This was an excellent and thought provoking story examining the disparity within the US prison system through the lens of a hard action sport show that pits convicts against one another in battles to the death with the promise of freedom for participants who can last 3 years. While the premise has echoes of other stories (Rollerball and Death Race spring to mind), this is a wholly original narrative that focuses much more on the individuals involved in the sport as opposed to the battles themselves. Rather than a breathtaking action ride, this is a far more introspective read, showing the racial inequality prevalent within the prison system and peppered throughout with footnotes citing specific cases and numbers to back up the overall argument. At the heart of the novel is the relationship between Loretta Thurwar and Hurricane Staxxx - two women on the same chain dealing with the knowledge that Thurwar is only 2 fights away from freedom and what that will mean for them. The characters are flawed but authentic and sympathetic and the nuances of their plight hit hard. Overall this was a truly wonderful novel and I will be eagerly waiting to see what the author does next.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Compelling and page turning, HUNGER GAMES meets OITNB is the perfect comparison. It was a great read and I found myself particularly invested in Staxxx and Thurwar. If this book lacked anything, it was context. I would have liked more backstory and perhaps one or two fewer POVs.

The writing style was a bit rushed for me, and the cast of characters was a bit too broad so I didn't feel as though I got to know anyone particularly well.
Loved the premise, but just wasn't one that gelled for me.

An absolutely searing book- Bitch Planet by way of the Hunger Games and Manhunt. I really, really enjoyed it, though perhaps enjoy is a difficult term to use to a book that is so clear headed about the way in which America abuses its prison systems to create a system of modern day slavery. Brutal and uncompromising, the real scare here is how very close to reality to whole concept hews.

Highly reccomended.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for allowing this.

This book goes straight into the action, there’s no build up it just throws you straight into the arena. The first few chapters are various introductions to the characters, largely taking place in arenas. At first it felt like a series on unconnected stories and I wasn’t sure where it was going. However I am very glad I stuck with it because once you get a sense of the overall story, it’s so devastating.

I am glad to have read this book, it’s so shocking, so heartbreaking. There are frequent moments I found horrifying and then the author provides footnotes showing where these have been drawn for real life. This is a searing commentary on for profit prison systems and the absolute disregard for human life. In this story, prison inmates can take part in an entertainment program where they fight to kill in arenas. If they can survive three years the are freed.

This is such an important book but it would be worth checking trigger warnings as it covers some really sensitive subjects. It’s extremely violent but that’s in service of the message of humanity the book is presenting.

The ending of this book was absolutely devastating. I was in tears. Certainly would recommend this book.

This was so FUN!! I originally requested a physical copy but reading it on kindle was still a fun experience!! I had never heard of this author before but definitely wanna check out more of their work!

An ambitious debut.  Such an intense and hard hitting dystopia that really hammers home the realities of the criminal justice system.  It took me a while to get through, I am not usually a fan of so much violence in my fiction and the writing style was a little jarring at times, but overall this was an excellent read and one that deserves all the hype it has been receiving.

This was such a great read.
This is a Black, sapphic, Hunger Games, serving the US prison system, and the author not onl makes you fall in love with some very unsavoury characters, but also with footnotes, tells us the systemic problems of the US prison.

Very highly recommend 5 huge stars!

Despite all the amazing views I had heard of this book I didn't enjoy it at all. I just couldn't get into it, I tried a few separate times but unfortunately it was not for me. This is not a slight on the author I just think it was my own preferences.

Chain Gang All-Stars feels like a mash-up of The Handmaid's Tale and Battle Royale, with a sprinkling of Gladiator for good measure. Rather than taking the absolute best from each of these individually brilliant offerings, this post-apocalyptic and bleak novel slides elegantly over the main themes of each, bringing them together into an enticing but ultimately polarizing book.

The story is incredibly violent but author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has made sure that this is deliberate. There are several telling chapters in this book that really stand out and breathe life into what Adjei-Brenyah is trying to do here; a kaleidoscopically changing viewpoint of a world consumed and ravaged by hard action sports.

Before we get to all that, we're introduced to a near-future where prisoners are pitted against each other in blood sports. It's a fight to the death, and we're onto season 32 of this already. In that time, the rules have been changed and been tweaked, serving as both gladiatorial fights and Big Brother-esque reality TV.

"Chain Gangs" now operate as different teams who are ultimately pitted against other Chain Gangs in singles, doubles or "Melee" matches. Each of the individual participants are intentionally stripped of their humanity for the audience of these fights, with the colloquial term of "Links" used instead.

Chain-Gang All Stars is the brainchild of CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment) which operates as a quick-fix to alleviate the growing prison problem in America. Combatants are pitted against one another for the ultimate prize - freedom. The catch here, is that freedom comes with a heavy price to pay.

The early parts of the book zip across numerous different perspectives and this happens to be the book's biggest draw and also its Achille's Heel too. In its desire to tell a more complete story, the focus shifts so often, to so many different characters, that it can be hard to nail down an anchor point.

However, that anchor mostly gravitates around the two star "Links" in the games. Hurricane Staxxx and Loretta Thurwar. These two ferocious women have risen the ranks against all odds and are ready for whatever the Gamemakers throw their way. However, dissent outside the mass consumers of this entertainment begins to rise as protestors take to the streets, believing that this barbaric form of "entertainment" should be stopped.

As the book progresses, both storylines interweave around several other characters, along with slight timeline deviations too as point of views shift. In fact, one chapter late on shifts perspectives about 6 times in quick succession. While this does work to elevate the tension, it can also make for a somewhat acquired taste too as you never truly get enough time to settle down and get into the headspace of each character.

The ending is also another point of contention and while I'm not about to spoil that here, it solidifies that really, this book is more of a think piece than an outstanding narrative with a cohesive beginning, middle and end structure. After all, where does violence end and life begins?

This hard-hitting message is repeated throughout the book and at one point, we see what this "game" does to the average viewer. A housewife is enticed into watching the games with her husband, and her journey into the world of hard action sports takes a very surprising turn. Similarly, there's a chapter in here where one of the protestors speaks about the prison system and how (in her own words): "The carceral state depends on a dichotomy between innocent and guilty, or good and bad, so that they can then define harm on their terms, in the name of justice, and administer it on a massive scale to support a capitalistic, violent, and inherently inequitable system.”

The writing style throughout the book is fantastic and each of the different point of view characters have their own defined way of speaking and thinking. There are several seemingly inconsequential characters in here - Simon and Hendrix - who end up on a collision course with destiny, as they cleverly become entangled in the final conflict.

The reaction from the audience though is likely to echo that of readers. Like a bloody fight that sees two combatants give their absolute all, laying it all out on the line, it's gut-wrenchingly hard to watch...but you must to see who wins. The final 50 pages or so of this book really echoes that sentiment.

It won't be for everyone but those who can take to the constantly revolving point of view chapters will find a lot to like here. Chain Gang All-Stars is utterly enthralling; a violent, dark and thought provoking book that's easy to pick up and difficult to put down.

A futuristic style prison thriller with gladiators fighting to the death for their freedom. Unusual and novel idea well executed by the author. Maybe not an impossible idea the way the world is today! Excellent writing and fast paced, definitely worth checking out. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advance read.

Kept me awake most of the night as I just had to finish it. A great read… grabbed my attention from the first page… with each new revelation, I just kept wanting to turn the pages… I highly recommend this book Well where do I begin? I have been so excited about this one and it has delivered on every level. I have been so caught up in this one – I devoured the whole thing in just one sitting.

3.5/5

Another reviewer on here has said the book is "Hunger Games vs Orange is the New Black" and I think that's a perfect way to describe it. Its an interesting concept, a real critique of America and very violent, perhaps a little too violent for me. But the story is good and the writing wonderful.

I loved the concept of this book but unfortunately I didn’t like the execution, there wasn’t an initial set up to lead to the brutal death matches so it felt confusing at times and like I was looking in at something I knew nothing about.

This is as explosive as the cover and blurb promise and while the writing may not be the most 'literary' at the sentence level, this is literature as activism and that deserves the stars in my book.

