CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (nanakwameadjei-brenyah.com)
Harvill Secker (penguin.co.uk)
£18.99
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Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxx” Stacker are two of the biggest stars in America’s new favourite reality television show, Chain-Gang All-Stars, where prisoners can win their freedom by taking part in a gladiator-like competition where they face off against other prisoners. The catch? They’re locked in to a three-year contract. And, while two people walk into the arena at the start of every fight, only the winner walks out, the loser making the ultimate sacrifice in their bid for freedom. Thurwar is a handful of matches from her three-year anniversary and the promise of resuming her life beyond the prison walls. Stacker, her lover and teammate, isn’t far behind. As the show’s current season draws to a close, Thurwar recieves a message from an anti-prison activist. In it is a piece of information that could change everything for the pair as the show’s organisers let nothing stand in the way of better ratings and more profit.
Welcome to a very-near-future dystopia where America is under martial law and prison overcrowding has led to the need to find new and innovative ways to punish criminals without adding to the burden. Chain-Gang All-Stars is a voluntary program: stay alive for three years and win your freedom in a gladiatorial arena (and maybe become something of a celebrity in the process) or serve out your time in a tiny cell in a crowded prison. The competition – as well as the televised proceedings and various spin-off shows, including fly-on-the-wall documentary LinkLyfe – is run by a consortium of prison-owning corporations, and the participants are split into ”chains” affiliated with particular institutions. Currently the most popular chain is the Angola-Hammond or A-Hamm Chain, two of whose Links are Loretta Thurman and Hurricane Staxx, lovers and almost-three-year veterans of the game. This is an unstoppable, inseparable duo who, despite the crimes that led to their incarceration, have become the nation’s sweethearts. Thurwar with her hammer, Hass Omaha, and Staxx with scythe LoveGuile are instantly-recognisable to the millions of people who follow the competition as if it were a religion.
As the end of the current season approaches, bringing with it a promised doubles match that will see Thurwar and Staxx fighting side-by-side, Adjei-Brenyah takes us on a journey through what will be Thurwar’s final few days in the Chain-gang one way or another. He introduces us to the ladies’ fellow Links on the A-Hamm Chain, and the tensions that prevail. Through these characters we get to see, more or less, the full lifecycle of a Link, from the new guy with only a couple of fights under his belt, to Thurwar, the Colossus who has one foot out the door. Along the way we are introduced to many of the concepts that make Chain-Gang All-Stars feel completely real, and more than a little plausible: the BattleGrounds, Blood Points, the March, and many more. We also see this high-concept competition through the eyes of people on the outside: people addicted to the show, as well as those who watch to please a partner and find themselves getting sucked in; and those opposed to the carceral system in general and to Chain-Gang All-Stars in particular. While this is a book designed to entertain, Adjei-Brenyah is also keen to educate, and to start an important conversation.
Peppered throughout the story, often as (literal) footnotes to the action, Adjei-Brenyah presents facts and figures about the American carceral system: about its ineffectiveness, its racism and heavy bias against Black, gay and transgender people (amongst others), and about its position as a profit-focused, money-centric industry. If the author’s intention is to make the reader think, to present facts and ask us to make up our own minds, then he certainly succeeds: this reader spent a few evenings chasing down numerous rabbit holes, searching for information on the people and cases highlighted in the book, men such as Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace who both spent extended periods in solitary confinement. There’s a lot to take in here, and Adjei-Brenyah excels in presenting his evidence without breaking the rhythm of the horrific story that is unfolding around us.
The author also examines the role of technology in managing prisoners, shining a spotlight on those corporations who invest in, and produce, ever-more innovative ways to torture people into submission. Handcuffs are replaced by implants that can be used to lock a prisoner’s hands together, lock them to a magnetic base, or administer electric shocks when they misbehave. Another tool used by the sadistic soldier-police and the prison guards to keep people under control is the Influencer, probably one of the most horrific non-invasive torture tools ever dreamt of. It is difficult to categorise Chain-Gang All-Stars: part love story, part dystopia, part science-fiction. Encompassing all of these is a sense of horror that is difficult to shake and, while it may not traditionally sit within that genre, it definitely leaves the reader with the same uneasy feeling of dread as some of the best horror novels.
Chain-Gang All-Stars feels like the perfect companion piece to Richard Bachman’s The Running Man and The Long Walk. In many ways King walked (no pun intended) in those early novels so that Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah could run in Chain-Gang All-Stars. This is a beautifully-written novel that presents the story of two people whose lives did not turn out the way they had hoped. Despite the circumstances they have found each other and, in each other, found a kindred spirit. It’s an indictment of the American carceral system, backed up by impeccable research that is presented in a way that makes it easy to digest and prompts us to do some further reading on our own and come to our own conclusions. Chain-Gang All-Stars is, quite simply, one of the best books you’ll read this year. Forget the comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, to Squid Game, to Watchmen: you haven’t seen anything quite like this before. But hopefully Adjei-Brenyah will have plenty more to say in the future.
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