 | |
| Author | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Pantheon Books |
Publication date | May 2, 2023 |
| ISBN | 9780593317334 |
Chain-Gang All-Stars is a 2023 novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, as well as other awards.
 | This article needs a plot summary.(January 2024) |
Adjei-Brenyah originally conceived Chain Gang All-Stars as a short story in his collection Friday Black . [1]
Chain-Gang All-Stars was generally well received by critics, including starred reviews from Booklist , [2] Kirkus Reviews , [3] Library Journal , [4] and Publishers Weekly . [5]
Kirkus Reviews compared the novel to "a rowdy, profane, and indignant blues shout" version of The Hunger Games . [3] The Wall Street Journal's Sam Sacks also compared the novel to The Hunger Games, as well as to Squid Game , Battle Royale, and Invisible Man , though Sacks' review was more mixed, noting that "since the novel assails the exploitation of black prisoners for entertainment, it cannot be freely entertaining itself, and a dampening sense of shame and reluctance permeates the scenes, which are often interrupted by footnotes dispensing sobering statistics about the prison system—not the one in the novel but the real one." Sacks concluded, "A straightforwardly realistic novel about prisons would be infinitely more damning—though, paradoxically, it would never be selected for book clubs." [6]
Contrary to Sacks's review, Booklist's Terry Hong said, "Adjei-Brenyah's reality-adjacent tale could ultimately, terrifyingly, prove prescient." Hong explained, "What might seem to be a dystopian nightmare is even more terrifying because Adjei-Brenyah brilliantly broadcasts such irrefutable truths as the U.S. having the world's highest rate of incarceration, with disproportionate numbers of Black and POC prisoners. His chilling footnotes shrewdly interrupt his fiction with real names and stark statistics, exposing racism, inequity, corruption, suicide, and abuse." Hong concluded, "Given the rampant, explicit brutality, all should heed a character's warning, 'I'll tell you and I can't untell you, you understand?'" [2]
Similarly, Publishers Weekly highlighted how "the author delivers insightful critiques of the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, and the ways in which Hollywood and celebrity culture exploit Black talent," while also indicating that "both the political allegory and the edge-of-your-seat action work beautifully." [5]
Library Journal's Sarah Hashimoto called Chain-Gang All-Stars "an unforgettable book reverberating with alarming truths and providing an uncomfortable look at an all-too-imaginable future". [4]
Jennifer M. Brown, writing for Shelf Awareness , called Chain-Gang All-Stars a "powerful, imaginative debut novel" that "pulls no punches in the parallels he draws between incarceration and slavery, unpaid labor and power imbalance". Brown concluded, "The story may be fiction, but Adjei-Brenyah delivers the truth" [7]
Bidisha Mamata, writing for The Observer , called the novel "crushingly painful" with "loaded and on-the-nose commentary on racism, exploitation, inequality and the legacy and loud echoes of slavery in the US." Like Sacks, Mamata felt that
the richness of the conceit makes it tiresome to read [...] Even though the ideas are big and bold, the novel is a slog. In its characters’ endless cycle of violence, misery, trauma and rumination, all light and shade is lost. There is action in spades, but little real plot; dialogue, but little psychological nuance. We are told many of the condemned characters’ tragic backstories, often in poignantly throwaway footnotes....we do not feel them or feel for them. The main characters glower like video game characters and talk like CGI bounty hunters.
Mamata indicated that "Adjei-Brenyah is clearly a writer of substance, with something to say" but thought readers should "skip" reading Chain-Gang All-Stars "and wait instead for pop culture to eat itself, shed all irony and churn out the inevitable Netflix adaptation". [8]
The New York Times named Chain-Gang All-Stars one of the top ten books of 2023. [9] Kirkus Reviews [3] and Shelf Awareness [10] also included it on their list of the year's best books. Booklist included it on their list of the top ten debut novels of the year. [11]
| Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Aspen Words Literary Prize | Shortlist | [12] |
| Barnes & Noble Discover Prize | Finalist | [13] | |
| New American Voices Award | Longlist | [14] | |
| National Book Award for Fiction | Finalist | [3] [9] [15] | |
| Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize | Finalist | [16] |
The William Saroyan International Prize for Writing is a biennial literary award for fiction and nonfiction in the spirit of William Saroyan by emerging writers. It was established by Stanford University Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation to "encourage new or emerging writers rather than recognize established literary figures;" the prize being $12,500.