Set in a barely-futuristic America, this is like a fevered combination of [book:The Hunger Games|2767052] and [book:They Shoot Horses, Don't They?|52689528] set against a background of the US industrial prison complex as an off-shoot of corporate capitalism and mass entertainment. Inmates choose or are tortured into signing up for the CAPE programme where they join gladiatorial chain-gangs and fight to the death in a brutal version of a sports league/reality TV with weapons series complete with huge sponsorship deals and crowd favourites.

But the fantasy is built on a solid foundation of facts about the US incarceration system and the 'justice' that condemns huge multiples of Black men to imprisonment, solitary confinement and state execution. The multiples of Black over white women imprisoned are less stark, but the shock is that 85% of women in prison have experienced some form of sexual violence. The story incorporates, as an example, a child prostitute of 16 given a life sentence for killing her rapist.

The book does a good job of interweaving a plotline that is always journeying to a defined climax with the political commentary and a more philosophical way of understanding the prisoners themselves, most of them murderers, some of the men also rapists. There is an especially potent strand of love as resistance that threads through the story and repeated instances of the idea of freedom through chosen death.

The whole thing makes compulsive reading not least via the engaging figures of Loretta Thurwar and Harmara Stacker, two 'queen' gladiators and lovers who command respect and a kind of twisted love from their hordes of fans... who also can't wait for the excitement of seeing them die.

Weaving together strands on how race intersects with the criminal 'justice' system, gender and violence, perverse cults of celebrity and the late capitalist commercialisation of everything where brutal death is the ultimate reality show that also makes billions for its organisers, this is an exciting 'now' book. The ending is a little psychologically opaque but this is nonetheless bracing and stirring.

Thurwar and Hurricane Staxxx are the big stars of Chain-Gang All Stars, a high-action sport; a gladiator style tournament within America's prison system where the big prize is freedom and the losers die.

This book is unlike any I've read before and I feel as if I would need to read it again in order to fully grasp the commentary surrounding the plot and subject matter. That being said, it's a stark inspection into America's unjust prison system. I liked and appreciated the footnotes sprinkled throughout - it did a great job in bringing information and statistics to the forefront, which only made the plot more powerful.

That being said, I think that there was too much going on here. Too many chapters centred on random characters.

Otherwise, an intriguing debut novel.

I really enjoyed this book. A Hunger Games for convicts, it is as brutal as the world it depicts, with many shocking side references to the US penal system as it stands at the moment. I found the book well paced, with engaging characters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

What's really interesting to me about this novel, is WHY I liked it. Was it an intellectual appreciation that the author used a dystopian, Battle-Royale/Hunger Games kind of vibe to shine a light on current atrocities within the penal system, or was it that I actually had the same voyeuristic blood-lust that the fans of Chain-Gang All-Stars did?

Chain-Gang is a futuristic version of WWE, with bouts to the death between prisoners with nicknames, catchphrases and larger than life personalities. The main purpose of the book is to show how awful this all is. But many readers, including me, will find themselves feeling some of the same things that awful spectators in the book did - "ooh, I wonder who would win if x fought y?". Which of course is because we are humans and therefore prone to being mean-spirited shits sometimes.

The book has a lot going for it but it had the potential to be even better. When the focus was on the two main characters and the "links" (prisoners attached to each chain gang) it was very strong. Many of these characters are memorable and I felt for their plight, regardless of whatever crimes they had committed. The lives of the links are brutal and hard and the novel successfully imagines what a "Big Brother with weapons" type of show might look like.

However, when the focus shifted to those outside of the show, the characters didn't work as well for me and I was confused about who was who and what they were doing. Now and again the writing and phrasing was also slightly obtuse, leading me to a few "what just happened?" moments. But overall, this one is a thought-provoking, grisly but (shame on me!) entertaining read.

This book was a refreshing change from my usual thriller/mystery fare. It got off to an exciting start and the tension never slackened. Crisp, innovative and edgy, it kept me interested all the way through. At times the premise was a little overwrought but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book.
I was given an ARC of this book and these are my own opinions.

I was looking really forward to this book but sadly it did not live up to my expectations.
The plot was quite interesting and a breath of fresh air but unfortunately the characters fell flat for me and the world building did not hold my attention for long because it wasn’t exciting enough, which totally put me off. Overall it was an alright book therefore I’ll rate it *2.5