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Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Författare till Friday Black

5+ verk 1,479 medlemmar 76 recensioner

Om författaren

Foto taget av: Limitless Imprint Entertainment

Verk av Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Friday Black (2018) 848 exemplar
Chain Gang All-Stars (2023) 617 exemplar
Cuma Karasi (2020) 1 exemplar
Catene di gloria (2023) 1 exemplar

Associerade verk

The Best American Short Stories 2019 (2019) — Bidragsgivare — 176 exemplar
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (2019) — Bidragsgivare — 105 exemplar
Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 101 • October 2018 (2018) — Bidragsgivare — 4 exemplar

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It's one of the best books I've read this year. I haven't given any book five stars this year yet. I don't really like all the stars system, as it is so difficult to rate very different books on the same scale and often the books I don't give five stars stay longer with me than my 5-star reads.

This might be one of those that stays with me. At the moment I'm digesting the ending (or a new beginning?). I'm not even completely sure what happened there. Did Staxxx cheated LT? There were many ways to end it - was this the best, smartest, most unexpected, realistic one?

I haven't read much books like this - I haven't even read the Hunger Games. But it felt really original to me. Yes, some might hate the footnotes, but I actually liked that stylish element. There were mainly two types of them - some glimpses from the background of lesser characters or some factual information about the carceral system.

The writing was very good. I think I give more and more points to a book if I find the writing beautiful. I loved the short chapters and how all these different short stories of various actors were interwoven forming a complex pattern. Despite, the difficult topic and the clear abolitionist message, the narrative was not preachy, the criminals were not cleaned of their guilt, they were complex, haunted human beings formed by their environment, failed by the system. There was only one Link who was innocent and who first killed on the BattleGround.

And yes, the Games. Wow! I just loved the imagination and the realness of the games. They reminded me of a high-resolution computer game and I think I often resorted to that idea to cope with imagining real people killing real people and all the country and the world watching them. Could it really happen? It is really scary to think about it. The story line of the spectators - Emily and Wil - was the most disturbing one of all. I loved all the slang of the games, all the technology in the book, which we're not really far from. However, I really hope we are far from Chain-Gang All-Stars.
… (mer)
 
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dacejav | 27 andra recensioner | Mar 24, 2024 |
 
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highlandcow | 47 andra recensioner | Mar 13, 2024 |
I thought of how the world can be anything and how sad it is that it's this.

This is not the kind of book I pick up. From being set in an alternative version of the world to the violence of the deathmatches that form the backbone of the novel, I'm not the intended reader here. But Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah wrote one of the most brilliant and inventive short story collections that I have read, one that if you haven't read, you should go right now and read it. So what do you do when an author you think is uniquely talented writes a novel you don't like the look of? If you're me, you end up reading it anyway, pushed by its inclusion in the Tournament of Books.

In this version of the world, which is very close to what actually exists, prison inmates can opt into fighting a series of deathmatches and if they survive for three years, they will be freed. While our real prisons are often shockingly terrible places, in this world there's the addition of a taser-like weapon known as an influencer, which causes indescribable pain, and prison labor is even harsher and more deadly. Here, we are introduced to Staxxx and Thurwar, two women who have managed to survive on the circuit, Thurwar just weeks from being the first woman to win her freedom. As we accompany the two women through their season, we also dip into the lives of fans, activists protesting the "sport," and other contestants.

I found this book both hard to read and difficult to set aside. Adjei-Brenyah's writing isn't showy or beautiful, but it forces the reader into being interested, into caring for people who have done bad things, but who nonetheless do not deserve what is inflicted on them. This is an obvious indictment of our current prison industry, complete with footnotes directly relating the novel to real events and facts. While the story he's telling is shocking, it's also far too believable.
… (mer)
2 rösta
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RidgewayGirl | 27 andra recensioner | Mar 5, 2024 |
In the not-distant future, prison inmates are given the option to fight to the death, gladiator-style, for the slim chance of winning their freedom, while their lives and battles are broadcast to a bloodthirsty fan base.

This is a powerfully told story - dark, challenging, maddening - because it's so damn close to the reality of the American prison-for-profit system now, and the dehumanization of both convicts and of "action sports" athletes (blood sports, whether the NFL or MMA or UFC or even the legions of young men who think that Fight Club was an invitation into tests of manhood.

The story is multiple-POV, multiple-voice, and you hear from athletes, their family members, "corrections" officers, abolitionists, pain researchers, board members of the sports broadcast company, etc. And these stories interweave, in sometimes surprising ways.

The pace is fast, the characters are multidimensional.

The print and audio books are also littered with footnotes referencing the current American penal system, both prison and legal, and those footnotes support the narrative as well as the education of the reader.

I've been describing the book this way: Powerful speculative fiction, incredibly well told story, and pairs well with [author:Michelle Alexander|3051490]'s masterpiece [book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness|6792458], with a broader target audience because it's just a great story.. that will move and educate you.

EVERYBODY should read this, whether fans of fiction, nonfiction, storytelling, excellent audio narration, everybody.

I read it as an audiobook. It's very well voiced by multiple voice actors, with energy and character dripping throughout.
… (mer)
1 rösta
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patl | 27 andra recensioner | Feb 29, 2024 |

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Statistik

Verk
5
Även av
3
Medlemmar
1,479
Popularitet
#17,374
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
76
ISBN
35
Språk
6

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