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Chain-Gang All-Stars

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Pantheon Books (2023)

Overall, the group enjoyed Chain-Gang All-Stars, we appreciated its moments of softness and humanity amid the brutality and violence. The writing style of using factual footnotes throughout the novel stood out as a unique and effective way to explore the many layers of systemic oppression and connect the fictional world to our present reality, but some found the footnotes distracting. The book prompted a lot of self-reflection and discussion about agency, complicity, and what it means to root for characters who must kill to survive. It sparked meaningful conversations about imagining an abolitionist future and was praised for its strong representation and multidimensional approach to justice and humanity.

Rating 4.4