A May 2023 Read This Next! Title
Crushing like a hammer and sharp as a scythe, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a master class of brutality drenched in grace. From the first page, Adjei-Brenyah exposes our inherent complicity and demands a good, long look inward, and asks what we’re gonna do about it. It’s powerful, exciting, horrifying, and an utterly outstanding feat of contemporary literature. It’s speculative fiction that feels so close to reality that it’s shockingly unsurprising and brilliantly difficult to endure. Damn.
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, (List Price: $27.00, Pantheon, 9780593317334, May 2023)
Reviewed by Carly Crawford, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee