Set in a dystopian future,inmates in prison can participate in the CAPE.

Basically it's a fight til the death, if you can survive, you are free.

These matches are seen by the public either on TV or live in person, many loving the games, but some see it for the truth. There is a storyline about a flawed justice system and love.

I found it a very hard read personally with a lot of graphic violence, and it has taking me some time to complete the book, however if you can handle the trauma then definitely read this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

This was not an easy one to get into... I tried but failed. :(
The characters didn't pull me in and I didn't feel the pull to read on. I know I'm an outlier here so apparentely it's a me thing, not the book.

CGAS takes a poignant, and, alarmingly realistic look into two malign institutions: one involving privately owned prisons and the other America’s addiction to violent sports. All with a dystopian veil.

The novel is set in a warped version of the present day, where a private consortium called Criminal Action Penal Entertainment produces gladitorial style duels to the death between convicted criminals (many of whom are murderers, but the reasons for their crimes are complicated) before packed arenas and TV cameras.

At the plot centre, CAPE’s two most charismatic and successful warriors are women: Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Stacker, aka Hurricane Staxxx, who are also lovers. Staxxx, who tends to weep copiously after each bloody victory, is dreading the ever nearer day when Loretta will earn her freedom, having survived and triumphed with CAPE for three years under the terms established for “clemency, commutation of sentence, or a full pardon" under the Rightful Choice Act.

Away from the matches, our prisoners are known as “Links”, each part of this modern chain gang. Out of the ring, they are tormented by sadistic guards and placed in laser shackles that give them electric shocks if they act out in even the most minor ways. They are slaves to the regimen.

CAPE is not without controversy, and protestors show up outside every death match to get vocal about that law and the penal system in general, mounting an all-out movement to repeal it.

Adjei-Brenyah displays pure literary skill in his use of a range of tone and voice as he deftly manages several points of view through shifting time frames, all while maintaining a handle on the ‘sci-fi’ level elements in his awful, alternate America. I particularly liked his use of footnotes to elaborate on the laws and customs of this fantasy world but also bringing in direct and similarly detailed connections to historical facts and the present-day reality of this nation’s mass incarceration system rife with brutalities and injustices.

Honestly, this book is so far out of my comfort zone. I requested a review copy of CGAS based on the hype, but oh, am I glad for it. 4⭐

Unfortunately, DNF. I stopped at 40%. Conceptually fascinating, execution messy. When you’re finding the footnotes on the prison-industrial complex the only compelling part of the book, it’s time to give up.

I found this unbearably chaotic. I’m not a fantasy reader and this novel has confirmed my dislike of the genre. The world-building is impressive if that’s your thing; in this case, it’s not mine. I admire the message behind the book though and the power in it.

What a book. One to make the reader reflect and realise that the human mind is: cruel, shallow, malleable.......with the right tools and science at hand, a person can be made to accept anything, do anything, enjoy anything.....?
The chain gang are in for life and death, a path they have chosen as preferable to the alternative. This is the USA in a not too distant dystopian future and the forces at work are the usual suspects: money and power (a lot of both); abuse of power by those without money and the mind bending sale of a 'really good idea' to the people who in the main grow into it, love it and follow the live stream reality shows and then pay to see the real nitty gritty stuff.
The horror I felt at the beginning of the book had transformed into interested discomfort by the middle and by the end I was feeling the loss of familiar friends.

The synopsis of this book really grabbed me and I'd seen some incredible reviews. While I hugely admire the author for covering this topic I sadly really struggled to get a grip on the book as a whole, however I am a total mood reader so it's highly possible it's a case of "it's not the book,it's me"

Brilliant concept but too long. A lot of dialogue could have been chopped and made for great reading but I did love the idea. I had visions of The Running Man in my head for this one and I hope it gets made into a film.

If you somehow haven't heard what Chain-Gang All-Stars is about yet, it is an intense dystopian novel that imagines a world in which prisoners in the US can sign up to battle each other to the death in front of cameras for sport. It has been compared to The Hunger Games and Gladiator. Understandably so.

Overall, I struggled with this book quite a bit. It has been described as 'electrifying' and other reviewers seem to have had strong reactions towards it, but while I found it occasionally very strong, some parts were slightly too slow to get through in my opinion.
Though I understand what the author is trying to do with his story, I found that I never felt as much I expected to for some of the characters and their relationships. This was probably due to the large cast of characters. I felt they could have been fleshed out more. I also found that some passages overexplained things a bit too much for my liking, and footnotes were often used for this purpose too.

I do agree with some other reviewers that the book was possibly too much in that it was not subtle at all. However, with the topic of the novel being what it is, I feel conflicted about criticising it for this. Living in a political climate that is as unforgiving and brutal as our current one, I understand Adjei-Brenyah's lean towards urgency and upfront references to factual events.

My overall enjoyment of the book was not as high as I wished, but something that did stand out to me was the boldness of the author to make most of the prisoners be people that the average reader might find it difficult to have much compassion for. It would have been easier for the author to make his characters innocent victims of the justice system (I'm thinking of the character in The Green Mile for example, who if I remember correctly, the audience is able to massively empathise with because it turns out he was actually innocent of the crime he was imprisoned for). But Adjei-Brenyah gives us perpetrators of extremely violent crimes, such as murder and rape.
I know some reviewers took issue with the idea that we don't really spend any time learning anything about the victims of the crimes, but in my opinion, I didn't find this disrespectful. I just think the author is focusing on a specific narrative, and I'm okay with that, because I don't think he tried to redeem or excuse anything his characters did. I found this entire aspect of the novel very uncomfortable and confronting, in a great way. This book is more memorable and impactful because it causes this discomfort and engages with the politics of punishment that we see in the news and on social media everyday.

To end with - before I babble on much longer - though I can't say I fully enjoyed this read, I would still recommend it. It has received a lot of glowing reviews, and especially if you like dystopian plots you should give it a go if you have even a slight bit of curiosity. I also think that it is the sign of an interesting book if it makes you as conflicted and thoughtful as this book did to me.

Thank you Netgalley for the review copy - this was a very interesting read.

This book has been compared to the Squid Game , The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games and it shares some things in common with all of these.

The prisoners within the brutal American prison system are made to fight for their freedom in Gladiator style contests. We meet first of all Loretta and Hurricane Staxx in a graphic opening. In fact it was a bit too graphic for my liking and I was worried that the violence was going to be gratuitous. However this wasn't to be the case. As we meet other competitors I realised that this book has important points to make about injustice and the faults of a penal system that have parallels to the contemporary American situation.

In footnotes this is illuminated more as we recognise the racism that prevails (backed up by the facts related by the author)

Whilst this wasn't a book that I loved, I recognise it as a powerfully important book with timely things to say about injustice and racism.

Thank you so much Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

I absolutely adored this novel. I thought it was so interestingly told as it goes between so many different POVs from people in the Chain Gangs to viewers to prison guards. It was so jarring as well as gripping. Would definitely recommend this to everyone who wants to have an unputdownable book.

I read this story and immediately needed to get some fresh air - or shout about something - anything for a bit of release. Phew! I don’t recall the last time I had so many highlighted passages at the end of a reading - Adjei-Brenyah brought a fiery emotion I found all-encompassing.
For anyone who, like me, reconsidered their position and privilege in the world in a post George Floyd era, this book is a must-read. The multiple perspectives are skilfully woven together in a hard hitting, violent narrative that forces the reader to confront institutions we often have the privilege to ignore.
Chain Gang All-Stars was shocking in non-obvious ways; the violence of the characters and the technology brought me out of the narrative at times, only to be thrown back into reality with a well-placed footnote to remind me that this isn’t *entirely* as much a fantasy as I’d have liked. It’s a tough read, to say the least.
Despite the challenging subject matter, the book remains captivating due to the humanity and heart of its characters. The author sheds light on the humanity of its “bad people,” while denouncing corporate greed and bystanders. I struggled to keep up at times, though, with the multiple shifts in timelines and perspectives, especially as few of the characters are introduced by name at the beginning. This took away from a bit of the impact for me.

However — I’ll be coming back to this book in a few years, with fresh eyes and perspective. It feels important and essential to do so.

I really wanted to love this book. After reading the blurb, the concept seemed so exciting. However, I found it really difficult to follow the plot with each chapter jumping to a new/different character. The overarching narrative between Thurwar and Staxxx was the part that kept me reading but otherwise the chapters felt disjointed.

Worthy of all the hype it’s getting, Chain-Gang All-Stars is an astute commentary on the American prison system. In a brutal and violent setting of ‘hard action sports’ prisoners must fight to the death, a spectacle which has Americans enraptured. Although we move around different perspectives (which works well) we are most in the side of the two main characters, Thurwar and Staxx. This is a clever, uncomfortable and political read embedded in a dystopian style plot and one which I think we’ll still be talking about for years to come.

The initial premise is what hooked me and I have to say, it lived up to my hopes.
It is definitely a gritty and brutal read at times, as was to be expected but that didn't stop me from wanting to keep reading.
It's thought provoking yet incredibly engaging.
I would certainly compare it to a more adult version of The Hunger Games, with a hint of Gladiator and maybe even The Running Man.
The writing style could be off-putting at times but overall, this kept my attention the whole way through and was a unique take on the genre for me.
My only other issue was that it was probably about 100 pages too long. It could have been snappier and certain parts could have been significantly condensed. But what a debut.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a fun read. But it is an important one.

The voices and stories, combined with facts from our real world make the novel engaging and difficult to put down. It would be difficult to say any character is likeable, yet each have their own way of getting under the readers skin and leaving an impression.

I gave up around 60%. I completely get the hype it just wasn't for me. I didn't have a clue what was going or whose perspective were reading half the time. I did try to push through but just couldn't anymore. This will be amazing for people, I'm just not one of them sorry.

I am a fan of dystopian novels as a rule, but despite giving this a few go’s I could not get past the first few pages.
So many characters, so many names for other things such a weapons it felt very heavy but with little substance.
I’m not sure what I was expecting maybe more a Matthew Reilly vibe? I don’t know but this was not for me.
This is my personal view only and I believe if you also like dystopian then you should give it a go!

Gritty, tense and exciting writing! Brilliant read and throughly enjoyable! Thank you #netgalley for the opportunity to have an advanced copy.

I so wanted to like this and I am still curious as to what happens in the end but sadly not curious enough to keep dragging myself through page after page. Sadly it is a very (very) rare DNF for me.
This book is at least 100 pages too long and while very clever it seems to crow about its own cleverness with the constant explanatory notes about products or services available with large ‘tm’ after each one. Less is more in this regard. There were things invented for the period in the Hunger Games that we the reader didn’t understand but they were revealed gently over the course of the novel or if blatantly described it wasn’t more than a few per novel never mind the rate of two per chapter that this book often has.
The changes of view point were hard to grasp sometimes as there were so many double barrelled names for characters and their weapons and the scenes weren’t set in advance so that we could understand the differences.
Perspectives also changed just as I’d finally been drawn into the story and was able to make headway only for me to lose my momentum and desire to pick the book up.
The general premise is SO DARN GOOD and I’m gutted that it was lost under a pile of unnecessary detail. I really wouldn’t be surprised if in the next ten years there wasn’t some form of fighting (but not to the death) televised between ‘super max’ prisons in the USA.
Maybe one day I’ll finish this novel but it won’t be now.

Chain-Gang All-Stars introduces us to a world where incarcerated people literally fight to the death, in arenas filled with crowds and millions of fans watching at home, to win their freedom. It is told from multiple POVs, although most of it is spent with the two biggest stars Loretta Thurwar and Hamara 'Hurricane Staxxx' Stacker, who are teammates and lovers. Thurwar is a few matches away from freedom and her path there is getting increasingly more difficult.

This book is utterly brutal. It's incredible commentary on the prison system in the US that really gets into it in the footnotes. The world-building is impeccable, you really get a sense of how the cogs in this horrid machine work.

Hard to say I loved a book this gruesome and grim but it really was excellent. My only issue is I did think there were too many POVs and some of them didn't feel wholly necessary. A small thing in the face of a giant of a book!