- How does one even begin to review a book like CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS? I knew Adjei-Brenyah's debut novel would be something to behold, and even then all my expectations were blown away.
- This is a sci-fi novel, but it's also an abolitionist text. The way something awful will happen to a character and then there's a footnote with the U.S. law that makes the action legal...whew.
- Adjei-Brenyah makes the reader stay in uncomfortable places, both of physical brutality and of mental work. The lines we like to draw between "good" and "bad" people are smashed here, with the aim to bring the whole system down.

"I thought of how the world can be anything, and how sad it is that it’s this.” ⁃ Hendrix Young
Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah takes us to a near future world far too familiar to be called an alternate reality. The rise of hard action sports pits death row inmates against one another in modern gladiator matches to the death. Chain Gang All Stars becomes a multibillion dollar industry that sacrifices humanity for entertainment, broadcasting these brutal matches around the world. The real life issue at the heart of this novel is that we keep millions of humans in cages. Chain Gang All Stars explores a few of the reasons behind this practice and exposes every possible explanation as an excuse to justify either profit or fear as the true root cause.

Loretta Thurwar wins her very first match when the gladiator (melancholia bishop) gives up on the brink of freedom. From then on she carries a hammer called Hass Omaha and fights along side the Ahamm chain gang. Her partner and love interest Hamara Stacker hurricane Staxx carries a scythe named LoveGuile. They fight side by side until a new rule for season 33 puts everything at risk.

Chain Gang All Stars is action packed and entertaining, but there are many profound themes at the core of this book. There is violence to a degree that the reader may feel the need to look away in some moments, but will invariably be drawn in, thus experiencing the same feelings that drive the fictional spectators of this blood sport.

In contrast to the violence, depravity, and greed that run throughout this book, love is also a central theme. Love, loyalty, passion, are depicted in various circumstances and points of view. Love is depicted as both an instrument of salvation and a tool for manipulation.

The insightful symbolism, deep themes, and passion on display Chain Gang All Stars are just a few of the reasons that readers will become immersed in this book. Talented and thoughtful writing make this a standout in the realm of contemporary literature.

This has the intensity and intelligence of his story collection, Friday Black. Stretched out over a full novel, it's a lot to take, but it's worth the experience.

Thanks to netgalley for the advance copy.

"EVERY DAY A DEVASTATION"

Welcome to a fictional world where convicted felons have a coveted shot at freedom.

"The spirit is something felt, not tamed. It flowed through her, made her buoyant, bright, alive, almost free."

All they have to do is fight other prisoners. To the death.

"They'd bonded after surviving their last death-match as a tag team. Few things brought people closer together than killing as a pair."

Yet, this is more than an action-packed, dystopian thriller. There is real, human drama going on. The characters, though not always portrayed sympathetically, are believable in their actions and emotions.

"She did not want to kill him, but she would as soon as she had the chance."

And, the author deftly uses footnotes to his horrific, fictitious battle scenes to relate real-world, cold-hard- facts that are equally horrifying.


Are you not entertained?

I gotta admit - I was.

I think this is a must-read, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. The premise is brilliant, but I'm not sure about the execution of it. I can't wait until the book comes out, however, because I think this will be a great book club book and I want to talk to everyone about it!

This is dystopia at its best. Compelling characters in a horrendous setting, not too far from reality. I would have liked a more defined villain, faceless white men on a "board" of some kind are frightening but in a very nonspecific way. I also had trouble reading this on kindle, foot notes and narrator changing made it glitchy at best. Still a great read.

An angry and brutal speculative novel that powerfully extrapolates the inhumanity of current and past practices of the penal system, particularly as it affects people of color and poor whites.

Prisoners who are facing the death sentence or are serving life sentences are given a “choice” to win their freedom through signing up for the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) program where they fight each other to the death. There is no recognition (by the characters) of the irony of state coerced and sanctioned killing with the promise of freedom if the prisoners successfully commit more murders.

