“Sometimes I’m sure I can’t be killed. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’ve already died.”
Nana Kwame Adjlei-Brenyah's all-too-real tale of prisoners fighting for their lives in gladiator-style made-for-TV events is both compelling and heartbreaking. "Chain-Gang All-Stars" is vividly realized, while also weaving in citations about incarceration in the United States.
“It was hard to forget the things that hurt you. You didn’t often forget the shape of your cage.”
The coerced battle to the death for "Blood Points" (value: one one-thousandth of one cent), so the sheer violence can be hard to take at times.
“Some truly didn’t think about the fact that men and women were being murdered every day by the same government their children pledged allegiance to at school.”
The book can also be difficult to follow at first as perspectives change, and the sheer number of characters can make it difficult to follow on occasion.
“Because he was ruined he ruined and was ruined further.”
While the Thurwar-Staxxx throughline was compelling, "Chain-Gang All-Stars" may have benefited from more time dedicated to the Simon J. Craft storyline, which served to humanize the reality-show elements of the plot.
“ … As always, the massive violence of the state was ‘justice,’ was ‘law and order,’ and resistance to perpetual violence was an act of terror. It would have been funny if there weren’t so much blood everywhere.”
“The police begged again for peace as they rolled their tanks forward.”
The novel ends in a slightly ambiguous fashion befitting the overall arc of "Chain-Gang All-Stars." The overall read was brutal, but the underlying message is resonant and important.
“I thought of how the world can be anything and how sad it is that it’s this.”
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