I’ve been thinking about writing the occasional book review, and when I finished Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, I knew I had to.
Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a dystopian future that seems barely removed from our own reality. The predominantly privately owned prison system is overflowing, and the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) program is created to help with this problem, while increasing revenue. Prisoners serving a life sentence can choose to enter the CAPE program and compete in televised gladiator battles to the death — win enough and you’ll be freed. Lose once and you’ll be “low-freed” in death.
The story follows Loretta Thurwar and Hurricane Staxxx, two of the most popular Hard Action Sports stars, as they fight their way towards freedom, surrounded by adoring fans. It creates a window into their struggle for humanity, and self-forgiveness, in a life of incessant violence. They try to create a love that transcends it all, but the game will never allow that.
Adjei-Brenyah doesn’t pull any punches here, it’s terrible and gruesome to read. By surrounding it in sporting spectacle he elevates the brutality, and highlights the entire lack of human concern for the participants. It will leave you nauseous, exhausted, in a righteous rage. It will break your heart.
Alongside the story are footnotes about America’s carceral system, policing practices, and all the nastiness that springs from it. Racism, torture, sexual violence, chemical weapons used on civilians. So. Much. Inequality. It’s clear by the end that the horror of the book isn’t just in the imagined story, but in the real one that exists outside of it.
It’s in the duality of the book that the magic becomes clear. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah does what so many fiction writers strive for. He uses a story about a way the world could be to make it more clear the way the world is. He shines a light on the world around us, and makes us acknowledge it.
He does it in a well-paced, engaging novel that’s full of beautifully real dialogue and deep characters. He weaves plot lines and structure like the best genre fiction writers. And it all seems so… effortless. He’s a master story-teller, and it’s tremendous to witness.
When I closed the book I was in tears, but inspired. It’s stories like this that add to us, that are the mirror we need. Congratulations to Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for writing what will be considered a classic of science fiction. I loved it.