Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick: National Book Award Finalist

This fast-paced, suspenseful novel is also a powerful indictment of the U.S. criminal justice system buit especially the violence that is foundational to incarceration in this country. Definitely one of the best novels I have read this year.

This is an ambitious, carnivalesque novel. You never see what's coming. The satire is a little broad while being laced with real information. I think it could have made it's points in a more concise manner but whatever.

Gladiatorial to-the-death combat is the natural development of for-profit prisons, isn't it? For-profit prison fights probably already exist, but in this novel they are reality TV where only a few hours of the combatants time is private. SF elements are the embedded restraints, remote controlled to keep the prisoners from harming their handlers, the drone camera/microphones that capture most of what they are doing, and the pain-inducing influencers, but the cruelty and callousness are quite here and now. This is a powerful book, powerfully written. I had to read it in segments, some quite short, because it never goes off message in it's instance that criminals are human and it is human to be criminal, and believing other people are different is a crime against the self and others.

Chain Gang All Stars was a riveting piece of speculative fiction. The action centers around a prison system that has become part reality television, where the prisoners can trade in their life sentences to fight like gladiators against one another. If they last three years alive, they get their freedom. In this world, the people look at the prisoners now like some kind of sports icons and the main characters Loretta Thurwar and Hurracane Staxxx are not only the best fighters, but also current lovers. The group: Thurwar, Staxxx, Randy Mac, Sai Eye Aye, Ice Ice the Elephant, Gunny Puddles, Bad Water, and Rico Muerte are all part of the Angola-Hammond Chain. They travel together across the country battling other prison groups. The author does an excellent job building to the climax of the plot while at the same time continuing to give us tidbits that indict our current prison system. Even our enjoyment of this novel is a further sign of how this reality could come into being. Highly recommend.

Lines:

She forced love into this loveless space, made it the subject of her life. She showed them that she, the Hurricane, was capable of great love, and that if they’d look they’d see they were too. And maybe someday they would understand what they’d enabled, what they’d created.

Some truly didn’t think about the fact that men and women were being murdered every day by the same government their children pledged allegiance to at school.

Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program

She hated what she was, but she loved what she could do.

Randy pulled in closer as if her skin held a richer oxygen, as if in her he found fresh air.

When humans saw other humans, they felt “bad” for whoever had gotten sliced up that week. When humans saw a criminal die, well, that was different.

This is a excellent story about a world that is an extrapolation, I think, of the prison industrial complex and our reality TV obsessed populous. Shades of the Hunger Games, Battle Royale, Running Man and the Roman Gladiators, hardened criminals have the option to sign onto the CAPE program where they are put into Chain Gangs (teams) where the members have to fight members of other Chains to the death. If they survive 3 years, then they will win their release. Loretta Thurwar is coming up to her final match. And the book is a series of vignettes about her story, her "teammates", the competition and the protestors who appose this barbaric event. Very gritty and brutal, but an excellent story.

Tremendous. A morality play in distopian sci fi that doesn’t preach. If the violence and mastery of combat goes too far towards the magical, then it’s balanced by the very human work of the activists who oppose the prison system.

Didactic and repetitive. You could skip over entire pages and not miss a thing.

Lacks character development

This book received a lot of positive reviews and was a finalist for the National Book Award. I read his first book of short stories "Friday Black" and it was very creative. This book is not a happy book but it deals with an important topic- our prison system and incarceration in America. The premise is that in a dystopian future prisons are being run by private companies. A program called CAPE has been established which allows prisoners sentenced to long prison terms and death to participate. They are part of a chain of links that fight other links in other chains to the death in gladiator style fights. These are televised and attended in stadiums and are presented as action sports. If the participants can win their matches through 3 years then they can get their freedom. The book presents all of this as acceptable to most of the country but also as something that is constantly being protested. The story centers around Thurwar and Staax ,two of the most successful participants who are links in the same chain. The author creates a lot of details about the prison system and how it all works but basically it creates a view of our society in a mostly negative conflicted way. There are footnotes throughout the book that cite real life incidents within the justice and penal systems in our country. The major theme is that our system of incarceration which is the largest in the world is not reducing crime or making this a safer country. It also is a commentary of a potential future that we may be heading towards. A lot of other themes such as racial injustice, corporate greed, and how people become immune to violence are part of the book. A worthwhile and important book.

Holy shit. This book is metal AF. It's also incredibly depressing. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I can all-too-easily imagine the US monetizing our prison system by turning it into some kind of Hunger Games bullshit. And I can understand why people facing long sentences would willingly sign up for a 3-year death tournament. There is definitely an attempt at some hope throughout the story, and maybe even moreso at the end, but I was feeling pretty bleak and depressed during and after reading.

While fiction, maybe this book could help some people who don't think our current prison system is exploitative, unjust, and largely unhelpful, to change their perspective. Maybe that's too hopeful of a thought on my part.

Regardless, if you're into dystopias, especially ones that feel achievable in your lifetime, I highly recommend this. Hell, even if that's not your genre, I think you should read this book.

A very creative novel about a hyper violent sports combat league whose participants have spent time in prison (thus chain gang). They are matched against other prison groups in gladiatorial type fights in which they might end up dead or wounded. Two women, Thurwar and Starxx are the central characters fighting on the same team.. They become very close and love each other but the cards are dealt against them culminating in a heart wrenching conclusion. My slight complaint is that there are too many characters.

I thought of how the world can be anything and how sad it is that it's this.

This is not the kind of book I pick up. From being set in an alternative version of the world to the violence of the deathmatches that form the backbone of the novel, I'm not the intended reader here. But Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah wrote one of the most brilliant and inventive short story collections that I have read, one that if you haven't read, you should go right now and read it. So what do you do when an author you think is uniquely talented writes a novel you don't like the look of? If you're me, you end up reading it anyway, pushed by its inclusion in the Tournament of Books.

In this version of the world, which is very close to what actually exists, prison inmates can opt into fighting a series of deathmatches and if they survive for three years, they will be freed. While our real prisons are often shockingly terrible places, in this world there's the addition of a taser-like weapon known as an influencer, which causes indescribable pain, and prison labor is even harsher and more deadly. Here, we are introduced to Staxxx and Thurwar, two women who have managed to survive on the circuit, Thurwar just weeks from being the first woman to win her freedom. As we accompany the two women through their season, we also dip into the lives of fans, activists protesting the "sport," and other contestants.

I found this book both hard to read and difficult to set aside. Adjei-Brenyah's writing isn't showy or beautiful, but it forces the reader into being interested, into caring for people who have done bad things, but who nonetheless do not deserve what is inflicted on them. This is an obvious indictment of our current prison industry, complete with footnotes directly relating the novel to real events and facts. While the story he's telling is shocking, it's also far too believable.

In the not-distant future, prison inmates are given the option to fight to the death, gladiator-style, for the slim chance of winning their freedom, while their lives and battles are broadcast to a bloodthirsty fan base.

This is a powerfully told story - dark, challenging, maddening - because it's so damn close to the reality of the American prison-for-profit system now, and the dehumanization of both convicts and of "action sports" athletes (blood sports, whether the NFL or MMA or UFC or even the legions of young men who think that Fight Club was an invitation into tests of manhood.

The story is multiple-POV, multiple-voice, and you hear from athletes, their family members, "corrections" officers, abolitionists, pain researchers, board members of the sports broadcast company, etc. And these stories interweave, in sometimes surprising ways.

The pace is fast, the characters are multidimensional.

The print and audio books are also littered with footnotes referencing the current American penal system, both prison and legal, and those footnotes support the narrative as well as the education of the reader.

I've been describing the book this way: Powerful speculative fiction, incredibly well told story, and pairs well with [author:Michelle Alexander|3051490]'s masterpiece [book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness|6792458], with a broader target audience because it's just a great story.. that will move and educate you.

EVERYBODY should read this, whether fans of fiction, nonfiction, storytelling, excellent audio narration, everybody.

I read it as an audiobook. It's very well voiced by multiple voice actors, with energy and character dripping throughout.

