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A review by couldbestephen
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
5.0
It only took a few chapters for me to know that A) I was going to be rating this book 5 stars, and B) this book will be stuck in my head for a while.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a dystopian American future where imprisoned people (disproportionally made up of BIPOC people) are given an opportunity to participate in in gladiator death matches with other prisoners. We follow several Links (a group of fighters from the same prison are called a Chain, individual fighters are called Links), protesters, and "regular people" as Season 32 of Chain-Gang ends and Season 33 begins.
There was so much I enjoyed about this book. The author bounces between different characters from chapter to chapter, switching from 1st person to 3rd, and only two characters blurred together for me. Everyone was real and had strong personal motivation. The action scenes were tight and kept you on the edge of my seat. One of the final fights (not the Final Fight, but the one right before) straight up had my heart in my throat, I almost threw my book across the room because of how nervous I was. The book is filled with little annotations that talk about real life prison statistics and help ground the book even more, help cement the tragedy of it all.
The only issue I had boiled down to a personal one; I did get two characters mixed up a few times. Singer and Jungle (The Unkillable) at times felt like a "similar" person. It wasn't until theyended up on the same chain that I was reminded, Oh yeah, those are two different characters. Just needed to pay closer attention to their chapters (they were written in two different perspectives! One was 1st person and the other was 3rd I think! I just goofed!)
All in all, this book was fast read that captivated me from the first chapter. It's one I would 100% recommend to everyone. It's incredible. It will stick with you. Read it.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a dystopian American future where imprisoned people (disproportionally made up of BIPOC people) are given an opportunity to participate in in gladiator death matches with other prisoners. We follow several Links (a group of fighters from the same prison are called a Chain, individual fighters are called Links), protesters, and "regular people" as Season 32 of Chain-Gang ends and Season 33 begins.
There was so much I enjoyed about this book. The author bounces between different characters from chapter to chapter, switching from 1st person to 3rd, and only two characters blurred together for me. Everyone was real and had strong personal motivation. The action scenes were tight and kept you on the edge of my seat. One of the final fights (not the Final Fight, but the one right before) straight up had my heart in my throat, I almost threw my book across the room because of how nervous I was. The book is filled with little annotations that talk about real life prison statistics and help ground the book even more, help cement the tragedy of it all.
The only issue I had boiled down to a personal one; I did get two characters mixed up a few times. Singer and Jungle (The Unkillable) at times felt like a "similar" person. It wasn't until they
All in all, this book was fast read that captivated me from the first chapter. It's one I would 100% recommend to everyone. It's incredible. It will stick with you. Read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Violence
Moderate: Biphobia and Homophobia