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A review by colleentie
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
2.5
Unfortunately this is stuck between a non-fiction treatise on the incredible evils of mass incarceration and a story. There is nothing wrong with the passionate politics here, but it’s in sacrifice to telling a story and developing 3D characters. The people and the world feel flat and as props, and it was hard to feel any of the emotional punches were earned. Especially in comparison to the very real and very horrifying facts added throughout.
I’m also not sure about the positioning of the books politics in trying to implicate the reader as just as bad as the audiences of the death matches. While I get the point, I wasn’t really sure it was achieved, especially since the matches weren’t entertaining, they felt very horrifying. It’s hard to critique using black death and violence as entertainment when the author is doing exactly that to sell books. It’s a fine line to work and I’m not sure it was achieved here.
Maybe if someone has truly zero knowledge of mass incarceration in america this could feel different, but I think a non-fiction book would have worked much better.
I’m also not sure about the positioning of the books politics in trying to implicate the reader as just as bad as the audiences of the death matches. While I get the point, I wasn’t really sure it was achieved, especially since the matches weren’t entertaining, they felt very horrifying. It’s hard to critique using black death and violence as entertainment when the author is doing exactly that to sell books. It’s a fine line to work and I’m not sure it was achieved here.
Maybe if someone has truly zero knowledge of mass incarceration in america this could feel different, but I think a non-fiction book would have worked much better.