This is a very dark, humorless, and violent novel set in the near future. I read it because of all the positive reviews but ultimately was not convinced that they are well justified. There are some resonant themes related to racism, sexism, cruelty in penal systems, capital punishment, class, and corporate control in society. However, the extreme violence seems to overwhelm all of that. Initially, I was repulsed by the positive reactions to the extreme violence by the spectators until I considered the appeal of violent sports like American football, boxing, and MMA. Clearly, what is depicted here is a form of slavery with a sick binary choice: freedom or death.

So this book was a risk for this particular reader.  I never wanted to gravitate towards the Hunger Games -- admittedly, I know little about it in avoiding it, other than it looks like torture for children.  Somehow I didn't avoid this book the same way, but I thought even before reading it, I assumed there was more of a point to it.  Apologizes to the Hunger Games, but I think that there is.  The author could have easily slid into dramatic over-the-top-ness, because all of this here is ripe for that,  but I don't think it ever goes there.  The miserable world building is thorough.  Not to mention some lovely sentences from the minds of a handful of characters that are in tough-as-hell situations.  I liked that the characters were distinct, with their own voices.  Sometimes a writer goes polyphonic but most of the characters have the same style of thought.  That was not the case here.  I like that the focus was not on the crimes.    I also think that this could be "satire" on many things... maybe I'm grasping at straws or maybe there are plenty of things crap about the world that can be satire.  Overall, I think the book was a tad too long to get to the inevitable conclusion.  But with so many different voices, I would have liked a bit more from some of them.   I'm glad I read this, even through its misery.  But there is more there than just the misery.
*Book #145/340 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books

Set in a not-too-distant (and, distressingly, not-too-implausible-feeling) future, this novel depicts a revival of gladiatorial combat as a combination of blood sport and reality television, featuring convicted prisoners fighting to the death.

I'd previously read Adjei-Brenyah's short story collection, [Friday Black], and there's a piece in there that absolutely devastated me. Just one of the most painful, most pointed, most viscerally effective pieces of angry social commentary I've ever read. This novel is trying very hard to be much the same sort of thing, and by god the anger and the pain are absolutely here. But I think that's harder to keep up at novel-length, and the extent to which this succeeds as a novel, for me, was rather more variable. There are chapters and moments that absolutely nail the horror and injustice that Adjei-Brenyah wants us to feel, and others where he makes it nauseatingly clear how ordinary people might embrace such things. But then, there were also some contrived-seeming details and some unconvincing bits of characterization that pushed me out of things a little, made my connection with what the author was trying to show me and say to me feel like more of an intellectual exercise than a horrible reality. And the footnotes pointing out just how much of what happens in the novel is already horrible reality in US prison systems sometimes hit like a punch, but sometimes just left me sort of thinking, "yes, yes, okay, I get it already."

Basically, as a cri de coeur, as an expression of righteous, passionate, and well-aimed anger, as a plea for us as humans to do better by each other, I admire this a lot. As a work of art, I find it intermittently powerful, but also somewhat flawed.

Rating: Geez, how do you even rate something this? I'm going to call it a 3.5/5, but I don't think that tells you much of anything at all.

Rating: 4.95* of five

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION!

The Publisher Says: Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, or C.A.P.E., doesn't feel satirical. It feels nauseatingly predictive. This first novel, by the author of the excellent story collection Black Friday (my all-but five star review at the link), is a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in presented in less than a week's time.

The horrors of imprisonment aren't new. Neither is it news that African-Americans are disproportionately affected by those horrors. The horrible prevalence of carceral solutions to minor infractions started their rise with the ludicrous "War on Drugs" that was utterly ineffective at its stated goal, but gigantically successful at creating inmates for an increasingly corporatized and profit-driven prison system.

This novel's a shout of outrage, a howl of fury and grief, a klaxon of warning about this facet of the dehumanizing and victimizing of people of color by the racist system of "justice" in place in the US. It's equally effective as an anti-capitalist bellow of rage at the unchecked quest for profit above all other goals that is doing so much to actively destroy the planet's biosphere...that we all live in...with its greed.

