Chain-Gang All-Stars cover art

Chain-Gang All-Stars

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Chain-Gang All-Stars

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Michael Crouch, Lee Osorio, Aaron Goodson
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About this listen

Welcome to Chain-Gang All-Stars - the popular and highly controversial programme inside America's prison system. In packed arenas, watched by millions of live-stream viewers, prisoners compete as gladiators for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

Fan favourites Loretta Thurwar and Hamara 'Hurricane Staxxx' Stacker are teammates and lovers. Thurwar is nearing the end of her time on the circuit, free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares for her final encounters, as protestors gather at the gates, and as the programme's corporate owners stack the odds against her - will the price be simply too high?

©2023 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (P)2023 Penguin Audio Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Political Satire Science Fiction Scary Thought-Provoking

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Critic reviews

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is one of the most exciting young writers in America. His work is urgent, engaging, wildly entertaining, formally bold and politically electrifying. Read one page, any page, and you'll see what I mean. (George Saunders, author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO)
A defiant, awe-inspiring novel that will be read, studied and celebrated for generations, Chain-Gang All-Stars leads with love. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah writes with stunning compassion and moral clarity as he interrogates every facet of our carceral world and the American spectacle of violence, never losing sight of the human cost of systemic injustice. Readers will be forever changed by this book. (Jessamine Chan, author of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS)
Makes explicit how the spirit erodes as the body becomes currency. Adjei-Brenyah writes sharply about the economy of spectacle and the fickle alchemy between futility and hope. (Raven Leilani, author of LUSTER)
All stars
Most relevant  
One of the BEST books I’ve read this year! Story telling was immaculate. Really the whole book had my gobsmacked by the end. I really feel everyone should read this book!

Exceptional

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Not my usual type of read (sweary and violent)
However, character development, range of narratives, reflections on the ‘justice’ system all made this an incredible listen.

Excellent

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Really great story. Gladiators for the reality tv future, horrifying yet believable. Gripped from start to finish.

Not my usual thing!

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This book is immense. Almost straight after finishing it - I needed 10 mins to process all the emotions after it ended - I downloaded and listened to his first book (Friday Black), then came back and listened to this one again. Not for the faint-hearted, but one that will definitely stay with you.

Shocking, stunning, sobering, sad

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A truly gripping listen that kept me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions! It was read really well, and I really enjoyed the different narrators. They were needed to help break up the jumps to different characters in the book.

Really strong start, the middle was slow and at times I did find it disjointed, the way it jumped to different characters. But the end was powerful and tragic and I’m so glad I stuck with it.

Bloody and brilliant

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This was such a powerful book on the private prison system and how we are only moments away from living in a world where life only matters if you have the power to say it does. It is heart wrenching and devastating. Brilliant

Brilliant Critique on prison systems

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An all too believable tale of a near-future America where bloodsports are the craze of the nation. Crisply written, a cocktail of Death Race 2000, Rollerball, The Hunger Games and The Running Man told with a POC voice. Loved it.
Excellent performances all around too.

Brilliant

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Thoroughly enjoyed this one, if they don’t make it into a film or TV show they are missing a trick!

Needs to be on the screen!

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This book is art, I wish i could read it for the first time again

The soul plot is soul crushing

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…. I would probably not bother with this one. I nearly gave up an hour or so in as it starts with some bloodthirsty battle scenes that actually don’t mean anything much because we don’t know the characters yet. Even later on the characters’ backstories are not there to flesh out the personalities. The two main female characters are so similar it was hard to tell them apart.

I like the dystopian genre and this had a good premise. Hunger games meets reality TV meets capitalism. I am sure if this was suggested tomorrow a worrying amount of people (Trump’s America) would love the idea.

If I had my time again….

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