An incredibly intriguing and explosive take on a dystopian future and America's prison system.

While this book gives no definitive answer to the multitude of issues in current day prisons across America, this still left me feeling like my eyes are more open to the very real problems at hand.

This story seems to jump all over the place, featuring quite a few different characters and viewpoints, but mostly, this story follows Loretta Thurwar. Thurwar is the reigning champion of a cruel TV show that pits prisoners in fights to the death. The prize for winning, which is beyond difficult, is freedom.

This is a startling but necessary social commentary on many things besides just the prison system. And, without a doubt, this has rattled me. This is a thought-provoking and insightful look into humanity, and I am really glad I read this.

Out May 2, 2023

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Dystopian world where prisoners gladiator-style fight to the death for their freedom. 100% agree with the critiques of the American prison system, but I struggled with the pacing and shifting perspectives. I also don’t’ enjoy reading action scenes, which were aplenty here. This author is so incredibly talented and I think the right readers will love it.

A brutal dystopia that uses the US prison system and militarization of the police as its backdrop. This is a tough read due to its violence and graphic nature, but I think that was necessary in order to provide the kind of criticism our present day deserves, as well as a compelling story. Incredible writing. This is a must-read for abolitionists, activists, and anyone who thinks our current way of doing things should be different.

I am blown away. I didn't think it would be for me at first, there is a lot of violent action, but once the story began to delve deeper into the characters I was hooked and could not put it down for the last quarter. What's more, there is more than one very real problem with our society that has a light shone on it here. As a former prison librarian, I can say there is so much truth behind this outlandish (or is it) scenario. This will be an important book, I think.

The book starts incredibly strong with solid world-building and great characters. It quickly loses steam by switching perspectives too often and not making the narrator or timeline clear. The author had interesting commentary about the corrupt prison system, but the lack of focus had me drifting in and out of the story. Not for me.

This book was gruesome but impossible to turn away from. In the (maybe not so distant) future, prisoners are used for entertainment as part of the CAPE program - a televised gladiator-style battle. You win enough times and you are freed. You lose and well, you're free but you're also dead. There are so many aspects to this story that are upsetting and disturbing. Somehow Adjei-Brenyah gives hope for a better future through all of it. I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time.

What a vicious, vivid world. While I had some issues with the pacing--the middle drags, in my opinion--this is a rich and brutal story that will stick with me, and I absolutely raced through the last 25% or so.

Wow! What a wonderful book -- not wonderful in the uplifting fashion, but wonderful in the harsh reality of the criminal system with footnotes that link today with this futuristic novel of tragedy, heroism, and redemption among the voyeuristic predators of the media and its users -- both those of the prison system who see a way to capitalize on murder and violence and those of the viewers who take some degrading pleasure from watching those who are not deemed worthy of rehabilitation destroy each other. All I can say is hold on to your hats, folks, because this is a brutal view of the future in which the citizens are just as guilty as the criminals who participate in the game. The guiltiest of all (as usual) is the privatization capitalists who own prison system with their endless need to make more and more money at the expense of the prisoner slaves who have no recourse.

Thank you to the author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for weaving truth into the footnotes of this unbelievable violent story of where our justice system may end up in the near future. Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This is a book that you'll keep thinking about for months! Adjei-Brenyah seamlessly combines elements of reality tv, celebrity culture, and the profit-driven prison system into one dystopian world, unique from any other book I've read. I was a bit confused in parts and wasn't a fan of certain plot decisions (no spoilers!), but overall I was impressed. 4/5 stars from me!

Thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for an ARC of this title.

I loved Friday Black and I jumped at the chance to read a full novel from Adjei-Brenyah. To take the research, and processing done here and turn it into this sort of novel takes talent. This is sci-fi, but every footnote reminds you that it is based in very real statistics and situations that face prisoners in America. This is kaleidoscopic in the best way, pulling in lots of different viewpoints and voices, and it all comes together to make a masterful picture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine Hunger Games, Squid Games (hated that show), and the Power rolled into one. In this science-fiction future (felt too real at times, however), prisoners have an option to join the Chain Gang, a televised reality tv-show that puts prisoners against each other to be murdered, gladiator-like.

This is one of those books that is both equal parts amazing and devastating. The writing is really well done and the premise is well thought out and perfectly heavy-handed (intentionally and therefore fine by me). It would be hard to recommend this book to anyone, however, because I did not “enjoy” reading it as I do with some other books- I felt compelled by its importance, timeliness, and its storytelling, but I was mostly horrified and gritting my teeth throughout the whole thing. Still processing the ending but really couldn’t put it down for the last 50% of the book. Multiple trigger warnings- excessive violence, torture, murder, racism and racist slurs, etc, so go in prepared.

Gosh, wow. Don't even know how to talk about this. The author did something very ambitious here, describing a near future dystopian world where prisoners fight to the death in a televised sporting event, in the hopes of eventually earning their freedom. Similar to The Handmaid's tale, the author creates a world that I can totally see our current society slipping into. I thought this was well thought out and well written. The compelling story warns of, and shines a light on, the private prison enterprise in America. Highly recommend everyone to read this book!

I gravitated toward this ARC because of the attention-grabbing title and tantalizing logline: In America's not-too-distant future, for-profit prisons coerce prisoners into gladiator matches to make even more money off of human suffering. This is The Hunger Games, but for grown folks.

