Chain-Gang All-Stars / Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah / 2023

Chain-Gang All-Stars / Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah / 2023 

Absolutely incredible. In Chain-Gangs All-Stars, Adjei-Brenyah imagines a world where the US prison system legalizes gladiator fights as a sport, a future at once unbelievably dystopian yet utterly imaginable given the trajectory of our nation. Adje-Brenyah interlaces the novel with non-fiction, journalistic accounts contextualizing the real life inspiration for certain scenes: the relationship between the immigration detention centers and the prison system, for example. Told from an ambitious range of perspectives, Adjei-Brenyah helps us understand both how humans can contort themselves to justify these injustices, as well as how they would survive them. Talking about this book usually leaves me blubbering, just saying words like incredible and genius. 5/5