Rating: 4.5/5
Review Content Warning: mentions of rape, torture, violence, death, murder, confinement, gun violence, police brutality
Book Content Warning: graphic descriptions of rape, sexual assault, torture, violence, death, murder, confinement, racial slurs, gun violence, police brutality, self-harm
Imagine a world where the on-the-down-low gladiatorial-style battles between prisoners held by prison guards in the country’s penitentiaries are not only legal but televised. The producers of the show or “GameMasters” are the owners of the private corporations that run the prisons. That is the premise of Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel Chain Gang All-Stars. In 359 pages, Adjei-Brenyah delivers soul-shattering violence and shines a light on the brutal love of spectacle that already exists in America today.
In Adjei-Brenyah’s book, Loretta Thurwar has been sent to prison for killing the woman she loved. Unable to deal with the pain caused by a new torture device called an “Influencer”, she signs a contract to exchange her life sentence for three years on the circuit fighting other deadly prisoners with the chance of freedom at the end. It’s a feat no one has credibly pulled off yet (the only successful gladiator having been a plant made by the “GameMasters” to bolster hope and interest in viewers) and the last man to come close – her beloved friend, Sunset – was found brutally murdered just before his last match.
Also on the circuit is Thurwar’s best friend and lover, Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker who was sentenced to life in prison for killing the high school teacher who tried to rape her. We learn early on that the system splits prisoners (nicknamed “links”) into different “chains”, and that the rules are about to change so that two links on the same chain can be paired to fight against one another. Loretta knows this change has been made in an effort to make her fight her own lover and cannot even bring herself to think about the upcoming Season 33.
Outside the system, a now dead all-star’s daughter, Mari, fights with her coalition to end Neo-Slavery, willing to risk everything to prove to America that their system is broken and that violence is not the answer to violence.
Due to the several points of view the novel is written from, the book is written almost like a connection of short stories with a common thread. This is understandable, as Adjei-Brenyah exclusively wrote short stories before this, including his debut anthology Friday Black. He weaves together vignettes of different prisoners, their relatives, protestors, GameMasters, and even the engineer behind the brand-new, terrifying ‘Influencer’.
Due to the several points of view the novel is written from, the book is written almost like a connection of short stories with a common thread.
There are also footnotes that contain backstories for the characters, as well as interesting facts and statistics that name real incarcerated and killed people and describe how they inspired a character’s creation, making the messaging of the book all the more difficult to take at a surface-level of entertainment-value.
What’s more, the book is full of strong discourse, providing insight not only into the prisoners’ suffering but also their hardened personalities and atrocious crimes. When a reporter asks Mari if the men who murdered her sister really deserve mercy, you realize that there’s no easy answer to this debate. Indeed, some of the links on All-Stars are the victims of circumstance and some are completely innocent, but the majority of them are unkind, uncouth, and according to some opinions, undeserving of public sympathy.
Indeed, some of the links on All-Stars are the victims of circumstance and some are completely innocent, but the majority of them are unkind, uncouth, and according to some opinions, undeserving of public sympathy.
Yet, as the links seek to be “High Freed” (earn exoneration by winning games for three years) and not “Low Freed” (killed), one cannot help but reflect on who will absolve the TV and live audiences of their own bloodlust. They discuss the gruesome episodes and links like the drama and characters of a modern-day reality show. No thought is given to the fact that the prisoners are real human beings with real families who are also watching — that it isn’t entertainment for them. A link reflects before a melee, “Good TV, somebody somewhere is thinking. And they right. Part of me hopes the kin Eighty keeps is watching. Part of me hopes they find the strength not to” — Eighty being the name of another link on a chain.
What was most striking is how vividly this prospective future Adjei-Brenyah has constructed reflects the trajectory of our current world. Private prisons already exist, and prison labor is used for large and well-known corporations, such as Walmart and Texas Instruments, where the laborers practically work for free. It is this comparison to slave labor that leads Mari and her friends to call themselves abolitionists.
What was most striking is how vividly this prospective future Adjei-Brenyah has constructed reflects the trajectory of our current world.
The book also refers to “soldier-police ” and has relevant footnotes on rubber bullets and tear gas, the latter of which is banned in international warfare but is used regularly by law enforcement on the streets of America. Gun violence is also rampant, and all certain politicians can think to do is offer thoughts and prayers. On this, Adjei-Brenyah writes, “many politicians had already appeared before holo-streams to implore nonviolence. An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was ‘justice’ and ‘law and order’, and ‘resistance to perpetual violence was an act of terror.’”
There were times when the violence was almost too graphic to bear, but I also believe that by not watering down the issues presented in the book, Adjei-Brenyah does a more satisfactory job of driving his message across. It is only with the hard truths of the violence and the apathy of the characters in this book that the author makes a lasting impression. A wonderful read, and not for the faint-hearted, Chain Gang All-Stars is more than just science fiction — it is a clear mirror to our current society.
– Avantika Chitturi, Spring 2024 Staff
NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH is the New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He was a National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honoree, the winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the Saroyan Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for Best First Book, along with many other honors. Raised in Spring Valley, New York, he now lives in the Bronx.
Chain Gang All-Stars can be purchased here.
BERKELEY FICTION REVIEW 