Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

58 reviews

tamarant4's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

...the massive violence of the state was “justice,” was “law and order,” and resistance to perpetual violence was an act of terror. It would have been funny if there weren’t so much blood everywhere. [loc. 2540]

'Chain-Gang All-Stars Battleground' is the top-rated show on CAPE, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment channel. Prisoners facing a death penalty or incarceration over a certain amount of time can volunteer to become a Link, a part of a Chain. Individuals on one Chain engage in mortal combat with opponents from another Chain. If a Link survives for three years, they win their freedom. The average life expectancy is three months.

The novel's multitude of viewpoint characters include Links Loretta Thurwar and Hurricane Staxxx, lovers and stars of the Angola-Hammond Chain; Hendrix Young, one-armed spear-wielder; and Simon J Clark, utterly broken by torture and nicknamed the Unkillable. (All were imprisoned for murder, from violent rape and murder to self-defence. And of course have committed many more murders since, as part of the show.) There are also other voices: fans, protesters, an announcer, a scientist... These are interesting for their angles on the show, the cultural context, the prejudices of race and class (the Links are mostly non-white) and the creeping complicity of it.

Though it's the future, with new and exciting technology utilised to cause pain and record violence, Adjei-Brenyah's footnotes snag our frame of reference back to the present day, with stats about race, innocence and violence in the US carceral system. This is more a pitch-black satire than it is science fiction: and it is a love story that finishes on an irredeemably tragic note.

Read for lockdown book club. It took me a while, because this is a very violent book, in terms of physical and social violence. I think it is a timely and important novel, with powerful prose and complex characters, tackling important issues. The fact that I didn't enjoy reading it is incidental.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

lokes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Dysphoria

sparklefarm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely brutal and beautiful. Content warning for pretty much everything, but incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Murder

Minor: Rape

motypeandroid's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, and Sexual harassment

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is everything I love about reading. It's emotional, tense, and thought-provoking. I was also really impressed by the scope of this book. I think it would have been very, very easy to mess this story up, to make it not hit as hard as it did, to make it another Hunger Games ripoff that tries to be smarter than it is. But it stands on its own and it stands very strong. Not only does Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah tackle something as huge as the prison industrial complex, but he slips in commentary on other issues too, that although not directly related, play a part in the system as a whole. The idolification of celebrity; the fetishization of Black female athletes; misogynoir, misogyny and patriarchy; capitalism and the tech industry; the criminalization of the mentally ill; and of course the dehumanization of criminals. Soo much is packed into this story that it's impressive it's less than 400 pages. And every single bit of it makes you think, a lot.

This is a Black Mirror style dystopia. It feels weird to call it a dystopia, because it feels so real. It's not too far off from reality, which is why it feels like a Black Mirror episode. 

Something that made this book stand out for me was its multiple POVs. At first, it felt overwhelming to be constanly juggled around different people that didn't seem to matter to the story. But I came to understand that that was the point; everyone is connected to the system in small or large ways. There is no separating yourself from the system whether you want to or not. At the same time, we are all connected together as people. It made the entire story feel like a snowballing of seemingly unrelated butterfly effects. The death of a character's father leads her to accidentally invent the torture device used against prisoners and protestors. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time means one person gets convicted for a crime while another goes free. It shows how the little choices can make somebody's fate, and how the prison system capitalizes on those little moments to punish, dehumanize, and control. It makes the reader ask, are we defined by the choices we make, or do the choices we make really have nothing to do with us at all? 

All the POVs come together in one way or another at the end; characters we read the perspective of one time at the beginning of the book become someone we meet in passing in another character's perspective. I loved the effect it created and how it showed each tiny piece of the system and the story as a whole. Some people will find it discombobulated and confusing, but it really worked for me.

And the characters we focus the most on are beautifully done. They are people who have done some of the quote unquote "worst" things a human could do. They are murderers, rapists, arsonists, criminals. But they are also people, and the author does a really great job making you fall in love with them despite what may be your gut reaction to them. They have passions, fears, regrets, dreams. Some of them forgive themselves and others want to punish themselves just as badly as the world wants to punish them. Some of them fully lean into the hand they have been dealt, and others succumb to their own hopelessness. The characters definitely shine here and also open up a lot of introspection and reflection. I would say there are four main characters, but the minor characters play a huge part in the story and I was every bit as moved by their individual stories as the main storyline. 

The plot itself is rather basic, and I think if the characters were less compelling it would have quickly become boring. The main conflicts themselves wouldn't have been enough to carry the whole story, but because we become so close to the characters and the POVs are split up the way they are, the intrigue stays high and, at least for me, it was impossible to put this down. The last 25% of this book does not pull any punches. It hits hard and it hits fast. 

Every choice the author made feels extremely intentional. The choice to use different narration styles for different character's POVs. The choice to include footnotes that break the fourth wall by pointing to real-world statistics on imprisonment and systemic racism. The choice to end the story how he did. Everything was done extremely well and I'm confident I'll be thinking about this book for a long, long time.

Brutal and devastating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

aspyd05's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Excellent and gut wrenching. I had to take multiple breaks reading this but it’s so worth the journey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Medical content, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

msrae89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

problamoodic's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There’s nothing more I can say that hasn’t been said about this book. I guess I’ll just put here that I hope this work and the others about this subject help guide people to abolition. Or at least, self reflection and reflection on how we all play a part in this system. It’s definitely done that for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, and Sexual harassment

kmcnay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It’s hard to even rate this book. It elicited the exact emotions it needed when it needed. It was incredibly well written and both sunk you into this horrible future while simultaneously and continuously rooted it in the reality of the present. I appreciate so much about this book and how devastatingly cleverly it was crafted. I have more to say about CGA but I’ll leave it at this. Devastating read. Worthwhile read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Classism