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A review by trilbynorton
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Does each evil cancel the other out? Does disappearing one person from the earth clean it some? I seen men I knew were a danger to the world and they too deserve better than this. A shame for me to hope for better, but I know it's better that can be done. Ain't no magic potions for these bleeding human hearts. Ain't no building full of hurt gonna save the masses.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is a savage swipe at America’s carceral system. In the near future, prisoners are given the opportunity to win their freedom by fighting each other gladiator-style. America being America, the bloodsport is transformed into an entire industry, with podcasts, merchandise, and reality shows all centred around human beings forced to kill each other. Multiple POVs from not just the prisoners themselves, but everyone involved in the sport from executives to viewers, make the point clear: if you aren’t speaking out against atrocities like these, you are complicit in them.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is a savage swipe at America’s carceral system. In the near future, prisoners are given the opportunity to win their freedom by fighting each other gladiator-style. America being America, the bloodsport is transformed into an entire industry, with podcasts, merchandise, and reality shows all centred around human beings forced to kill each other. Multiple POVs from not just the prisoners themselves, but everyone involved in the sport from executives to viewers, make the point clear: if you aren’t speaking out against atrocities like these, you are complicit in them.
What makes Chain-Gang All-Stars such an incredible book is how unbearably human it is. It is full of violence, but it is never sensationalised; most characters regret the killing they are forced into, and deaths are considered a form of freedom. Footnotes offer brief glimpses into who the prisoners were before, defying the system’s need to dehumanise them; others provide damning statistics on the prison system. My favourite character was a man driven to the edge of his own self by the inhumane practice of solitary confinement and the effects of the Influencer, a tool of subjugation that makes victims feel all the pain their nervous systems can conjure (a chapter dealing with the use of the Influencer was so disturbing I had to step away from the book for some time). He goes through hell and almost loses himself, but he is more human than the so-called people who locked him up, tortured him, and forced him to kill for their own entertainment and profit.
His name was Simon J. Craft. He was a fictional character, but he was also a human being. Every prisoner in every prison is a human being.