Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

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

210 reviews

piprigsby's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

this book is so incredibly important. not only does it provide a critique of the current prison system and the dehumanization of prisoners, but it also adds in real sources and citations about the disparities faced by Black people and transgender people in prison. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Rape

jenlengland's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Classism

eleanora's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

ismeco's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book ruined me. 

I don't even know how to write a review of this book. Y'all just need to all go read it so we can sit around together with shattered hearts. 

This story takes place in a far too recognizable future 

America in which imprisoned people have been forced into televised gladiatorial combat to the death. 

It is so realistic that the author studs the text with agonizing footnotes showing the facts he based his book on- the statute on torture. Real accounts of murdered Black people. The statute on the use of tear gas. The statistics on transgender people in prison. 

All of the characters in this book are in depth to an endearing but painful level, but the characters who I came to love the most are definitely Thurwar and Staxxx- both black queer women. Thurwar, the strong but broken leader and Staxxx, who hides a soft heart beneath the tattooed X's marking every kill on her skin. Their romance is heartrending soft and healthy despite the circumstances and their tenderness with each other despite the harshness the world has shown to them broke my heart every chapter. 

I also want to mention a somewhat minor POV character, Emily, who we watch over the course of the book as her boyfriend's love of watching the matches breaks her down from a general distaste to a careless disregard for life coupled while simultaneously being upset when Links die-but not so much as to let it keep her from enjoying watching future matches or getting distracted with her boyfriend. 

In short- this should be a required read for everyone. It is a truly brilliant take down of the prison system, racism, and the police while humanizing the Black and Brown people that those systems teach us to fear.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

crusoe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.5

Chain-gang all-stars isn't a subtle commentary, but damn it, this is America and the train for subtlety passed ages ago. It is nuanced enough and although it takes a strong stance against incarceration, it doesn't shy away from the hurt that comes with that viewpoint. 

Focusing on so many characters at once, unfortunately, does fragment the story significantly even if it's necessary to show all sides of the debate. The issue is that not all parts are equally strong. 

The idea to put both real world statistics and character background information in the footnotes of the story was a brilliant find and more stories should include experimental aspects in their format like this that can enhance the story. Not only does it ground the fictional story in reality but because the format for fictional characters is the same as the factual information, your brain associates the fictional characters and their stories with reality. It raises the stakes and makes the story more real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment

fleur____'s review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

jargo521's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

This was a unique book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The footnotes with facts made it almost feel like “mixed media” and added to the reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs

richy_qu33r_readzz's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

A brutal read. Emotional damage guaranteed so practice self-care. This book is the hunger games, but closer to our current reality, in the prison system. This book is about pain, death, and the spectacle of it in traumaporn. It’s about slavery and the injustice system, about media consumption and brand sponsorship. It’s about how we’re all complicit in a system of death.  And yet it’s just different enough that we can view it as fiction, as a what to avoid. But much like 1984, it could also be used by the corrupted powers that be as a how-to. Chilling shit. A unique writing style with many points of view and a creative take on grammar. Some passages have to be read aloud to understand them if you’re not familiar with the vernacular of those characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Classism

aharper's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail