Reviews tagging 'Death'

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

251 reviews

joensign's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Police brutality, Racism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Suicide, Child death, Murder, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Domestic abuse

mthay's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Confinement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Racial slurs, and Racism

jegan4's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Prison-industrial-complex meets the Hunger Games. If you can’t read violence than this definitely isn’t for you, however, the violence isn’t celebrated, but is used to demonstrate how close we are as a society to this dystopian story.  I personally liked the different POVs throughout, and actually wished there was more background on some of the characters (like Hendrix and Simon J. Craft). The footnotes did take me out of the story from time to time, but I also liked the extra information. I’m glad I read a physical copy and didn’t listen to an audio version, as I’m not sure I would have liked audio with the footnotes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Rape

Minor: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

rainbopagn's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is a book that will make you rethink everything you feel and know about the American justice system. This should be required reading. The way you go back and forth between perspectives and the way they come together in the final pages... its beautiful storytelling. It is also vicious and violent, much like the real life justice system. The way the author pulls in real people and real statistics is an homage to those who have been unfairly and unjustly treated.  


SPOILERS in
3

2

1

I am more than a little pissed that Thurwar killed Staxxx. I had expected them to go out together, mortally wounding each other. I understand the meaning of the full circle moment but it still annoyed me.     

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Police brutality, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Self harm, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Hate crime

Moderate: Abandonment, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Ableism, Rape, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Gun violence, and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Medical trauma, and Cursing

hspooner8's review

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Classism, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Rape, Self harm, and Slavery

sara_reads_and_wines's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

This was a hard read, but one that was written so well it was hard to out down.

In a not so distant dystopia future, there is technology in place that helps control the prison population. Ranging from forced silence, to a shock that can electrify your nervous system, the technology is truly terrifying. 

But that isn't even the worst of it in this dystopia world. The prison system is now private and for profit. Inmates voluntarily (????) sign up to be part of these "Hard Action Sports". Divided into teams by their prison systems, the prisoners, now called 'links' fight to death in battles to gain ranks to their freedom. 

We mainly follow two links Thurwar and Staxxx who are on the same chain (team) and both almost to the top rank to gain their freedow.
Told almost like a documentary, each chapter gives you different points of views from the different links, to fans watching the matches live or at home, to the board members of the hard action sports, to journalists and reporters, and to those protesting the injustice in and inhumane treatment of the links. 

It hard to say you enjoy a book with such a troubling concept, but it was really well done. There are footnotes with real statistics and facts about the prison and justice systems that give you a double take. And stories for each person as they enter the prisons or loose their battles so you get a more human side of them outside of their crimes. 

I will definitely be reading more by this author to see what other stories they tell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Violence, Death, Torture, and Gore

machenn's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Slavery, Murder, Cursing, Police brutality, Confinement, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

pagesbeforesunrise's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

I love the narration as it adds so much personality and emotion to the characters. It also made me so much more immersed into the story. The story itself was really moving and multi-layered. While I loved the way it was laid out, I did feel a bit all over the place sometimes, due to the lack (sometimes!) of distinction between characters povs and the constant switchups. Overall, gave me so much to learn and think about in regards to the parallels of mass incarceration, a very real problem, and prison abolition and what that would look like. Amazing book and takes on so much in a (for the most part) digestible way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Confinement, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racism, and Blood

maggieperrien's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is so complicated. But it is so well done. The anuthor has satirized  a world where death-row prisoners battle to the death to eventually be freed as Links in a Chang-Gang. And in this world the carceral system is making even more money off of inmates as they have monetized the sport, the related reality TV shows and the Links (the contestants) have sponsorships. 
This book shows the very worst that is possible from humans when we stop seeing the humanity in each other. But it does so is such a thought provoking way. The Links are all murders and/or rapists - they have done bad things but then have the opportunity to be immortalized as heros in the blood-sport matches. The book’s chapters change character POV from Links, prison owners, prisoners families, even fans - this makes the book interesting and allows the reader a varied perspective as they have to decide what is good and bad. 
This is a hard read, there is violence and it’s a grim look at the human condition but also interspersed are footnotes of real carceral system facts which makes this book so important and so sad. Although it was a tough read I still highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Police brutality, Torture, and Slavery

princess_marie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Torture, Death, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Suicide, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Domestic abuse