We start our visit to a barely-fictionalized present-day US with a violent scene of battle brought to us by the CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment) program. Take a moment, please, to view this acronym. Look at the cultural tie-backs; the superhero comic-book culture polluting my screens for a decade now gets a brickbat right away, as does the Orwellian alphabet soup so prevalent in modern governmental bowls of gruel served to the needy (SNAP, WIC, AFDC and the like). This is Author Adjei-Brenyah's most well-honed talent: In Friday Black, he invented the slang term "shoelookers" for socially awkward teens unable or unwilling to meet their peers' or anyone else's gaze. This is a writer with an excellent ear serving a flensing-knife of an eye. Nothing in this read has any less sharp a perception or a usage case behind it. That is probably the most discomfiting thing about the novel: As I admired his wordsmithery, I realize the point of the red-hot blade he was forging was aimed squarely at me. Old white man, privileged and pampered by a system designed to coddle and comfort me. Well. That's me told.

So it is...and most of y'all, too. You won't necessarily like this part of your reading experience, if my own is any guide; I don't think it should, in your minds, present an excuse for you not to make the effort to read it. If the world has justice in its sharing-out of cultural kudos, this novel will win the National Book Award for Fiction in a few days' time. The reason I want it to is that it shouts the quiet part out loud in a cultural landscape of politely, passively sleepwalking into a new authoritarian era of unspeakable, horrifying intentions. The people trying to gain control of the world aren't troubling to hide their intentions, either, except to say blandly homogenized inoffensive acronymic things...or exactly what Author Adjei-Brenyah is warning us about so very effectively in Chain-Gang All-Stars.

If I'm honest, that is also a problem with the read. It is a warning. A story that, while I believe in its worldbuilding, is still meant to tell me something uncomfortable about my world. Historically, awards aren't always willing to put their celebratory wreaths on creative projects that poke people hard in their painful spots. I very much don't want that to be the case for Chain-Gang All-Stars, but it could easily lose the public lauding that the National Book Award for Fiction represents just based on what juries often refer to as "controversial ideas." I want all y'all to go get the book and engage with it on the intellectual level; the carrot to that perceived stick is a story that could easily be a superb action flick, unremittingly violent and all with genuinely elevated stakes...no one could ever fight for their literal life and have it be mellow. Reading the story on that level is exciting, as it is when you read the Reacher books that fly off the shelves. That's not my reading sweet spot. I look at it, frankly, as the cheese wrapped around the pill that you need to get down the dog's throat.

If I'm committed to that metaphor, I will say it's a bit like using Roquefort for the purpose. Rich, creamy, power-packed flavorsome stuff. Rare and expensive (in lost illusions). Hard to find the real, genuinely, ethically sourced stuff.

Here it is.

A near-future dystopian novel about the prison system being turned into reality death matches. Real life facts are mixed in with the fictional story of Thurwar and Staxx, stars of the games and lovers. The story, explores our fascination with violence, both punishing and rewarding it in different arenas. The multiple storylines were sometimes confusing and distracted from the main theme, but the overall impact was powerful & the message was clear.

How do you describe a story that you didn't like but was unable to put down? I can't say I "enjoyed" this one in the true sense of the term. Darker than I had anticipated, shockingly violent but extraordinarily creative and powerful, this novel is a memorable read!

So here goes...

“It was all death, slow or fast. Painful or sudden. Nothing more. The culture of Chain- Gang was death.”

Set in a dystopian alternate reality, part dystopian action drama, part social commentary Chain- Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah revolves around the commercially successful Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program or CAPE in which convicted murderers in the prison system who sign up are divided into Chain Gangs comprised of “links” who fight death matches with links from other chain gangs – bloodsport that is televised, played at “The Battleground” to packed houses with a mass fan following. As the gladiators compete with their weapons of choice, those victorious gradually rise through the ranks toward the ultimate win – freedom as per the laws and rules set in place.

The narrative follows two of the most popular gladiators - Loretta Thurwar who has been in the Circuit for over thirty-five months, earning the rank of Grand Colossal and is a few wins away from freedom; next in line in her chain is Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker, also Thurwar’s lover. We also meet several other links from different chains, each of whom has a story to tell and reasons for joining the CAPE program. In contrast to the immense popularity and mass fan following , we also meet activist groups protesting the inhumane practices and violence at every match being played. We also get a glimpse into the forces at play behind the matches and the entities that have their own interests to protect - lawmakers, producers, and advertisers - their convictions, motivations and the extent to which they would go to protect their interests.

“There is a space in time when violence tears through from imagined to physical—and if that physical is met with more physical, then the violence can become both the vehicle and driver for all that comes after, and what has escaped can be incredibly difficult to contain.”

The narrative follows these characters and threads in the days leading up to Thurwar’s final match. Will she be “Freed”?

Those of you who follow my reviews will know that I do not shy away from dark, gritty reads but Chain- Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah both shook me and shocked me with its depiction of human depravity and graphic violence. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is brilliant as is the concept. The bond between the links, and how they are impacted by one another’s victories and defeats (deaths) are described with much insight and sensitivity as is the mental and physical effort that goes into their individual processes –the choices they make, and how they deal with their conscience in the aftermath of the violence they both inflict and endure, reminding us that ultimately these "links" and "chain gangs" are human beings whose lives are being toyed with in the name of profit and entertainment. The commentary on capitalism and commercialism, racism, and unfair practices in the American prison system, is cleverly done often using satirical elements and the footnotes to explain the rules and laws of the alternate version of America to do the same. Atmospheric and intense, with sharp writing and superb characterizations , this is a novel that I could not stop reading despite the dark and bleak content.

Initially, I was alternating between reading and listening to the full-cast audio narration by Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch and Lee Osorio. While the narrators have done a brilliant job of bringing the characters and the story to life, I found the numerous subplots and characters difficult to follow on audio alone. It was also difficult to differentiate between the narrative and the footnotes. I would recommend keeping the book handy or simply pairing the audio with the book to fully engage with the story.

Needless to say, this is not an easy read. Please note that there are scenes of graphic violence that may be triggering for some.

“They were all humans, and yet they had completely different ideas about what humanity meant.”

Absolutely brutal. This is packed with commentary on the prison industrial system, racism, white supremacy, capitalist hellscapes, violence fetishes, and abolition. You think to yourself, forcing someone to combat to the death for sport for three years to gain freedom doesn't sound like a solid plan for keeping criminals off the streets.... In fact won't it make them more violent before they gain their freedom? Then you realize duh, that's what we do already. Restorative justice is the only way to rehabilitate criminals.
This is graphic, but the writing is best in the action. The middle is a bit muddy with all the extra characters bouncing around.

Audacious, explosive and heartfelt examination of how people are enslaved within the criminal justice system. In the near future, prisoners become to-the-death gladiators in the ultimate reality series. The main characters, murderers and rapists, are humanized. Definitely a book that would yield deep conversations.

[3.75] The author pens a compelling social commentary that indicts our criminal justice system, prison conditions and society’s appetite for violence. The frequent weaving in of factual nuggets via footnotes that showcase contemporary trends, statistics and milestone events contribute to the book’s relevancy. They remind us that the sensational twists in this fictional work aren’t exactly outlandish notions. However, they can take a toll on the narrative’s flow. There were a few too many characters for my liking. I had difficulty keeping track all of their backstories. Also, as I’ve suggested with many books, I’m convinced this chilling dystopian tale would have been more effective if a skilled editor had pruned a third of the pages. True, the brutal battlegrounds frame the book’s main themes, but some vignettes dragged on too long. Having said all that, the book advances an intriguing premise that prods us to more closely scrutinize our current penal system.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Before I begin, let me just say that you are wasting your time reading this post when you could be out buying or borrowing and reading this book.

If you've made the mistake of sticking around, I'll go ahead and talk about the book, I guess. But really, your priorities are wrong.

WHAT'S CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS ABOUT?
In the not-too-distant future, laws regarding the incarceration of serious felons have been adjusted, and the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment program is born. Under CAPE, convicted murderers (many with other convictions as well) can be set free before the end of their sentence if they agree to participate. Participation however, could result in their violent death.

