of chapters I had little interest in continuing. I left the book for about a week before my hatred of not finishing books overcame my willingness to let it go.

It's as if the editor forgot to edit those first chapters since the writing and tone doesn't seem to match the rest of the book. Those first chapters are a little flowery and prosy. It's trying too hard and it gets in the way of the plot.

Although, to be fair, the plot sometimes gets in the way of the plot. There's a lot going on here besides the main story of a US Supreme Court Justice with a terminal illness being put in a coma (instead of being killed outright) in order to affect a Court decision. His law clerk is named as his guardian with power of attorney for health decisions, instead of his wife or estranged son, and that puts her life in danger as well. From there, the plot devices escalate, some of which strain credulity.

Once you get past the plodding first chapters, the book reads as a standard action thriller. Some of it hits a little too close to current events, but the acknowledgments say the book took a dozen years to write. It's possible that it has been tweaked to give vague impressions of current events, but probably not.

Spoiler

We've had terrible Republican presidents before who will stop at almost nothing to maintain their power (at one point, Avery the clerk is given a new email address with the password Nixon), and wanting to kill people for their ethnicity and/or religion has been going on for centuries. Developing a bioweapon to target certain populations with specific gene markers is more likely now than it has ever been with advancing science, so it all feels a little more like commentary on the world today.

There's a lot of hype surrounding the book because it's from Stacey Abrams, current Democrat wunderkind and superstar. It's a bit overhyped in my opinion. She's not on my list of must-read authors, and I won't go out of my way to get another one of her books, but I enjoyed the book enough to read more from her eventually.

I would have a read a Supreme Court thriller with a Black woman protagonist regardless…

The fact that this was written by someone who actually had many of the skills displayed by Avery Keene (the protagonist) and presumably had been to some of these real places (the Court, the Oval Office, etc) made it that much more exciting.

Where protagonists in thrillers often jump the shark and become super heroes, here it works, because Abrams IS basically a real life super hero. And President of Earth.

Engaging legal/political/scientific drama.

An unusual and engaging legal thriller…

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams is the fiction debut of the well known political activist (and president of Earth in the year 3190).

The story follows a young Supreme Court law clerk who is given power of attorney for her boss after he slips into an unusual coma. Her employer also happens to be the swing vote on the US Supreme Court.

What follows is a jarring story invovling political corruption, gene therapy, and odd chess ciphers as the clerk works with Allie’s including fellow law clerks, the comatose justice’s son, and a mysterious voice on the phone as he unravels the conspiracy.

It’s a decent first work of fiction with a lot of chess talk, legal insight, and political commentary.