Adam Gidwitz is an American author of children's books, best known for A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010), In a Glass Grimmly (2012), and The Grimm Conclusion (2013). He received a 2017 Newbery Honor for The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (2016). In 2021, his book A Tale Dark and Grimm was adapted into an animated miniseries on Netflix.
Ashley Little is a Canadian author of both adult and young adult literature.
Kwame Alexander is American poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including poetry, memoir, and children's fiction. His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.
El Deafo is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Cece Bell. The book is a loose autobiographical account of Bell's childhood and life with her deafness. The characters in the book are all anthropomorphic bunnies. Cece Bell, in an interview with the Horn Book Magazine, states "What are bunnies known for? Big ears; excellent hearing," rendering her choice of characters and their deafness ironic.
Peter Brown is an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's picture books. He won a Caldecott Honor in 2013 for his illustration of Creepy Carrots!
Friday Black is the 2018 debut book by author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. The collection of short stories explores themes surrounding black identity as it relates to a range of contemporary social issues. The stories are set in a variety of twisted near-future and dystopian settings. The book received an overall positive reception, including the naming of Adjei-Brenyah as one of the "5 Under 35 Authors" for 2018 by the National Book Foundation.
Brandy Colbert is an American author of young adult fiction and nonfiction.
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets is a 2017 collection of poems for children's by Kwame Alexander with co-authors Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. The book won the 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. Each of the 20 poems is written in tribute to and in the style of a well known poet.
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog is a young adult novel written by Adam Gidwitz and illuminated by Hatem Aly, published by Dutton Children's Books in 2016. It is set in medieval France and describes how three magical children meet each other and become outlaws. It was named a Newbery Honor book in 2017.
Unsettled Ground is a novel by Claire Fuller, published May 18, 2021 by Tin House Books.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev is a 2021 historical fiction novel by Dawnie Walton published by 37 Ink. It received the 2022 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award, the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize, and was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
The Maid: A Novel is a 2022 murder mystery debut novel by Canadian author Nita Prose.
The Rabbit Hutch is a 2022 debut novel by writer Tess Gunty and winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. Gunty won the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize for the novel.
Jeff Zentner is an author of several young adult novels including The Serpent King and In The Wild Light. His adult novel Colton Gentry’s Third Act was on released April 30th, 2024.
Bone Gap is a young adult novel by Laura Ruby, published on March 3, 2015, by Balzer + Bray. It won the 2016 Michael L. Printz Award.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is an American speculative fiction author who wrote the short story collection Friday Black (2018) and his debut novel Chain-Gang All-Stars (2023). He was named one of "5 under 35 Authors" by the National Book Foundation in 2018 and won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award in 2019. Chain-Gang All-Stars was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction and The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2023.
The Wicked City is a historical fiction series by Beatriz Williams consisting of three books: The Wicked City (2017), The Wicked Redhead (2019), and The Wicked Widow (2021).
The Schuyler Sisters novel series written by Beatriz Williams consists of three books: The Secret Life of Violet Grant (2014), Tiny Little Thing (2015), and Along the Infinite Sea (2015).
A History of Burning is a 2023 novel by Canadian author Janika Oza. It was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2023 Governor General's Awards. The 10 perspectives in the novel trace one family's experiences over a century as they migrate from India to Africa and eventually to Canada, all the while facing the challenge of preserving their cultural customs and unity in the face of a frequently unwelcoming environment and evolving societal standards.