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A review by cas_reads_anything
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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
Like all truly remarkable speculative fiction, Chain-Gang All-Stars is deeply rooted in the real world even as it twists the circumstances. I read it alongside Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and the callout of some of the same real 8th Amendment cases in both Just Mercy and the footnotes of Chain-Gang was both impressive and also heartbreaking. It also made me think of one of my very first forays into speculative fiction, Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist. Like that book, I suspect this one will stick with me for years.
I literally do not have a single negative thing to say about this book and whatever the next thing Adjei-Brenyah publishes will be an auto-buy for me.
I literally do not have a single negative thing to say about this book and whatever the next thing Adjei-Brenyah publishes will be an auto-buy for me.