Under CAPE, these felons will face off one-on-one (sometimes two-on-two) against other felons in a fight to the death. If you survive a bout, you score some points and progress to the next fight (in a week or so). As you gain victories, you can earn points to be used for weapons, better food, clothing, equipment, etc. After three years, you will be released.

These felons are organized in Chain Gangs associated with the participating prisons. Links (as the fighters are called) in the same Chain do not face off against each other, and become (to varying degrees depending on their chain) teams—encouraging each other, giving tips, etc.

This has become the largest sports entertainment in the U.S. Throngs show up for live events or to watch a stream. You can also subscribe to almost constant live feeds of the Links between fights. Some fighters become superstars, with corporate sponsors, merchandise, inspiring their own fashion trends, etc.

Over the course of the novel, we follow (primarily) one Link from her initial bout to the final weeks of her time. We get to know her Chain—a couple of Links in particular—as well as Links from other Chains, so we can see how people join, survive, and (usually) die through this entertainment. We also get to know some of the executives and sportscasters becoming rich from this, some fans and subscribers—as well as some of the protestors trying to stop the program.

THE LINKS
Most of the time we follow Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker. LT's on the verge of freedom, and Staxxx isn't far behind. They try (with some success) to get their Chain to act differently, to help each other in ways others don't. At the same time, they're dealing with the emotions of LT not being around for much longer (one way or another) and Staxxx moving into the leadership role. We get to know them and their team, what brought them to this point in their lives, and what might be around the corner.

But we don't just focus on those two—there are other Links, in other Chains, that we watch. Some as they make the transition from prisoner to Link, some in their early (and final) bouts. As horrible as the fights to the death are—and they are—it's the time with these other Links that really cements the horror of what is happening to and through all the Links. There's one man who spends a lot of time in solitary confinement and some of what he goes through made a bigger impact on me than the bloodiest death.

None of these links would claim to be a good person—well, there's one wrongly convicted man, but his innocence doesn't last long as a Link. They know they're criminals, killers, and most would say they don't deserve life or freedom. But none of them deserve this.

EVERYONE ELSE
As fantastic as the portions of the novel about the Links are, I think it's these characters and seeing how they relate to CAPE that is the genius of the novel. A society cannot spend so much money (and earn it, too) on something like this without it shaping it and the people in it. Think of how so much of the US economy, news, and entertainment in January/February is devoted to the Super Bowl. Now magnify that, make it year-long, and add some serious ethical and moral issues.

The corporate figures are easy enough to write off as villains. And Adjei-Brenyah does that really well—but he makes sure we see them as human villains. The kind of people it's easy to imagine existing given the right circumstances—these are not cartoons.

The protestors we see are complex as well—they're smart, passionate people, who are trying their best to put an end to this modern slavery. They make bold moves, some stupid ones, too. But they also have to wrestle with the ramifications of their positions. One in particular is the child of a Link—she doesn't have a relationship with him anymore, she doesn't want anything to do with him but doesn't want him killed in this way. But she doesn't want him roaming around outside of a prison, either. There's an honesty to the portrayal of these protestors that I find admirable—they may not have the answers about the right way to deal with serious criminals, but they do know what's wrong and are willing to take their stand.

The portrayal that's going to stay with me the longest is of a young woman who finds the matches distasteful—not necessarily morally repugnant, but not the kind of thing she wants to watch. But goes along with her boyfriend to placate him—he's a giant fanboy with strong opinions and facts to back them up. He's reciting them to her constantly, but she tries not to pay attention. She does start to get involved in the live streams about the out-of-combat lives of these Links—think Survivor meets Big Brother. She eventually becomes invested in some Links through those streams and that opens a can of worms.

THE ENDNOTES
The Endnotes are a particularly interesting feature of this book—so interesting I'll bite back my default complaint about choosing to use endnotes when footnotes exist.

In this novel, the notes are a fascinating combination. The first type are notes about the characters and events in the novel—a little more background, or other detail that doesn't fit in the text proper. I don't remember seeing this kind of footnote in a book as serious as this one, but Adjei-Brenyah pulled it off well.

