Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

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

21 reviews

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

bookflix's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

rcbarnes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

Heartbreakingly uncanny.  Sublimly humanizing.  Disturbingly plausible.  Beautiful throughout.

Should probably be required reading before voting in US elections.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

ribbenkast's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

theliterarymess's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

ncm5228's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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

This book was something I couldn’t look away from. It was powerful, and vital, and heartbreaking, and beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Medical trauma

Self harm is not a common topic in this book, but if it is triggering to you please be careful while reading “The Art of Influence” in Part 2

rnfortier's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

Am intense read but one that so so important.
This book is grounded in the realities of our criminal justice system, so much so that it presents a future that seems not that far off given the rate of incarceration (particularly BIPOC) in the US.
Thoughtfully presented and so well researched, but the author humanizes his characters in such a tragic way you can’t help but love them as the wade through a murder forward “justice” system.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

rainbopagn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.75

This is a book that will make you rethink everything you feel and know about the American justice system. This should be required reading. The way you go back and forth between perspectives and the way they come together in the final pages... its beautiful storytelling. It is also vicious and violent, much like the real life justice system. The way the author pulls in real people and real statistics is an homage to those who have been unfairly and unjustly treated.  


SPOILERS in
3

2

1

I am more than a little pissed that Thurwar killed Staxxx. I had expected them to go out together, mortally wounding each other. I understand the meaning of the full circle moment but it still annoyed me.     

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Medical content, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Medical trauma

liketherobot5's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

embel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis