A review by gillygild2342
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I need to sit with this one and I would very much like to read it again in the future. This is fiction but  the author clearly did an immense amount of research and wove in actual statistics on American prison systems and incarceration rates that helped to give the futuristic gladiatorial games a firm grounding in reality. Some of the facts/statistics sighted were shocking! I had no idea rubber bullets weren’t 100% rubber! And tear gas being against the Geneva convention but allowed to be used on citizens!

The characters in this book were so lifelike. It’s impressive how the author was able to take people who society would deem as immaterial and heinous and then make the reader feel for them. Hendrix Young story broke me every time we heard from him and I didn’t think it could get any worse but then Simon j craft was introduced. Both of those men were so horribly broken and though they committed terrible crimes it makes the authors achievement that more impressive, because you care for them, you are forced to see that they are still human beings who are being tortured by state sanctioned actions. Thurwar and Staxxx were an interesting team and heartbreaking to see how well they understood each other even until the end. While I saw a lot of the “twists” coming I don’t think it detracts from the overall point of the story. Which was what Staxxx had been saying all along, we need to show love and compassion to everyone including the incarcerated. The current system does not “correct behavior” but instead breaks people down beyond the point of repair. It was a good time to read this as well, with everything going on in Palestine. While not the same topic, there are a lot of parallels that could be drawn between othering criminals and therefore dismissing their mistreatment and othering the suffering of the Palestinians because the history is too complicated and therefore dismissing their suffering as something we are incapable to do anything about.

The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is because the pacing at times felt a little off to me so the story did not flow as smoothly as I would have expected. I think on a second read however that the pacing may not be an issue. I highly recommend you read this book.