Chain Gang All Stars

The characters in this book were amazing and the scathing look at the American prison system is fantastic. It was great to get to know many of the characters, even if they were not the main ones being followed. I did have a little difficulty tracking who we were following at times while listening to the audiobook. Nothing major, just a few times I had to skip back.

Adjei-Brenyah really brought these characters to life and I definitely was a little sad in the end. This is a weird book because you're hopeful because you want to side with the characters, but you're also having to grapple with knowing how things will play out because of how messed up the prison system is and how America uses prisoners for their own gain. The real-life call outs on things that have actually happened in and through our prison systems was a great touch and really made you have to compare this fiction to reality.

The one thing that keeps me from giving this 4 stars is that while the main storyline was very cohesive and linear, a lot of the other chapters came across more as short stories and I had a hard time with them being randomly inserted through the book.

I liked this book, but I did not enjoy it.

A harsh - but deserved - look at today's American prison system, through the lens of a near-future "light" sci-fi setting

Adjei-Brenyah did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and turning them into people fighting a rigged system that doesn't view them that way