Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

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

52 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

5.0

---

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

rnfortier's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

Am intense read but one that so so important.
This book is grounded in the realities of our criminal justice system, so much so that it presents a future that seems not that far off given the rate of incarceration (particularly BIPOC) in the US.
Thoughtfully presented and so well researched, but the author humanizes his characters in such a tragic way you can’t help but love them as the wade through a murder forward “justice” system.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Medical trauma, Death, Body horror, Racism, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Racial slurs, and Sexual violence

jonezzzing's review

challenging emotional fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This is a masterful examination of American incarceration through an abolitionist lens. 
The footnotes were unexpected and a beautiful and heartbreaking way to weave reality into this story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

Minor: Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Rape, Classism, and Racism

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

---

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

baileydb96'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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

pagesbeforesunrise's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

I love the narration as it adds so much personality and emotion to the characters. It also made me so much more immersed into the story. The story itself was really moving and multi-layered. While I loved the way it was laid out, I did feel a bit all over the place sometimes, due to the lack (sometimes!) of distinction between characters povs and the constant switchups. Overall, gave me so much to learn and think about in regards to the parallels of mass incarceration, a very real problem, and prison abolition and what that would look like. Amazing book and takes on so much in a (for the most part) digestible way!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Confinement, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual violence, Racism, and Blood

latashman's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was beautiful and brutal. I appreciated the different POVs from producers all the way to watchers of Chain Gang All Stars. Every POV was its own story that furthered the plot and made this a fast read. I appreciated the footnotes that gave real facts and statistics from the US carceral system and the citations in the back. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

joanna_banana's review

challenging dark emotional informative 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

5.0

I’d give this 6 stars if I could! It’s a work of genius. To wrap abolitionist principles and facts about the prison industrial complex in a novel with powerful characters you grow to love is an incredible feat. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah paints gruesome scenes with his words that are just one step further down our current reality of extractive late stage capitalist economy and torture factories that are American prisons. The commercialization of death and the “influencer” status the Links have is not surprising but such a skewering of corporate America. The Board room scene! Ah. The contrasting relationships and chapters from different perspectives added so much. He challenges what you may think about incarcerated people. The violence made me squeamish but it’s a wake up call to realize the violence exerted on primarily BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people every day by soldier-police and the prison system. This is a must read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Self harm, Racism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Torture, Grief, Confinement, and Violence

xoxochannychan's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is incredibly well-written and delivers a powerful message about the intersection of capitalism and the US prison system and was packed full of facts. I highly enjoyed these aspects of the narrative. However, I felt that the futuristic qualities of the world took me out of the story - this could happen within just a few years of now, but is set in a much more distant dystopian future, which felt unnecessary and reduced the message I think the author was going for. Additionally, the choice to use "thee" instead of "the" and the switching between narrative perspectives also took me out of the story. Overall, a good book, but flawed. I wouldn't recommend this if you don't like graphic violence or extremely dark content. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Police brutality, Confinement, Self harm, Death, Murder, and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual assault, Lesbophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Suicide

kaela_readsnwrites's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

This one was a mixed bag. There were parts that were compelling and gripped me and others that were jarring and had me struggling.
I think it says a lot about an author's talent to make a reader invested and connected with characters who have committed some heinous acts. Thurwar is a woman who murdered another in a jealous rage, despite this, I did feel for her at the end. The author does an incredible job at making criminals, even violent ones, human.
However, I found the sheer multitude of characters at times hard to keep up with, and the choppy nature of the chapters really upset the flow for me. The story, to me, felt really disjointed at times and I did think about simply dnf'ing the book altogether. Instead, I took a break and came back to it, which seemed to help.
Another irk for me was the footnotes. To me, the author had already done a great job on social commentary and highlighting issues in the criminal system through the story. Personally, I didn't feel the need for all the back-up statistics to justify what the author had to say through the novel. It felt a little like I was being hit over the head with facts and again, it made the story feel disjointed as it brought me out of the future world they had created to intake real-world present facts. (I don't think it helps that on Kindle, you need to flit back & forth to access the footnotes, which are usually at the bottom of the page in printed books.)
I don't know how I feel about the ending as it felt like it just suddenly stopped but on the flipside, I'm not sure how else you would end a novel like this.
I should warn others this novel is brutal and features strong violence but I would argue that it is needed for story like this and it never felt gratuitous. It also covers some difficult topics, so I'd advise to check trigger warnings if you are at all concerned about such content.

Overall, I'm glad I went back to it but I just it hadn't been such a struggle to get through.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Racism