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Valley So Low: One Lawyer's Fight for Justice in the Wake of America's Great Coal Catastrophe
WINNER OF THE TENNESSEE BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A riveting courtroom drama about the victims of one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history—and the country lawyer determined to challenge the notion that, in America, justice can be bought
“[A] tense investigative chronicle.” —The New Yorker
For more than fifty years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee, burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste sixty feet high and covering eighty-four acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered three hundred acres, damaged nearly thirty homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than a billion dollars—and the lives of more than fifty cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins it released.
Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority, a colossal, federally owned power company that had once been a famous cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Scott and his hastily assembled team gathered extensive evidence of threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site. At every stage, Scott—outmanned and nearly broke—had to overcome legal hurdles constructed by TVA and the firm it hired to help execute the cleanup. He grew especially close to one of the victims, whose swift decline only intensified his hunger for justice. As the incriminating evidence mounted, the workers seemed to have everything on their side, including the truth—and yet, was it all enough to prevail?
The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers’ behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described “hillbilly lawyers” could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. With suspense and rich detail, Jared Sullivan’s thrilling account lays bare the casual brutality of the American justice system, and calls into question whether—and how—the federal government has failed its people.
“[A] tense investigative chronicle.” —The New Yorker
For more than fifty years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee, burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste sixty feet high and covering eighty-four acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered three hundred acres, damaged nearly thirty homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than a billion dollars—and the lives of more than fifty cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins it released.
Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority, a colossal, federally owned power company that had once been a famous cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Scott and his hastily assembled team gathered extensive evidence of threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site. At every stage, Scott—outmanned and nearly broke—had to overcome legal hurdles constructed by TVA and the firm it hired to help execute the cleanup. He grew especially close to one of the victims, whose swift decline only intensified his hunger for justice. As the incriminating evidence mounted, the workers seemed to have everything on their side, including the truth—and yet, was it all enough to prevail?
The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers’ behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described “hillbilly lawyers” could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. With suspense and rich detail, Jared Sullivan’s thrilling account lays bare the casual brutality of the American justice system, and calls into question whether—and how—the federal government has failed its people.
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Published October 15, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
November 12, 2025
This book made me cough. Yes, that is a strange way to start a book review, but hear me out.
Jared Sullivan tells the story of America's worst coal disaster in his exceptional Valley So Low. In 2008, a gigantic mountain of ash waste did what mountains of waste do and fell over. No one was killed but a huge swath of a Tennessee valley was covered in the mess. Normally, you might expect the disaster would take up a huge amount of page count. However, Sullivan makes it clear right away that the disaster was not the coal ash flood, it was the cleanup.
What follows is a deliberate, slow motion horror story. Workers are pulled in to clean up. They are denied safety equipment. Guess what happens to your respiratory system when you breathe in hazardous materials for years? Exactly what you expect, but not according to their employer.
Sullivan does an incredible job of telling a fully fleshed out story. You get to know the workers who have their death warrants figuratively signed. You get to know the lawyers who truly are Davids fighting Goliath. To go back to my opening, the narrative is so affecting that I found myself coughing out of nowhere like some sort of sympathetic response to what I was reading about these men and their families. Nothing I can write would be a stronger recommendation than that.
Jared Sullivan tells the story of America's worst coal disaster in his exceptional Valley So Low. In 2008, a gigantic mountain of ash waste did what mountains of waste do and fell over. No one was killed but a huge swath of a Tennessee valley was covered in the mess. Normally, you might expect the disaster would take up a huge amount of page count. However, Sullivan makes it clear right away that the disaster was not the coal ash flood, it was the cleanup.
What follows is a deliberate, slow motion horror story. Workers are pulled in to clean up. They are denied safety equipment. Guess what happens to your respiratory system when you breathe in hazardous materials for years? Exactly what you expect, but not according to their employer.
Sullivan does an incredible job of telling a fully fleshed out story. You get to know the workers who have their death warrants figuratively signed. You get to know the lawyers who truly are Davids fighting Goliath. To go back to my opening, the narrative is so affecting that I found myself coughing out of nowhere like some sort of sympathetic response to what I was reading about these men and their families. Nothing I can write would be a stronger recommendation than that.