There are multiple points of view from within and outside the penal system to give the reader a 360 degree perspective on this world. Within CAPE, the most significant ones are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Stacker aka Hurricane Staxxx - two of the most experienced Links in the Angola-Hammond Chain of fighters. These women have survived years of fighting and have developed a carapace against everyone except each other. Through them, we see the combat in all its deadly and bloody detail.

Through two spectators we see the “entertainment” side of the Chain Gangs: both the gladiatorial “battlegrounds” for this euphemistically called “hard action-sport” and the soap opera live stream called LinkLyfe where the backstories and journeys, both literal and metaphorical, of the participants are built. Like an adult version of the Hunger Games, this is a show with storylines and where viewers have favorites and villains, despite it being about people killing each other for no reason other than they are forced to or have been tortured into a state of mental instability.

The authorial voice shows up in footnotes giving statistics and stories about present day incarceration. The facts alone are shocking and are presented in a matter of fact conversational tone that belies the horror behind them. It also comes, maybe a little didactically, through Mari, a protestor against the CAPE system. She’s a mouthpiece for the prison abolition movement and though her ideas are articulately presented, they don’t quite gel into the novel.

The Links only have two ways of being released from the circuit: High Freedom, meaning they have fought for three years and earned their way out of the system, and Low Freedom, meaning they are killed. Since CAPE began, only one Link has achieved High Freedom and there is much suspicion that he’s a stooge. As others have approached High Freedom, the reality of what that means to them has led to challenging decisions. But as Loretta nears the end of her three years, the Gamesmasters throw in a new twist that puts her in an impossible position.

The author does a masterly job of showing how close we really are to the inhumanity of Chain Gangs within our current system and how, with just a small nudge, states can use circuses to distract citizens from this reality.

Thanks to Pantheon and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Come for the scathing indictment of the USA's For Profit prison system, stay for the unforgettable characters.

In this future USA people serving 25 year sentences have the option of signing up with CAPE, Criminal Action Penal Entertainment. Participants fight each other in death matches for the entertainment the rest of the country. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are both Links in the same prison Chain, they are also lovers and very popular on the "circuit". As Thurwar nears her hard earned freedom, the rules of the game change.

The story mostly follows Thurwar and Staxxx who have been in the program for multiple years and are experienced leaders. Thurwar is able to mold her chain into a relatively peaceful group. Other chapters focus on two new recruits to the program as well as supporters and opponents on the outside.

The author does an excellent job balancing graphic violence with tender moments. While most of the Links have committed terrible crimes, they do not deserve to have their humanity stripped from them in this manner.

My favorite part of of the book were the footnotes that provide information and statistics about the current justice system. It takes you out of the story to remind you what the book is really about.

This book is brilliant and deserves all of the accolades it recieves. It's a searing indictment of the prison system in the United States that is both thorough and complex without any filler. Every chapter, paragraph, and sentence serves an important purpose to the overall story, answering every question and leaving no stone unturned. We see how the system affects the inamtes, but we also see through the eyes of the fans, activists, event moderators, the media, the corporations who financially support or benefit from the battles, and more. The author also includes footnotes with real world examples of the fictionalized experiences in the story, lest we forget that nearly everything in this book is rooted in reality. It's a lot to take in at time -- frankly, some of it is incredibly disturbing -- but that's what makes it so powerful. The US prison system is massive and, somehow, Adjei-Brenyah was able to convey the scope and breadth of the issue in less than 400 pages, while also injecting heart, emotion, and laughter throughout. It's incredibly well done!

I highly recommend reading this, encouraging others to read it, and finding someone to discuss it with -- there's a lot to unpack. I'll definitely read this book again in the future.

Huge thank you to Pantheon for the ARC!

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS is one of my absolute favorite books of 2023, and I want everyone to read it.

This imaginative, propulsive, and compelling book considers a United States in which incarcerated people battle to the death in a highly popular yet controversial program meant to raise funds for the carceral system*. CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS follows a variety of characters whose lives intersect with this “hard-action sport”: incarcerated people who sign up for the program (raising the question of how voluntary any of this is), people who have been fighting deathmatches for years, the mostly white men in suits who preside over the “games,” the spectators, and the children of the incarcerated.

I loved the way that this book examines, through an abolitionist lens, the ways in which the prison industrial complex (PIC) is inextricably tied to capitalism; how it is neo-slavery that furthers white supremacist ideologies and agendas; and how it continues to perpetuate harm under the guise of exacting “justice.” It considers the theater and spectacle of human suffering, particularly the suffering of Black folk. It asks whether retributive justice can be considered justice at all; whether anyone can be redeemed; and whether we can begin to imagine something better for ourselves.

The other thing I loved about this book is how it is rooted in real-life places, like Angola (Louisiana State Penitentiary), Sing Sing, and other institutions that are notorious for the ways that they have isolated, tortured, and even killed incarcerated people, who are often Black and other people of color. I similarly appreciated the work that the footnotes are doing here, highlighting real-world harms that the PIC exacts against communities and individuals. Adjei-Brenyah, in doing so, reminds us that while CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS is a dystopian novel, we are living dystopia *now*—but we can still change.

Anyway, everyone should read this book. It’s deeply stirring, it’s enraging, and it’s convicting.

Thank you SO much to Pantheon Books letting me read an electronic copy in advance!!!

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a scythe to the carotid artery, a siren song that lures us to watch as prisoners – fellow humans – fight to the death while our own souls rot away. This book is an anthem to love; this book is an allegory of hate. This book is for the titans who refuse to be bound to checkered pasts, who demonstrate true bravery in the face of impossible circumstances.

This book is a spear through the conscience of America; if it doesn’t draw blood, your heart isn’t beating. This book is a history lesson, a newsflash. This book is a takedown of mass incarceration, the privatization of the prison industry, the death penalty, the systemic racism of the legal system, and the dehumanization of people convicted of crimes.

This book is a shock to the system, reminding us of the immensity of pain that humans are willing to inflict upon other humans, the straight-faced justifications, the self-serving lies. This book is a bottomless well of love, reminding us that the human capacity for evil is matched only by the human capacity for good. Drink. Be replenished.

This book is a sword slicing through our complacency; this book is a scalpel removing the scales from our eyes: Open. See. Witness. Proclaim! Yes, proclaim it from the rooftops: This is America. This is who we are. Do not deny it. Do not hide it behind the impenetrable walls of “correctional facilities.” Lay it bare. Force us to see it and still say, “Yes, we are okay with this.” And if we’re not okay with it…

This book is a sledgehammer to the forces that seem inexorable: capitalism, sexism, white supremacy, classism – forces that are no match to the power of the people. This book is a megaphone shouting, “Rise up! Resist!” This book will leave you with concussions, bruises, abrasions, and hemorrhages, but it will also leave you with a whisper in your heart: Is this how the world must be? Can we imagine a better path?

This book is a beginning, a lightning strike, an invitation. We get to write what comes next.

Chain-Gang All-Stars was a truly phenomenal read. Adjei-Brenyah sets his debut novel in a near-future in which the U.S. government has offered prisoners serving over twenty-five year sentences the terrifying opportunity to earn their freedom by joining a televised reality show where they will fight each other to the the death, gladiator-style.

As a reader, I was engrossed and gutted by the thrilling, brutal, edge-of-your-seat battles. I was fascinated and disturbed by the way hypercapitalist interests shaped the lives of the convict-contestants and overrode common decency. And I became completely captivated by the cast of contestants who Adjei-Brenyah depicts as flawed and incredibly human. To say I was rooting for Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker, two African American 'queen' gladiators and their sapphic romance would be an understatement!

Adjei-Brenyah’s writing strikingly combines the poetic and the catchy. Moreover, he wields footnotes in the most creative and powerful way to tie fact and fiction together. Ultimately, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a startlingly effective satire— this emotional, action-packed novel fully entertains the reader as it delivers a damning indictment of the U.S. prison industrial complex. By the end of the book I realized that, through my fixation with the lives of the contestants, I, too, had become complicit.

I can’t recommend Chain-Gang All-Stars enough! This would be great paired with Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13th” if you haven’t seen it yet.

I would love to see a conversation between Adjei-Brenyah and Bryan Stevenson on social justice. Pantheon can you make that happen please?

A heartfelt thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, and Netgalley for the advanced readers copy!

Review // CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS
I have eagerly been waiting for the first novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and, wow, it did not disappoint! It’s a tale of sound and fury, action, heartbreak, two kick-ass female fighters, mortal combat and a searing critique of the American justice system. As readers we are seduced by the gladiator-style games and the superbly controlled cinematic writing. The novel is filled with breathtaking action sequences where we catch ourselves becoming complicit spectators rather than critical readers. But Adjei-Brenyah never lets us forget the real harm of American mass incarceration, private prisons, ICE and other LEAs, a deeply flawed and politicized court system and the barbarity of the death penalty. The satire is razor sharp and goes to dark places: for,example, the commercial brandning of the combatants by companies like “Whole Market” and “Horizon Wireless” is also literal branding. After all, there is a reason the abolitionist protestors outside the games are calling it “neo-slavery.” The setting is a bloodthirsty United States where the audience is constantly screaming for harsher punishments, new forms of surveillance, less compassion, more death. How far in the future is this dystopia? Not very far, I suspect. This brilliant novel entertains and educates with battles and footnotes. It’s American blood sport at its worst, but this is not a story devoid of friendship, love, resistance or hope. It’s an activist novel that might actually bring some change into the world, A worthy follow up to his brilliant short story collection Black Friday and another literary success for one of the most talented young American writers right now.

Many thanks to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for providing an e-galley in exchange for my honest review.

Chain Gang All Stars is hard to put down. It's a story about a world not that far from ours where prisoners facing life in prison/execution are able to battle each other for a chance at freedom. These battles are, of course, televised and generate lots of money... for everyone but the prisoners.

For me, this book was a mixed bag. I appreciated what Adjei-Brenyah was trying to do and liked many elements of the story, including the characterization of the two main characters. Adjei-Brenyah writes with urgency and a willingness to experiment that makes this book a page-turner (the high stakes help with that, too). On the other hand, the pacing is uneven. There's a lot to keep track of: a large cast of characters, multiple timelines, acronyms, TV programs, and rules. We switch back and forth and learn new information and rules until late into the story, and all of this extra stuff creates some distance from the characters. I frequently found myself wishing we could spend more time with the characters, particularly Staxxx (I was fascinated by her ability to meld being a brand for public consumption and being a person and would've loved to spend more time on that and less time on plot/extra worldbuilding).

Finally, much has been made of this book as a commentary on the prison system in the US; I think it's more effective as a commentary on the cruelty of the death penalty. As a commentary on the prison system in the US, I don't really see what's gained from heightening things -- some of the real-life footnotes throughout the book seem urgent enough without the gladiator element. But as a commentary on humanity, the worth of lives that society tends to write off, reality TV, sports, American culture, and glamorization of violence? It's hard to read this book without reflecting on reality.

In the near future, convicted felons are offered the chance to become gladiators and fight in televised death matches for a chance at freedom if they make it through enough rounds alive. This hard-hitting Black Mirror/Hunger Games/Survivor/New Jim Crow concept novel feels terrifyingly plausible and really takes aim at the entertainment commodification of Black bodies and the prison-industrial complex. It reads more as a novel of ideas rather than getting very deeply into any one character, with short chapters and a multitude of points of view, but at times I found myself getting sucked into the reality-show drama of it in a disturbingly complicit way. Strong stuff. The romance between the two Black female leads was refreshingly matter-of-fact, as was the inclusion of a nonbinary side character. Mainly, though, you'll want to read it for the worldbuilding. Presents abolitionist arguments and also acknowledges that there's no easy solution. Contains a lot of violent death and torture, be warned, but it isn't ever dwelt on in the kind of loving detail that I imagine the in-world viewers salivated over. Recommended.

▪️REVIEW▪️

Chain Gang All-Stars ~ Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

▪️QUICK TAKE:
* Genre: dystopian fiction
* Pages: 384
* Pub Date: May 2, 2023
* Gist: Hunger Games and The Handmaid’s Tale meets the private prison system

The Chain Gang All-Stars are the highlight of CAPE - Criminal Action Penal Entertainment. A gladiator-type reality show that pits convicts against one another in death matches also offers the gift of freedom if you can survive long enough. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain Gang All-Stars and they’re also lovers - and in just a few matches, Thurwar will be free. But CAPE has other ideas as they plan a change in the rules that will have devastating consequences for both Thurwar and Staxxx.

@jordys.book.club claimed this one in early January as his most-anticipated 2023 read so I looked into it immediately. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous to tackle this one. For one, dystopian fiction is not a typical genre I gravitate towards and also the content seemed heavy and uncomfortable. As I slowly dived in, I realized that my nerves and discomfort were the point.

For me, CGAS required time and attention - more than I have dedicated to a read, maybe ever. I found that after three or four chapters, I needed a break - commentary on systematic racism, the American prison system, our society’s fascination with violence, and capitalism are ever present and it was a lot. Not because I took issue or disagreed but because I had to check myself and my own awareness and/or ignorance about the facts.

Adjei-Brenyah blends satire and the searing truth (make sure you read the footnotes) but you’ll be surprised to find that despite the violence, the story is an endearing and tender one - at its core are two people who know love and sacrifice. Not an easy read, but a necessary one. I struggled throughout but collectively feel lucky to have experienced what I think is going to be a relevant and talked about novel for years to come.

Adeji-Brenyah does an amazing job at attacking the prison system and race relations in this fictional story that feels all too real at times. I did enjoy the book but the criminal as entertainment trope seems pretty over done to me at times and I found myself comparing this book to many others in this "sub-genre". Also the pacing of the book was rather slow. I had a hard time getting through it at times, especially with all the endnotes breaking up the flow.

This dystopian book where prisoners are able to join a national circuit where they fight-to-the-death in hopes of surviving the circuit for three years and being released from prison is a sharp and necessary commentary on the prison system in the United States. I loved the concept of the book but it got too long and too much for me. I would have preferred it as one of Adjei-Brenyah's short stories much better. There is lots of discuss in this book and would be very worthy of a book club read.

For a while I thought this was going to be a solid five stars because the opening was so strong-- bloody, nasty and compelling. In fact, parts of this book were awesome. The social commentary and criticism of the prison system were excellent and hard-hitting (though arguably the real world criticism got a little lost in this dystopian narrative). The fight scenes were horrific but impossible to look away from.

I think the book's main weakness was the choice to flit around between so many characters. Thurwar and Staxxx were interesting to me; not all the others were. It is not surprising to hear that Adjei-Brenyah is primarily a short story writer, as some of the chapters seemed like short stories themselves and often took me out of the flow of the main storyline.

I also wanted something more from the ending, though I agree a book like this is a tough one to wrap up

4.5 stars rounded up purely because the premise is so brilliant but sadly realistic.

I'm struggling to articulate all my thoughts and feelings on this book because it's so complex. It takes place in a near-future America where prisoners are given the option to fight to the death in a stadium on a chain gang in exchange for release after three years, but only if they survive. For those who are in solitary confinement, have been tortured, or have become suicidal, this is a horrible but attractive deal. Of course, these are prisoners, so their ability to consent is questionable, but the prison-industrial complex doesn't care about that. One prisoner makes a comparison to football, which is an unpopular statement that I 100% agree with- I have a lot of issues with how we treat Black bodies as entertainment, despite the danger of injury, and Adjei-Brenyah just takes this one step further (and it doesn't feel like that far of a step).

I am very, very to the left politically, so for me, the concept of abolition isn't new, but I can always stand to learn more, and I appreciated the occasional footnotes pointing to historical events or references to authors/activists.

The only issues I had with this book were the wide cast of characters that jumped around a bit and sometimes made it hard to follow. Every character had a reason for being in the book, but it still meant I had to sometimes flip back to remember who someone was (especially the minor characters).

Overall, a provocative and important book that will hopefully force a lot of people to reconsider the system of incarceration in this country, one that has become an industry in itself, at the great expense of human beings. Adjei-Brenyah gets at the nuances of this in a very skillful way, so the complexity is all here. Highly recommend!