Let's start with the best parts of CGAS. The author has crafted a future America so detailed and immersive that readers can practically smell the blood in the arena. Characters are completely believable and fully realized. Maybe the eeriest aspect of this novel is that you come to understand how this future could be possible with just a few tweaks and a couple new scientific advancements. The best subplot in the book involves what happens to a scientist who accidentally invents technology that unleashes the maximum pain a human being is capable of experiencing.

I have three critiques of the book. First, the character names are strange enough to be a distraction. Every time I saw the name "Staxxx," I asked myself why three "x"s were necessary. Ice Ice Elephant? Say Eye Aye? Baffling. Confusing. Distracting. Second, you could have shaved off about 33% of the book's length and it would have been just as good and engrossing. Some of the subplots and side-stories were not needed. Third, I read and re-read the final two pages of the book several times and I'm still a bit unsure about how the final match ended. Can't wait to search Reddit once CGAS is released so the internet can explain that one to me.

Overall, an engrossing and thoughtful book that will spark conversations about the for-profit prison system. I can't wait to see what Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah does next!

Women gladiators fight for far more than their lives in this taut, fraught tale for our times. Fans of apocalyptic fiction will enjoy it.

I really liked this book’s focus on the inequities and inhumanities in the justice system. I didn’t really get pulled into the story until the second half when there was less violence and more about the feelings of the characters. I think this is an important topic and written in a way to built interest and compassion for the characters. This premise of this book (e.g. fighting to the death) isn’t my favorite as it brings me a lot of anxiety, but would recommend this book to those interested in social justice, and anyone who enjoys stories about gladiators and/or The Hunger Games.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this eARC.

The premise of this book made me think that this would be unlike anything I had read before, and I was correct. This is gladiator fighting designed for the streaming age, while also throwing in some Orwellian commentary, which has been VERY well researched. The author’s use of footnotes was a powerful tool to give the reader real-world context for the totalitarian state of American prisons. What also struck me was the way the author was denouncing the Western world’s perversion for viewing other people’s pain, and their willingness to view criminals as less than human.

For all the amazing commentary this book had, it was just so slow for me. Also, I feel like the ending was not given enough attention. For these reasons I would give the book around a 3.75 stars.

This was an astonishingly powerful novel, both an indictment of the American prison system and a tribute to the dignity of the most oppressed. In a near-future America, prisoners can opt into a gruesome program of death matches against other prisoners. Every moment of their lives is broadcast to a bloodthirsty public, and they can win their freedom if they kill enough opponents. But, this being America, the deck is more than stacked against them and the cruelty knows no bounds. The novel employs unique but very effective series of rotating narrators to tell all sides of this story, forcing us to look into ourselves and how we dehumanize prisoners.

I received this advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. At first when I started this novel I was underwhelmed by the characters and the somewhat disjointed narrative. But as I persevered through the first 15% I realized it was unlike anything else I had ever read. I appreciated the challenges to current incarceration systems in the US, and the type of abuse prisoners suffer. The characters that were developed throughout the story were incredibly unique, and I truly found their individual stories captivating. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in an unusual and very innovative look at American society, sport, the incarceration system that we are currently part of, and how easily it could be transformed into the vision in this novel.

This story is based on the idea of a very uniquely American system of punishment and incarceration. Although I imagine some people will describe the entertainment/incarceration system portrayed in the novel as unrealistic and the kind of brutal environment most Americans would Never agree with. I disagree with that perspective entirely. The same Americans who rioted on January 6th 2021, the same Americans who call for civil war on the internet, these are the people who would embrace such a system and glorify it through their fandom. I also think there are similarities in this plot line and narrative regarding the NFL and the way that Americans glorified violence and misbehavior from sports figures merely in the name of great sport. There was also an interesting dichotomy between the two sexes and the two races most commonly represented in this novel, which demonstrates the incredible hypocrisy that has been applied throughout the sporting world regarding the standards applied to women versus men in athletics.

What a messed-up, inhumane incarceration system we have in the United States. This novel, via a dystopian plot, exposes the shame of how we treat human beings who break the law. This, of course, reminded me of The Hunger Games but I appreciated the exploration of “reality” tv and the desensitization of cruelty and lack of basic humanity within so many - made me think of online trolls and the brutality of social media times 1000000. I guessed where this was going quite soon into the book and thought the message, for me, was nothing novel or illuminating. For many others, this will not be the case - this will wake some people up and for that, this book is a triumph. Thank you to Pantheon for an advanced copy.

Highly provocative, insanely violent yet touching, author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has victory over an impossible feat, he has written a fresh story topping any other book I’ve read this year. I thought I could not be shocked at new themes and storylines after all my years of reading, but this book electrified me.

Our prison system is exploited in ways we don’t readily think of. Intelligent thinkers will appreciate this story, as it will bring our prison system atrocities to light in a new way. This story also brought a well-rounded view to everyone involved, and still managed to be soft, emotional and heartfelt. I dare anyone to read the first chapter and not be hooked!

This will be highly recommended in my book outreach efforts. I can’t wait for the awards that are to come for Chain Gang All Stars. I will absolutely nominate this for Library Reads and be purchasing for our patrons.

Thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Pantheon via NetGalley for this marvelous arc in exchange for my honest review.