November 14, 2024
Get your blood pressure medicine ready before reading this one because it’s sure to send you through the roof. Have you ever read a book and been completely appalled at real life behavior and the sheer disregard for other human life? I have an entire list of people I’ve never met before that I have very specific things I hope happen to them after reading this one. Sorry, not sorry. I grabbed this one because my sweet friend Jessica LIVES in this town. She actually stares at the location from her home every single day. How has the largest environmental and industrial disaster in the year 2008 something that no one has heard of? I’ll tell you how…Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and one Mr. Bock did their damndest to sweep it all under a rug. I’m telling you this book made me so angry. So many people have died due to this disaster and not only did TVA claim the sludge was not dangerous, they lied, falsely reported information and completely dismissed health claims and denied preventative measures that would have saved a lot of people’s lives. The moral of the story is NEVER trust TVA that’s for sure. I have SO much to say about this book I feel like I could talk for hours on this topic. I will not forget this book any time soon. I am disappointed in government agencies that seem to look the other way in scenarios like this…eh hmmmm #flintwatercrisis and now #tva
If you can stomach a shocking book that will make you sad, angry, and want to drive to TN to kick some booty grab this book. It’s educational and has opened my eyes once again to the idea of abuse of power and money is the driver behind all evil.
If you can stomach a shocking book that will make you sad, angry, and want to drive to TN to kick some booty grab this book. It’s educational and has opened my eyes once again to the idea of abuse of power and money is the driver behind all evil.
April 18, 2025
4.5 stars. I listened to this one. A great audio production of a story that is horrific and terribly sad. Glad the author spent the time to get this book published.
October 29, 2024
A very compelling read about the Kingston coal ash spill. Full of details about this crisis and the civil court cases against TVA and Jacobs Engineering. While intriguing at first, the last third of the book dragged a bit with the endless back and forth in the courts (the only reason this book got 4 instead of 5 stars). Thanks Libro.fm for the advance copy of this book.
March 30, 2025
Wow. Heartbreaking and appalling, but can’t say you’re surprised that a multibillion dollar company ignored health issues and refused PPE to concerned workers. Sullivan did an excellent job documenting the dam collapse, litigation strategy, and most importantly the gut-wrenching stories of the brave workers at the site. Probably something every environmental consultant, assessor, or policymakers should read. We all have a part in preventing issues like this, and putting profits over human lives is criminal. This should fill everyone with disgust for the botched remediation attempts of Jacobs and the TVA.
September 25, 2024
As an environmental law student I had to get this book. I really loved it.
November 30, 2024
I received this book as an ARC via a goodreads giveaway.
Overall I found it an enlightening read about the United States legal system particularly in the lower circuit courts. It starts as a rather slow read but is hard to put down once you get towards the end of part II as they head into actual trial.
Overall I found it an enlightening read about the United States legal system particularly in the lower circuit courts. It starts as a rather slow read but is hard to put down once you get towards the end of part II as they head into actual trial.
November 5, 2024
This book details a shameful story of an environmental disaster. The fact that coal ash had not been declared a toxic waste material is hard to wrap my head around. It is clear that all the agencies that should have been protecting workers and holding companies to high safety standards were asleep on the job. It is also clear that the greedy grab for profits by companies led to unnecessary deaths. The end of the saga, while completed in the legal system, lingers on for the individuals who lost loved ones or have debilitating diagnoses because of the disaster.
February 11, 2025
I can tell you right now that this will be in my top books of the year, but man, the struggle I had with this.
As a Kingston native, this book is filled with landmarks I've known my whole life. I can envision every turn, every street, and every blink of the towers. I can vividly remember, the early days of Facebook, being home from college just days before Christmas and seeing pictures of the ash spill being posted by friends. The ash spill is very much a lived experience for me, so this book felt so real and made me so angry. Oh the rage I felt towards TVA in this book...
ON THE FLIP SIDE. My dad worked for Watts Bar Nuclear plant for 30+ years, so TVA is very much a positive part of my life as well. I can't deny that as much as I KNOW how evil TVA is (especially after reading this), it is so hard for me to separate that TVA from the one who I knew for so many years. I kept telling myself, "Dad worked for Watts Bar! Not Kingston! The bad guys were the Jacobs Group! Not TVA!" Because *so many* things I enjoyed in life were because of TVA, not my mother's teaching salary. My dad's career with TVA (and obviously my parents' financial planning) paid for my first car, paid for college, paid for every vacation we ever went on, put food on the table, and so on. My version of TVA was a great, long career for my wonderful father who didn't have a college degree and afforded me a good life. It's so hard to separate the two in my brain.
