Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Chain-Gang All-Stars

This book is not subtle. It blends harrowing real live statistics about the (American) prison system, racism and general bigotry with extremely well done speculative fiction of where this might lead us in the future. It makes its point loud and it makes its point wel.

On top of this, the book is just so well written. The characters are lifelike and complicated, the plot fits tightly together, the prose is strong. Everything is just done right.

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theliterarymess's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. I likely never would’ve picked this up had Vintage not sent it to me, but omg it’s amazing. It’s dark and gritty dystopian. The Hunger Games but the contestants are criminals and it explores how the death penalty isn’t always a fair justice and how it’s often those from minority backgrounds who get the worst treatment in America’s prison system.

Chain-Gang combines dystopian world-building with real-world stories and data. I loved the switch between the narrative and footnotes, finding it worked smoothly even with the audiobook. I don’t think Adjei-Brenyah is trying to shove the message down anyone’s throat, he’s just telling it how it is.

The characters are so nuanced, you never really know if you’re really supposed to be ‘rooting’ for any one of them given their grey backgrounds and not all of them are reformed or repenting.

I removed a star from my rating only because I felt unsatisfied by the ending. I do wonder if this is purposely left ambiguous by the author but I would have liked a few more clues to the outcome of the events in the story and what would become of the characters.

It’s one of those books where I found the audiobook narration worked best to really give you a feel for the tone of the characters. I listened to the audiobook alongside reading where narrators Shayna Small, Michael Crouch, Lee Osorio, Aaron Goodson did a fantastic job.

It’s a dark and violent read, but a much needed one. I didn’t expect to like this at all but I truly recommend it to everyone.

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mnstucki's review against another edition

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dark sad tense 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

2.5

This book just wasn't for me. There is a lot of meat to it and I could see it being a great discussion book for a book club because of all of the interesting topics it touches on, but the violence was just too much for me personally.

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

"One thing I can promise you is there will always be pain."

"A knife is only ever so far from your neck."

I have never dreaded a last chapter more than this one.

Masterful. Powerful. Jaw-slackening.

My mouth is dry and I'm at a loss for words.

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crybabybea's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

squintyfarmer's review against another edition

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dark sad 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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mcicenia's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

One of my fav books I’ve read this past couple of years. features a sapphic couple with a poly character, as well as a minor trans/nb character. a really sharp witted satire with dark and insightful commentary on the prison industrial system.

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sundayfever's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This was the most challenging book I've read this year. Deep dark look at incarceration, systemic racism and classism. Tense and really gripped me. It's rare a book actually has me on the edge of my seat. Lots to reflect on regarding the value of human life and prison abolition.

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