Book 88: First Street, a Novel by a Bunch of People

 I just finished First Street and I give it ☆☆☆.

This is a book about four clerks at the Supreme Court, and interestingly there are a bunch of authors affiliated with this book (see them all here.). Each chapter lists the author for that chapter. Anyway, the book reads like a novelization of a television show--very episodic, very 'law suit of the day', and also lots of interpersonal stuff--sort of The Resident at the Supreme Court. The four clerks are pretty stereotyped: Gabriel is a hispanic army veteran who leans far right who was the 'second choice' for his clerkship, Jack is the son of a Congressman who disagrees with everything his father stands for, Odessa is a former ballerina who struggles with leaving her dancing past behind, and Charlotte is neurodivergent and learning how to get along with this variable group of people. The justices are stereotyped as well (at least the ones we read about, which is only three of the group). Anyway, it's a fast read and the bits about how to court operates is interesting, but this descends too quickly into soap opera territory. And then it ends in a huge cliffhanger with no followup book. Not good.