When it comes to the book itself, I truly think it was very well-written. I listened to the audiobook, often on my way to work, and it always felt so odd to drive over the 1-40 bridge by the smoke stacks while listening to a book about the very thing. (If you're from Kingston, you grew up saying "No, not KingsPORT. KingsTON. The one with the smoke stacks!" They're a part of our DNA.) I think the narrator was fantastic, and I was able to forgive his pronunciation of Maryville, since no one from outside of the area will ever say it right. But his pronunciation of LaFollette was unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable. OTHER THAN THAT, I would highly recommend the audiobook for this one because I just think it was solid.
This was the kind of non-fiction that really made you feel for the people involved, and it's going to stick with me for a very long time.
As a Kingston native, this book is filled with landmarks I've known my whole life. I can envision every turn, every street, and every blink of the towers. I can vividly remember, the early days of Facebook, being home from college just days before Christmas and seeing pictures of the ash spill being posted by friends. The ash spill is very much a lived experience for me, so this book felt so real and made me so angry. Oh the rage I felt towards TVA in this book...
ON THE FLIP SIDE. My dad worked for Watts Bar Nuclear plant for 30+ years, so TVA is very much a positive part of my life as well. I can't deny that as much as I KNOW how evil TVA is (especially after reading this), it is so hard for me to separate that TVA from the one who I knew for so many years. I kept telling myself, "Dad worked for Watts Bar! Not Kingston! The bad guys were the Jacobs Group! Not TVA!" Because *so many* things I enjoyed in life were because of TVA, not my mother's teaching salary. My dad's career with TVA (and obviously my parents' financial planning) paid for my first car, paid for college, paid for every vacation we ever went on, put food on the table, and so on. My version of TVA was a great, long career for my wonderful father who didn't have a college degree and afforded me a good life. It's so hard to separate the two in my brain.
When it comes to the book itself, I truly think it was very well-written. I listened to the audiobook, often on my way to work, and it always felt so odd to drive over the 1-40 bridge by the smoke stacks while listening to a book about the very thing. (If you're from Kingston, you grew up saying "No, not KingsPORT. KingsTON. The one with the smoke stacks!" They're a part of our DNA.) I think the narrator was fantastic, and I was able to forgive his pronunciation of Maryville, since no one from outside of the area will ever say it right. But his pronunciation of LaFollette was unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable. OTHER THAN THAT, I would highly recommend the audiobook for this one because I just think it was solid.
This was the kind of non-fiction that really made you feel for the people involved, and it's going to stick with me for a very long time.
February 20, 2025
Wow, where to even begin… I like the description on page 223, “hillbilly lawyers” against “elite corporate defense attorneys.” This book made me equally enraged for the working people of eastern Tennessee as well as inspired some admiration for the southeastern United States. It certainly didn’t give me any confidence in our government or the agencies and representatives that are supposed to protect us.
I’ll admit, I was a little afraid to pick up this book when I first got it because I was worried it would be dull and uninteresting. That was hardly the case. Jared Sullivan did an excellent job weaving everyone’s stories together and creating a compelling book. I can’t remember where I first heard about Valley So Low…probably a podcast. I would recommend this read to anyone and everyone, more people should know about the environmental and industrial damages created by the energy industry throughout the decades in this country..and in this circumstance, by our own government!
(Sidenote, this is also the first time I’ve seen the word “constituent” used to describe the part of a whole, i.e. radium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium, uranium are all constituents of coal ash. I also had to look up “hutment,” never realized that was a thing, especially surprising as a city and regional planner!)
I’ll admit, I was a little afraid to pick up this book when I first got it because I was worried it would be dull and uninteresting. That was hardly the case. Jared Sullivan did an excellent job weaving everyone’s stories together and creating a compelling book. I can’t remember where I first heard about Valley So Low…probably a podcast. I would recommend this read to anyone and everyone, more people should know about the environmental and industrial damages created by the energy industry throughout the decades in this country..and in this circumstance, by our own government!
(Sidenote, this is also the first time I’ve seen the word “constituent” used to describe the part of a whole, i.e. radium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium, uranium are all constituents of coal ash. I also had to look up “hutment,” never realized that was a thing, especially surprising as a city and regional planner!)
January 7, 2025
“You’ve got the ball,” he told me. “Now run with it.”
