CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS was visceral and compelling in the voyeuristic way that the story itself comments on. The act of reading it felt, in many ways, like watching something you're not supposed to. I think the story made itself very easy and obvious for readers to read. It chose its message and it stuck to its guns the whole way through. It wasn't trying to be coy or subtle, it was instead blaring and violently in your face, which mimicked the "hard action sports" in the novel. 

I'm glad to have read it. I thought it was interesting and brutal and terrifying and horrible, but I appreciate what Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was trying to create. I don't really know what I would rate it, or even if I am qualified to rate it at all. I think the summary represents the story very well (exactly what's on the tin), and if it seems intriguing to you, definitely take a shot. 

Read as an audiobook on 2-2.4x speed, courtesy of Libro.fm! I really enjoyed the main narrator Shayna Small, but some of the sound mixing for the secondary narrators, especially when they were doing very low voices, were hard to hear even on max volume. I wish that was managed a little better. Overall, the narration was great!