A review by ebook_em
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

challenging dark funny informative sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

4.5-5 stars - What a wild ride. Chain-Gang All-Stars depicts a dystopian prison system that is, in many ways, a logical extension of the current prison-industrial complex in the US. The story most closely follows two Black women who find solace in each other while competing on the same “chain” in brutal, gladiator-style death matches in the hopes of being freed — if they can survive the three-year program term. I loved the stoicism of Loretta Thurwar, the humor of Hamara “Hurricane” Staxxx, and the way these characters sought out beauty and love amid some really dire circumstances. 

 

Despite this focus, the novel pings around through an elaborate web of POV characters whose main function is building up the dystopian world and highlighting multiple angles of complicity in it (and some resistance to it as well). For the most part I think the author pulled off the use of so many POVs, but it really slowed down the story without the in-depth character development I think is needed to make up for slow pacing. Things picked up in the second half of the book as some relationships among minor characters were revealed. 

 

The social commentary in this book is super heavy-handed, but purposefully so. The author embeds footnotes throughout the novel and I liked how some footnotes elaborated on characters’ outcomes while others provided context from real-life laws and practices. 

 

I feel most conflicted about a plot twist that is essential to the story but, in my opinion, undermines the broader point about the systemic nature of carceral violence — that it’s not targeted to individual people, and it harms everyone who gets swept up in it at all. On the other hand, the twist enabled a dramatic and poetic ending that felt right to me. 

 

Clearly I have some critiques, but I’m rounding this up to 5 stars because I want to re-read it someday, it made me teary at a couple points, and I know I’ll be thinking about this one for a long, long time.