This was incredible!!! Chain-Gang All-Stars is a searing indictment of a world that feels only a few steps removed from our own, (especially here in the US) where mass incarceration is normalized, incarcerated people are reduced to commodities, and prisons openly profit from human captivity. This dystopian novel imagines a spectacle in which prisoners are forced to fight to the death for public entertainment in the hopes of being freed, exposing how easily punishment can be repackaged as primetime entertainment in a capitalistic culture already comfortable with monetizing human suffering. Adjei-Brenyah writes with such intensity that you can feel the grief, shame, rage, and glimmers of hope pulsating through each page. What stood out to me was how he never flattened his characters into categories of either good or evil, instead portraying them complexly as flawed, loving, desperate people trying to survive in an inhumane system. What makes the book especially haunting is how believable it all feels, and how sickening it is that this horrific bloodsport becomes the nation’s most anticipated event. It feels so close to reality and really displays the hypocritical, double standard many people have. They see the incarcerated as monsters, yet don’t see themselves the same way even though they are cheering for their deaths. By the end, Thurwar and Staxxx’s acts of resistance, as well as the activists and protesters who are stirring up public outrage, gave me hope of the possibility of revolution, as the system’s cruelty starts becoming too visible to ignore.