The second type of endnote material cites laws (real and fictional), studies, and actual history surrounding the contemporary American penal system. In addition to being valuable information for the reader to have in general—or when it comes to talking about this book—this is a clever device for Adjei-Brenyah to keep it fresh in the reader's mind that while this is a novel, it's a novel well-grounded in things that matter—things he wants the reader to care about and hopefully take action in response to knowing this material.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS?
This is going to be one of the best books I've read in 2023. It's well-written, the characters are fantastically drawn and depicted, the pacing is perfect—the story doesn't stop moving, and the perspective jumps just draw you in closer. The moral and ethical questions are real, but not all of the answers are. I don't know how you walk away from this book unmoved and unprovoked to think and perhaps act. There are moments when Adjei-Brenyah makes it clear that you can enjoy yourself with these characters—but there are many more that will make you hate this world. Most of those will remind you how easily it could be ours.

But you won't stop turning the pages until the end.

There's so much that I want to talk about, so many things that Adjei-Brenyah did that many writers don't—or wouldn't have thought of. But I just don't have the time to get into it (or I'd ruin the experience for you).

Here's one example. At some point around the 20% mark, we're given an (well-executed and seamless) infodump, that largely serves to tell the reader that anything they've surmised about the CAPE program is correct (or to adjust any misunderstandings, I guess) and to give a few more details. A well-timed and well-executed infodump is great to find—one that's largely a reaffirmation is even better. That affirmation is welcome so that you can move on with certainty.

The author talks about changes in his outlook on the American penal system during the writing and research he did for this book. I don't know that I can agree with him on those, but it's something I had to consider because of the novel. And I can certainly empathize with his thinking. I can't imagine there are many who don't think our penal system needs reformation of some kind—there's little agreement on what needs reform, and less on how it should be done. But a side-benefit of this novel is that the reader will have to think about their own positions some. It's not all a diatribe about our prisons—it's a book that you can just read for the story—but you'll not want to.

Lastly, for a book that's about death—violent death at the hands of violent people who only hope to go on so they can kill again—the book is really about life. It's a celebration of life, a call to protect it, a call to see it for what it is. It's a reminder that "where life is precious, life is precious."

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

TW/CW: Violence, murder, suicide, sexual assault, state-sanctioned violence, torture, brutality, sex, language

RATING: 5/5

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

Chain-Gang All Stars is a sort of Hunger Games for an adult audience. But while Hunger Games only vaguely touches at ideas of race and inequality, Chain-Gang All Stars embraces that and makes it a central theme of this book. And it works. This is an incredibly powerful book. In Chain-Gang All Stars we follow several groups of prisoners who have joined into a ‘hard-action sports’ team in which they are expected to fight to the death against other prisoners. The far-off dream is that if any one prisoner survives for thirty-six months, they will be freed. As of the start of this book, that has only happened once.

This book does an excellent job of showing how the prisoners have been completely dehumanized by the normal people wagering and watching them on television or in the stands. It does a fantastic job of showing us the inequality in the prison system, and how much worse it could become if we don’t do something to fix it.

Most of all, this book does exactly what good speculative fiction or science fiction should do – it shows us our world as it could be and begs us to fix it before it becomes the horror the book tells us of.

This is one of the best books I’ve read all year, and I highly recommend.

This was intensely hard-hitting—my first impulse is to say brutal, but that sounds like my reaction is all about the violence (of which there is a lot). Gutting is more like it. The book is near-future dystopia, a very dark take on the carceral industry, where death row has been monetized as a hyper-mediafied, merchandised, blood sports economy. It's harrowing because it's plausible—the games these folks are coerced into competing in are essentially public lynchings updated for the streaming era.

As I mentioned above, very violent—physically, racially. Also extremely thought-provoking in a confrontational way, and I found myself needing to stop reading periodically and just check myself as to what I was thinking about what I had just read. The writing style itself feels modern, or at least different from what I'm used to. This is really not like anything I've ever read, I think, and for sure won't be for everyone. But it's stuck with me—it's smart and has a lot to say.