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A review by simoneandherbooks
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
4.0
A gladiator-style dystopian story where prisoners incarcerated for major crimes can fight to the death for their freedom. I read this a few days ago an the more I think about it, the more I'm completely enamored by Adjei-Brenyah's writing, storytelling, and ability to bring human qualities to a group of people much neglected by society.
The story follows a group of prisoners all voluntarily a part of a gladiator-style entertainment series that puts them against other groups to fight to the death. Three years of fighting and surviving means a chance to win your freedom, so why wouldn't you want that chance? It's just that the games are ruthless and you have a higher chance of death than freedom. But that's not the case for Loretta Thurwar, a prisoner who is only a few bouts away from her freedom. Through multiple POV, Adjei-Brenyah brings a complex moral dynamic through literary prose and high-paced action sequences.
What really compelled me to this story were the multiple POVs. Not only were you reading from the perspective of Staxxx or Thurwar, but you're also reading from the protestors, the family who have lost a loved one to these games, the scientists who created the cruel tools of punishment, and the investors who benefit the most from the games. I loved that you can see this from every angle and there wasn't bias towards one or the other. It felt balanced baring you the pros and cons of a world that promotes violence and the audience that eats it up.
The scary part of this book is how close it feels to reality. You can imagine the world turning this way; us watching prisoners fight each other to the death for our own entertainment the same way the Romans did back in the day. And it makes you wonder how messed up human psyche is that regardless of how much time and how much we've learned from history that we never look away from violence, that we find entertainment in the pain of others. This just feels like the most logical step especially to a country that deems criminals less than human.
From Thurwar and Staxx's relationship to Sunset's mission to keep the peace at least within his own chain-gang and the look into life as a prisoner who chooses to play these games, the story humanizes these people. You have empathy for a murderer and maybe their crimes might not be justified, but you're pulled back into the reality that criminals are people too.
Overall, a highly literary and very much still sci-fi story brilliantly capturing the plague of modern entertainment that really puts Suzanne Collin's "Hunger Games" to shame.
The story follows a group of prisoners all voluntarily a part of a gladiator-style entertainment series that puts them against other groups to fight to the death. Three years of fighting and surviving means a chance to win your freedom, so why wouldn't you want that chance? It's just that the games are ruthless and you have a higher chance of death than freedom. But that's not the case for Loretta Thurwar, a prisoner who is only a few bouts away from her freedom. Through multiple POV, Adjei-Brenyah brings a complex moral dynamic through literary prose and high-paced action sequences.
What really compelled me to this story were the multiple POVs. Not only were you reading from the perspective of Staxxx or Thurwar, but you're also reading from the protestors, the family who have lost a loved one to these games, the scientists who created the cruel tools of punishment, and the investors who benefit the most from the games. I loved that you can see this from every angle and there wasn't bias towards one or the other. It felt balanced baring you the pros and cons of a world that promotes violence and the audience that eats it up.
The scary part of this book is how close it feels to reality. You can imagine the world turning this way; us watching prisoners fight each other to the death for our own entertainment the same way the Romans did back in the day. And it makes you wonder how messed up human psyche is that regardless of how much time and how much we've learned from history that we never look away from violence, that we find entertainment in the pain of others. This just feels like the most logical step especially to a country that deems criminals less than human.
From Thurwar and Staxx's relationship to Sunset's mission to keep the peace at least within his own chain-gang and the look into life as a prisoner who chooses to play these games, the story humanizes these people. You have empathy for a murderer and maybe their crimes might not be justified, but you're pulled back into the reality that criminals are people too.
Overall, a highly literary and very much still sci-fi story brilliantly capturing the plague of modern entertainment that really puts Suzanne Collin's "Hunger Games" to shame.