Indeed, Jared Sullivan did just that. This book offers an incredible, harrowing account of one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.
It is both somber and thrilling. Hopeful yet heartbreaking. It is similar to other legal thrillers/dramas (Dark Waters (2019), Erin Brockovich (2000), etc.) yet entirely unique. It will put a tear in your eye and leave you with righteous indignation.
In detailing the tragedy of the Kingston coal ash spill and the subsequent cleanup, Sullivan uplifts the stories of the workers and everyday people who were directly impacted by the coal ash while shining a spotlight on the corporate greed and malfeasance that ultimately sickened and killed many of them.
It is just as much legal thriller as it is love story: the love between Janie and Ansol Clark, that between Jim Scott and his clients, and the love between community members.
Sullivan’s writing is pithy and compelling. My only gripe is that the book wasn’t longer. It is a remarkable story that is begging for an on-screen adaptation.
Indeed, Jared Sullivan did just that. This book offers an incredible, harrowing account of one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.
It is both somber and thrilling. Hopeful yet heartbreaking. It is similar to other legal thrillers/dramas (Dark Waters (2019), Erin Brockovich (2000), etc.) yet entirely unique. It will put a tear in your eye and leave you with righteous indignation.
In detailing the tragedy of the Kingston coal ash spill and the subsequent cleanup, Sullivan uplifts the stories of the workers and everyday people who were directly impacted by the coal ash while shining a spotlight on the corporate greed and malfeasance that ultimately sickened and killed many of them.
It is just as much legal thriller as it is love story: the love between Janie and Ansol Clark, that between Jim Scott and his clients, and the love between community members.
Sullivan’s writing is pithy and compelling. My only gripe is that the book wasn’t longer. It is a remarkable story that is begging for an on-screen adaptation.
March 27, 2025
4.5 stars
This one will stick with me for a long time. I don't normally write reviews, but this book sucked me in and hit hard, especially with the audiobook narrator's performance. The audacity to act so carelessly toward employee safety and subsequent denial of such carelessness was mind-boggling. Multiple times, I reacted aloud with "what the hell?" Or "you've gotta be kidding me" or "hell yeah, you get him" (the court scenes are intense). I talked the ear off anyone who would listen to me rant about the injustice of this situation. I also wept and mourned for people I've never met. The author took something that could have been incredibly dry (lots of legalese) and combined it with the narrative in such a way to make sure the focus was on the compelling stories of the workers affected.
There were things that felt lost in the shuffle, like some loose ends with Scott's personal life, which sometimes felt like an afterthought. It wasn't a huge deal for me, since 1) he has a right to his privacy and 2) it wasn't the driving factor of my interest in the book.
This one will stick with me for a long time. I don't normally write reviews, but this book sucked me in and hit hard, especially with the audiobook narrator's performance. The audacity to act so carelessly toward employee safety and subsequent denial of such carelessness was mind-boggling. Multiple times, I reacted aloud with "what the hell?" Or "you've gotta be kidding me" or "hell yeah, you get him" (the court scenes are intense). I talked the ear off anyone who would listen to me rant about the injustice of this situation. I also wept and mourned for people I've never met. The author took something that could have been incredibly dry (lots of legalese) and combined it with the narrative in such a way to make sure the focus was on the compelling stories of the workers affected.
There were things that felt lost in the shuffle, like some loose ends with Scott's personal life, which sometimes felt like an afterthought. It wasn't a huge deal for me, since 1) he has a right to his privacy and 2) it wasn't the driving factor of my interest in the book.
December 19, 2024
Y'all.
This is a VERY difficult book to read. Four days after finishing it, I am still thinking about it, still angry as all get out [how DO these horrible lawyers and corporate yahoos even SLEEP at night knowing what they are doing to other human beings??], and still crying for those who have lost everything [including their VERY lives] and continue to lose [all at the hands of people who clearly have no heart, no shame, and no empathy whatsoever] and am still just in shock at how criminal it all really is.
The story that is on the pages of this book will stay with you and I will be haunted by what I read and the people I read about for the rest of my life.
Thank you to NetGalley, Jared Sullivan, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor/Knopf for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a VERY difficult book to read. Four days after finishing it, I am still thinking about it, still angry as all get out [how DO these horrible lawyers and corporate yahoos even SLEEP at night knowing what they are doing to other human beings??], and still crying for those who have lost everything [including their VERY lives] and continue to lose [all at the hands of people who clearly have no heart, no shame, and no empathy whatsoever] and am still just in shock at how criminal it all really is.
The story that is on the pages of this book will stay with you and I will be haunted by what I read and the people I read about for the rest of my life.
Thank you to NetGalley, Jared Sullivan, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor/Knopf for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 31, 2024
Highly informative, accessible and disturbing due to the reporting of the judicial system which, in this case, did not seem to be working for the common person at all. It is unbelievable to me that years and years passed before any significant court action took place, and even then the end was not in sight. In the meantime, many became not only ill but died. I find this unconscionable.
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May 2, 2025I read more then half but I just wasn't super into it. I found that compared with some of the other nonfiction I've read this was more slow and a bit confusing. So I'm stopping now because itms just jot worth my time to read it when I feel so ambivalent (actually maybe even a bit negative) towards it.
December 23, 2024
Apparently this is unputdownable, as it appears that I read it in the course of 24 hours. Written in the tradition of A Civil Action and Tom River, either this kind of procedural interests you or it doesn't. It's a good one, complicated, edifying, surprising and, in many respects, frustrating.
February 4, 2025
Another case of a company putting workers at risk to focus on profits, just like Radon Girls. How many more cases are we going to learn about? How many more will we never know?
January 10, 2025
Incredibly well researched book about the spill of coal waste in Tennessee. Sullivan interviews workers who had to clean the mess up to learn what happened to them. He also interviews the lawyers who represented them in court. And he exposes the realities of our legal system that inadvertently reward clients with deep pockets.
September 15, 2024
An interesting journey through the process of bringing a civil trial to the court. Sullivan brings the human aspects of the plaintiffs and their attorneys.
December 28, 2024
Thank you Goodreads and Knopf Books for the free copy!
Right out the gate I have to say that this isn't a book I would normally pick for myself. However, I entered the giveaway because the story sounded compelling and honestly, I was surprised I hadn't heard about it before. To quickly say in a nutshell, this is an excellent report on the rupture of the coal ash pond in Kingston, TN, and I definitely recommend reading it.
This book will have you running through so many emotions, I don't even know where to begin. The environmental impact was shocking. I couldn't imagine seeing over 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge flowing through my property. TVA's negligence is appalling, but what's even worse is how they attempted to oppress their workers. Most infuriating, however, is the length a time it took to resolve everything. The spill happened in 2008, and the case involving the Jacobs employees wasn't settled until 2023?! Between the property damage, health concerns, environmental contamination, financial fallout, and lack of public awareness... I'm completely dumbfounded.
I was going to give this book 4 stars, but at the time of this review, someone gave it 2 stars without an explanation so, bonus star!
Right out the gate I have to say that this isn't a book I would normally pick for myself. However, I entered the giveaway because the story sounded compelling and honestly, I was surprised I hadn't heard about it before. To quickly say in a nutshell, this is an excellent report on the rupture of the coal ash pond in Kingston, TN, and I definitely recommend reading it.
This book will have you running through so many emotions, I don't even know where to begin. The environmental impact was shocking. I couldn't imagine seeing over 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge flowing through my property. TVA's negligence is appalling, but what's even worse is how they attempted to oppress their workers. Most infuriating, however, is the length a time it took to resolve everything. The spill happened in 2008, and the case involving the Jacobs employees wasn't settled until 2023?! Between the property damage, health concerns, environmental contamination, financial fallout, and lack of public awareness... I'm completely dumbfounded.
I was going to give this book 4 stars, but at the time of this review, someone gave it 2 stars without an explanation so, bonus star!
July 18, 2025
“He knew that if he didn’t advocate for the workers, likely no one else would, and he couldn’t stomach the idea of forsaking them, with their health problems growing increasingly dire.”
This was a propulsive read about the Kingston coal ash spill. While not my normal genre, I quickly became invested - and enraged - at the disregard for human health and life by yet another big, rich, and powerful company. Once again, profit over humanity. It’s sickening, appalling, and heartbreaking.
Reminiscent of Empire of Pain, Valley So Low really tests one’s faith in humanity. In a world that increasingly puts profit above all else, it can really make you feel hopeless. It isn’t just about the individual workers who saw their health decline - when something like this happens, it affects entire communities. TVA makes plenty of money, and they absolutely had the ability to pay for the damages they inadvertently inflicted on this community, but instead they showed themselves to be heartless. These poor people!
