From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

Chain-Gang All-Stars

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Start date: January 1, 2024

Finish date: January 31, 2024

Discussion: Current Monthly Group Read

Why we're reading this: January 2024 group read that could fulfill "book set in the future"…more
[close] January 2024 group read that could fulfill "book set in the future"

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What Members Thought

Dec 27, 2023 Hannah added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2023, dystopia-post-apocalyptic, grownups-fiction, audio

This was A LOT, and I think I’ll need to read it in print to fully let it sink in, but man was it an impressive audio production. This man is a powerhouse writer.

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2023 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy-and-sci-fi, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, lotsa-buzz, literary-schmiterary, f-ed-up, r2023-in-2023

This book has a KAPOW opening, and it maintains that frenetic pace for a few chapters.

It was all death, slow or fast. Painful or sudden. Nothing more. The culture of Chain-Gang was death.

And then. It just. Stalls.

Too many random characters (with dumb names) that I don't care about. Too many twee footnotes (I am never a fan of footnotes in novels). Too much "see spot run, run spot run" style language.

She said nothing. She searched for the woman with the bruised eye, was terrified

...more

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Mar 16, 2025 Kate McCartney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, 2025, lgbtq, adult-fiction, award-winners, dystopia, amazing-women, 2024-yma

Brutal and devastating. Reading this at this time in this country, makes this terror feel plausible and the rage I already feel everyday is increased. This feels impossible that I can find more anger and heartbreak in America in 2025, but the world created in this book feels far too close to the word we are experiencing now. Abolish this slavery that is the prison system.

YMA 2025 Alex Award

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Jul 12, 2025 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: black-history-and-culture, fiction, american-fiction, lgbtqia, audiobooks, north-american-fiction, dystopia, justice, abolition

This might be the best work of fiction I've read about mass incarceration and abolition. It also made me nauseous, quite literally - I almost vomited listening to it. I'll be thinking about this book for a long, long time to come. ...more

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