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!

In a dystopian near future, convicted murderers are pitted against each other in death matches that have become a very popular national sport.

A book that is thematically and artistically right up my alley (now considering the idea that I have an “alley”). Adjei-Brenyah makes a couple strong, significant choices. For one, the novel is written like a TV show with a wide cast of characters covering every element of the reality TV show that is the basis of the story, a gladiatorial combat game between incarcerated people, adored by the masses of America. Secondly, he chooses to inject sociopolitical (or probably better, humanitarian) commentary throughout the book, in footnotes, and in characters who are protesting the existence of the TV show itself. This is to set the novel up as an abolitionist text… but I wonder if saying the quiet part out loud, in fiction, reduces the power of said fiction. I also think I would have enjoyed a more focused narrative, centered on one or two of the fighters, more. With the book carrying so much plot and so many characters and the subtext being eliminated, my reading experience wasn’t as deep or compelling as I’d hoped it would be. But I’m also a person who didn’t need a fight to the death game show to understand that the prison industrial complex in America is fucked. A case of preaching to the converted.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and Pantheon for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

If you are to read one book this year, make it this one. I'm writing this review the day after finishing the book because I still don't feel that I have adequate words to talk about it. Chain Gang All Stars is equal parts heartbreaking, horrifying, gripping, exhilarating, and reflective. The best way I can describe it is taken from the book where a character describes how sickening it is when a car crashes and yet we can't look away. There are horrors described in this book that made me feel sick to my stomach, even more so because I know equal horrors happen every single day in prisons located throughout our country. There is also so much beauty, joy, and humanity found in so many of the characters, especially through the relationship between Loretta Thurwar and Hurricane Staxxx. The duality of this is representative of real life and how at the end of the day, prisoners are people, and people, no matter their background, should not be treated in such horrid ways. We need to do better, and I think this book is going to spark a lot of discussion and though-provoking reflections. The way the story is told throughout so many different perspectives is beautiful, as the reader is able to see so many sides of what is occurring. The writing is electric and magnetic, and I especially appreciated the inclusion of footnotes throughout the text to provide real facts about our current prison system/history as well as background to characters mentioned throughout the text. Chain Gang All Stars is a book that will stay with me and is necessary reading in today's day and age. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a brilliant author, and I look forward to seeing what he does in the future, as well as checking out his short story collection.

“This was competition. All other sport was just a metaphor for this. This was the real thing. There was nothing better”

Thanks to NetGalley for granting my wish on this one - I was overjoyed to get my hands on this and it didn’t let me down.
Chain Gang All Stars was an astonishing read, one that lingers in the mind long after reading. Combining Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah's horrifying vision for the near future with very real societal problems facing America today, it’s pitch-dark satire that is equal parts chilling and hilarious.

The story centres on Loretta Thurwar, a champion in the bloody Hard Action Sports world. Chain-Gang All-Stars - the game in which she participates, “the most visceral viewing experience ever conceived” - is basically televised, hyper-marketed gladiator fights. Convicts fight to the death in the hopes of becoming “High Freed” - a feat which Thurwar has come closer to than anyone in the games’ history.

Thurwar is in a relationship with fellow competitor, Hamara “Hurricane” Staxxx, who is another high-ranking star of the games. The two women are very different - Staxxx is showy and leads with love in her fights; Thurwar is stoic, but works behind the scenes to give some dignity back to the contestants in this bloody fight to the death. Thurwar and Staxxx’ relationship is the novel’s through-line but it goes far beyond the twosome, encompassing characters who are affected by the games in different ways, including competitors, viewers, and those who protest against them.

Shifting time periods and places give the reader a 360 view of the impact of the games on daily life and gives the novel a short-story quality that worked so well for me. It really is an astoundingly clever story - funny, brutal and pitch-dark. It also posits a slippery slope which American society could easily fall down - unlike The Hunger Games, which this has been favourably compared to, I could absolutely see Chain-Gang All-Stars coming to a screen near us someday.

The novel is a powerful indictment of the prison-industrial complex and makes an overt call for abolition. This argument is a persuasive one, especially combined with the footnotes that illustrate the very real laws and cases that the Chain-Gang All-Stars could hypothetically, grow from.

NKAB is one of my favourite writers working today - imaginative, super smart and on a different wavelength to any other writer I’ve read. This wildly ambitious novel is proof of that - it expands on the nightmarish vision of a hyper-capitalistic, racist society first presented in his short story collection Friday Black. He digs the knife even deeper - somehow! - in this one and the result is what a recent Washington Post review called “a dystopian vision so upsetting and illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of doing.” It shines a light on the reprehensible American prison system and refuses to let you look away. Utterly savage, chilling and brilliant.

Set in a future in which the prison industrial complex has developed unspeakable weapons of torture and an abhorrent revenue stream packaged as an extreme sport, Chain-Gang All-Stars tells the story of a culture and system driven by racist, classist blood lust under the banner of justice.

Prisons have teams of fighters, "links," who have "volunteered" to join the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) program and fight to the death in matches with other links from other prisons. You either die ("low freed") or survive long enough to be released ("high freed"). "Volunteered" because these future prisons have become even more inhumane as technological advances contrive more effective tools for pain and control. Adjei-Brenyah magnifies the injustices of an ethically corrupt system to speculative proportions in order to show the reality of the existing system. Footnotes throughout remind readers that this future is not so different than the present (while reading this, Massachusetts lawmakers proposed decreasing prisoner sentences in exchange for their internal organs).

Both the story and the telling are brutal, bleak, and punishing, but there is an undercurrent of love and hope carried by Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker. Thurwar killed a former lover in a fit of rage; Staxxx killed her attempted rapist. They are the best fighters in the CAPE program, they are fan favorites, and they're in love. As Thurwar's last match approaches, she struggles with what it means to be free after all the people she has killed on the circuit and how to help her teammates resist the dehumanizing efforts of the program. The ending is as harrowing as the rest of the book and I'll be thinking of Staxxx's message for a long time.

If you enjoyed Friday Black, you'll probably enjoy seeing the author continue his dark, weird investigations into the hideous spectacles of racism, capitalism, and the commodification of bodies.

The plot, the characters, the violence, they all make this a tough book. It gives you the chills, it's so brutal and you don't want to believe that the human race could end up living in a society like that. Yet, we are almost there. It was sobering to read the footnotes with the statistics of reality.

This is not a slow book, but you need time to digest what's going on, and there are lots of characters to remember. I was hoping for a different outcome, but we all deserve what we get at the end.

You don't read books like this every week.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon Books for an Advance Review Copy.

I have a couple of nitpicks - some of the POVs aren't as interesting as others, some of the sections are so short it leaves the story feeling a little disjointed which makes it hard to get into a flow. And I have mixed feelings about all the real-life footnotes. The information is important and brings home the idea that our awful for-profit prison system probably isn't as far removed from this world as we might like to think, but they also pulled me out of the fictional world at times. But sometimes you just have to give it up for a book that takes a big ol' swing and mostly connects. I was thinking about it even when I wasn't reading it, and I'll continue to think about it after. It's a brutal read at times, but I'd especially recommend this to anyone interested in prison reform/abolition.

This book has been on so many "must-read" lists and I now know why. This book, like the characters within, is a powerhouse. I won't repeat the plot, but I will share my thoughts.
You may see this labeled as "dystopian", but is it? A dystopia is defined as. "relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice". Guess what? it's not all plagues and EMPs. BIPOC have been living in a dystopia for quite some time. Is it really such a jump to imagine private prisons making money by using prisoners for blood-sport entertainment?
This book contains a lot of violence, but don't let that stop you. There are statistics scattered throughout the story that are far more disturbing than fictional violence.
#NetGalley

The best book i've read in some time. Amazing characters, succinct interconnecting stories, the whole shabang. Highly reccomend!

I loved Friday Black so much and was both excited for this novel and nervous it wouldn’t live up to the author’s short story collection. Well there was nothing to be nervous about this is one of the best if not the best novel I have read so far this year.