What could have ventured into dry reporting, Sullivan did an amazing job of relaying each of the worker’s personal stories of pain and suffering into a page-turning book I had to see to the end. Even though the case was closed legally, many of the workers and people from this region are still dealing with health issues that arose after this disaster.
This was a propulsive read about the Kingston coal ash spill. While not my normal genre, I quickly became invested - and enraged - at the disregard for human health and life by yet another big, rich, and powerful company. Once again, profit over humanity. It’s sickening, appalling, and heartbreaking.
Reminiscent of Empire of Pain, Valley So Low really tests one’s faith in humanity. In a world that increasingly puts profit above all else, it can really make you feel hopeless. It isn’t just about the individual workers who saw their health decline - when something like this happens, it affects entire communities. TVA makes plenty of money, and they absolutely had the ability to pay for the damages they inadvertently inflicted on this community, but instead they showed themselves to be heartless. These poor people!
What could have ventured into dry reporting, Sullivan did an amazing job of relaying each of the worker’s personal stories of pain and suffering into a page-turning book I had to see to the end. Even though the case was closed legally, many of the workers and people from this region are still dealing with health issues that arose after this disaster.
December 16, 2024
I watched Erin Brockovich at 12 years old and it altered my brain chemistry. And this just brought it all back to the surface. This was very well researched — while also feeling personal. I live on the other side of Tennessee and my husband (a welder) has worked at the New Johnsonville and Cumberland City TVA plants and countless other plants around us. When I come at him about smoking cigarettes he has always told me you have no idea the toxic things I’ve inhaled, the things I’ve welded on. And as the woman who washes his grimy work jeans — maybe I deserve financial compensation too. And like that’s a joke but kind of not? This book terrified me. But also confirmed to me that corporations are NEVER going to do the right thing if they can save a dime. They will always take the court costs and fines over compensating the workers who help their corporations go round. I pray for the day the working class wakes up to class consciousness— where we leave behind identity politics that alienate us from each other. The fight really is good vs. evil — and these corporations are EVIL. Reading this the week after the United Healthcare ceo fiasco also hits a little different. 🙊
January 27, 2025
Couldn’t put this book down - elicited a range of feelings from disgust to disbelief to deep sadness. Grew up in East Tennessee near Kingston - grew up hearing about how TVA “saved” us poor folk in the region … I realize as more myth than truth, or at least I understand now that TVA is akin to big pharma in terms of greed and self interest. Hope this writer keeps researching and writing and keeps the rest of us thinking, esp given the present political situation in USA.
January 14, 2026
I enjoy reading about these mass toxic tort-type cases because I once practiced in the area and find them fascinating. While this wasn’t my favorite of the ones I read, it’s very good and does an admirable job of highlighting corporate arrogance and greed, of humanizing the victims, and of explaining the stress put on the lawyers who take on such cases. It also details the limitations of the justice system — at least in Tennessee.
May 25, 2025
A difficult and important read, a reminder that safety regulations are written in blood. This true court drama is enthralling and devastating. Actually, this should probably be filed with true crime. The lack of happy ending is realistic and draining. I most appreciated that Sullivan leads with the human. We don't just meet the people involved, we get to know them on a very personal level, which made me as a reader that much more invested.
October 3, 2025
Kingston is only 30ish minutes away from me & I was 13 when the coal ash spill happened, so while I didn’t TRULY know what was going on I was old enough to know it was something bad.
This is the angriest a book has EVER made me - I was literally reading with my jaw on the floor at times. The disregard for safety and lives was appalling.
This is the angriest a book has EVER made me - I was literally reading with my jaw on the floor at times. The disregard for safety and lives was appalling.
December 18, 2025
4.5/5 rounded up. This book is a great example of why there are regulations, what happens when corporations and the government prioritize profit over following regulations, and what ordinary people can do to fight back. It's also scary to think about how this is just one story, but there are over a thousand superfund sites in the US, and countless more that maybe should be.
I received a free ALC for library employees from Libro.fm.
I received a free ALC for library employees from Libro.fm.
January 25, 2025
This is an excellent book about corporate ethics and greed. I met the author at the Southern Festival of books dinner. Such a tragic tale.
January 29, 2025
I was really hoping for some justice at the end for these workers but nope
February 10, 2025
As a native Kingston resident, I wholeheartedly thank the author for telling this story.
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