Chain-Gang All-Stars has received some wonderful accolades after its release last year. After hearing about a few of them, I thought I'd give this book a read. And, while it did feel repetitive and a bit arduous at times, the plot and focus was unique.
In a dystopian future in America, a private prison system exists, and criminals are pitted against one another in death matches as they seek their freedom. This book is focused on two exceptional woman gladiators who are excellent killers (and characters) who struggle greatly within the system they are forced to kill The book follows them along with some secondary characters who both question the structure they exist in along with others who work to keep it in place.
I found the book fascinating when I started. Once I understood the set up the novel and how things were different in this fictional future, I was pretty interested. The set up and start of the novel really was excellent. The author did a great job also introducing the key characters and explaining the major players that would be important as the book went along. I also thought the last 10% of the novel was great too. While they set up the final battle, and you kind of knew what was coming, there was well written enough, with enough of a surprise, to make the ending really satisfying.
Unfortunately, I found the middle third of the book a bit repetitive and slow. I almost felt like the author knew how the novel would start and how they wanted to end it and then had to figure out the middle mid-writing. For me, it was simply too long with too many side stories and details provided that were really unnecessary. I felt the author couldn't decide if she wanted to round out and really introduce and provide great stories about these secondary characters or just wanted them to existed generally. Unfortunately, she split the difference and did neither well.
What was perhaps most welcome, surprising and noteworthy about this book was how well the author leaned into describing and educating the reader about all the ills and problems of our modern prison sentence. Offered as one of the worst democratic countries in the world in this regard, the litany of footnotes shared real facts about the horrors that is our prison system for so many individuals. Besides clearly humanizing those behind bars, the author also does a great job of showing how similar they are too so many others. I was amazed by a number of the facts about individuals throughout American history who were unfairly treated and prosecuted (of course, most are people of Color). It left me doing more than a few deep dives to research more.
While I didn't find every page of this book fulfilling, and it suffered from some slow chapters, I do recommend this book strongly. This book is different, entertaining, and has a perspective and viewpoint about something. While it's violent and may push people out of their comfort zone, more books are needed like this.
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