Chain Gang All Stars
4.5
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black, about two top women gladiators fighting for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own. • “A new and necessary American voice.” —Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).
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Community ReviewsSee all
"In a country with a fully privatized prison system, a battle-to-the-death cage match “sport” business is established with prisoners ‘voluntarily’ participating, complete with celebrity all star ‘players’ whose ultimate goal is to survive for the ultimate prize of release. While a shocking bit of fiction, it cites real facts about incarceration in the US. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time. "
Jackie Davidson
"I recently finished the book and thought it was brilliant, but so much to think through! What did others think?! I want to discuss all the things!"
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Maya
"I really like what the author was doing here. The use of footnotes as part of the narrative really hit hard. If you skip those, you miss out on a lot. The scary part is you can really see this happening in our world."
DaRo reads
"This is an amazing book, point blank. It gives the reader a lot to think about due to the topics it touches upon in a bold way; big money influencing/taking advantage of the prison system, the disparities between races on incarcerations, the blase attitude of the general masses to mass injustice just to name a few. This book engages its readers using the idea of a colosseum type battle that's essentially televised in an alternate universe of modern day U.S. as it currently stands. As others have noted, the book does incorporate real people, history, and facts in the footnote that makes the impacts of the book all the harsher. This book hits deep.
Additionally, the main characters are two women in an open although committed relationship. There's also a nonbinary folk on their team, so this book is certainly inclusive to minorities even within the LGBTQ+ community.
One thing to note before reading is that this book can be triggering to readers. It features death in both the format of suicide and murder, S.A. offenders as the main characters, self harm, racism, police brutality, homophobia, and multiple other serious topics. Please be sure to be in the right headspace before attempting to read.
(It's an excellent read if you do.)"
Ruth Bontrager
"As much as I’d thought I would like this book, I honestly didn’t prefer it. Still a very good book with an intense plot line. Very interesting at times, some parts felt like they didn’t belong, otherwise still a good book. Wouldn’t read again. 3/5 ⭐️ "
Brady Schafer
"The way this book uses it’s dystopian setting to explore the death penalty and prison system is very well done. Many dystopian books have messages similar to this one but I think where this book excels is it’s inclusion of actual facts that really show you how this story relates to our lives right now. I think the book also does a great job of completely exploring the topic and humanizing everyone around it. I wouldn’t say that there is a explicit villain in this book besides the system itself. Every character is shown to be complex and nobody is unquestionably evil. 9/10"
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Caden thompson
"Not a series, but definitely dystopian and very similar to hunger games. "
Amanda Simmons
"Indictment on today’s prison complex. Fighting gangs, nationally televised, kill for your “freedom”"
Tim Fuller
"Was hard to get into at first but then i rly locked in. Was really well done, cruelty and dystopia of it all was shocking in a way that felt familiar and entirely possible. i was really invested in the characters and loved the way u got to see people’s stories on all sides. Was expecting/hoping for either a happy ending or an ending that devastated me and it wasn’t really either. Left feeling a bit unfinished."
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Elissa Suarez
