Honestly, I didn’t know much about this book before I read it, just that it is a tough read. I’m sure I watched Jenna Bush Hager talking about it, but I forget and don’t think about things until I start books.

I would say this book is like Hunger Games in a private prison system.

Like many people have said, there are lots of characters, but really two main ones - Staxxx and Thurwar. They are both on a Chain Gang together and have had a lot of success. Rising up the highest ranks of which the winner (from prison) becomes free… by killing their opponents. 

Staxxx and Thurwar (both female competitors) are also lovers, and Staxxx also has a male lover. She is apparently, a person of love.

“She loved making people feel what they would otherwise not have access to. 
…
Chain-Gang All-Stars was her purpose on earth. It was a place to remind the world of something it had forgotten. And to fulfill that purpose, she needed Thurwar. That had been obvious from the beginning. But Staxxx, besides her purpose, was also a person.” [Salt Bath]

“This was her life. Her purpose. To sow a hard kind of love into the world. She was there to help people do the things they couldn’t do themselves.” [Sunset Harkless]

This is a story that is showing the brutality of the prison system, and most specifically, the profit prison system (that makes billions of dollars a year in our world). It considers the lives people have inside the walls, from the food they eat, to how they are treated, and the questions prisoners might ask themselves.

The story starts with several fight scenes to introduce us to the characters and see the work that has made them famous. It puts us in the action. But I felt like at times, there were scenes that took us to people we maybe didn’t need to know and it might have been nice to know Staxxx and Thurwar better.

I started this on audio and I always think Shayna Small does a fantastic job on narration. I only listened to about 15% of the book. Thank you to libro.fm for providing audio copies for librarians.

“Do you think I’m broken? Do you think I’m a person that can be in the world? Like, actually? Would I be okay out there?” [Vacation]

“It was beautiful in the horrible way that everything about Chain-Gang was.” [Babe?]

Through the lens of Staxxx and Thurwar, we see how, although they are famous, beautiful and skilled (at murdering), they do not like the system that made them.

“You’re asking if I want to kill a rapist? I do not. I’m about love. It’s y’all that are about killing.”
…
“I’ve Low Freed rapists before. Didn’t do anything for me. Didn’t save me at all. But you already know that too. If it was that easy, this world would be a different place.”
[Presser]

“I mean that all those issues that you’re talking about are symptoms of our current system. Rampant poverty, a lack of resources for people suffering from addiction and mental health issues—those are difficult problems, but ones that can be addressed. But they aren’t. Because criminalization dehumanizes individuals and implicates them rather than a society that abandons them in times of need.”
…
“Mari hadn’t wanted her father released to her, but she wished he’d grown up in a world that had loved him better.” [Interview]

“An absurd thing for the murderous state to plead for, but, as always, the massive violence of the state was “justice,” was “law and order,” and resistance to perpetual violence was an act of terror. It would have been funny if there weren’t so much blood everywhere.” [Children of Incarcerated People]