Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

121 reviews

gurpreetlally's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Gore, Death, Violence, Torture, and Murder

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Blood, Death, Gore, and Sexism

Moderate: Self harm, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Cursing, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape

Minor: Racial slurs and Religious bigotry

smileymiley550's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Grief, Police brutality, Gore, Racism, Classism, Confinement, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Self harm

marymwest's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Death, Murder, and Gore

joensign's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Police brutality, Racism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Suicide, Child death, Murder, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Domestic abuse

wormgirl's review

dark sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, and Self harm

Minor: Slavery, Police brutality, Suicide, and Rape

mjtinoco's review

Started having nightmares. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

sara_reads_and_wines's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.5

This was a hard read, but one that was written so well it was hard to out down.

In a not so distant dystopia future, there is technology in place that helps control the prison population. Ranging from forced silence, to a shock that can electrify your nervous system, the technology is truly terrifying. 

But that isn't even the worst of it in this dystopia world. The prison system is now private and for profit. Inmates voluntarily (????) sign up to be part of these "Hard Action Sports". Divided into teams by their prison systems, the prisoners, now called 'links' fight to death in battles to gain ranks to their freedom. 

We mainly follow two links Thurwar and Staxxx who are on the same chain (team) and both almost to the top rank to gain their freedow.
Told almost like a documentary, each chapter gives you different points of views from the different links, to fans watching the matches live or at home, to the board members of the hard action sports, to journalists and reporters, and to those protesting the injustice in and inhumane treatment of the links. 

It hard to say you enjoy a book with such a troubling concept, but it was really well done. There are footnotes with real statistics and facts about the prison and justice systems that give you a double take. And stories for each person as they enter the prisons or loose their battles so you get a more human side of them outside of their crimes. 

I will definitely be reading more by this author to see what other stories they tell. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Violence, Death, Torture, and Gore

carlycompton22's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A critical look at the dire situation of our prison system in the context of a grotesque near-future world that seems all too possible in today's entertainment and political environment. This book makes you examine your own preconceived notions about right and wrong, justice and freedom, and how our society views and treats those incarcerated for serious crimes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Racial slurs, Gore, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Homophobia, and Blood

l1ndz7's review

4.5

This was really difficult to get though but the writing was beautiful and poetic. I wanted to take my time with it. A fictional story with non-fiction footnotes was an awesome way to add social commentary. I didn’t really understand the ending… it was so abrupt and I wish we got a page or more of context or thoughts or something. Glad I buddy read this because maybe I’ll understand better after talking with her 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Confinement, Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism