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A review by toreadistovoyage
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
5.0
Wow. I will be thinking about this for a long time. Chain-Gang All Stars is a powerful book. This is social commentary at its finest.
In a futuristic, dystopian society, "Chain-Gang All Stars" is a television show where 'links', members of different chain-gangs, fight to the death in hopes of earning their freedom. And, like any reality show, it is publicized, monetized, and glorified.
It is hard to imagine a world where this exists. And yet, it really isn't that hard to imagine.
The book has multiple POVs and jumps around almost every chapter. At times this took me out of the story a bit, since I was trying to figure out whose POV and what was happening. That being said, I do think that this ultimately added to the reading experience. Hearing from a variety of characters deepened the plot.
Chain-Gang All Stars is superbly written. Footnotes are expertly used in this book: some relate to the fictional characters, but many of the footnotes are actual statistics that make the story even more horrifying.
In a futuristic, dystopian society, "Chain-Gang All Stars" is a television show where 'links', members of different chain-gangs, fight to the death in hopes of earning their freedom. And, like any reality show, it is publicized, monetized, and glorified.
It is hard to imagine a world where this exists. And yet, it really isn't that hard to imagine.
The book has multiple POVs and jumps around almost every chapter. At times this took me out of the story a bit, since I was trying to figure out whose POV and what was happening. That being said, I do think that this ultimately added to the reading experience. Hearing from a variety of characters deepened the plot.
Chain-Gang All Stars is superbly written. Footnotes are expertly used in this book: some relate to the fictional characters, but many of the footnotes are actual statistics that make the story even more horrifying.