racial

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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PREMISE: Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

You ever read a book and think “Shit, I wish I’d written that”, only to realise that you don’t have the talent, imagination or intelligence to do it? That’s me with this book. The 2nd-best book I read in 2023…

The Trees by Percival Everett

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PREMISE: When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive in Money, Mississippi, to investigate a series of brutal murders, they find at each crime scene an unexpected second body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till. After meeting resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist white townsfolk, the MBI detectives suspect these are killings of retribution. Then they discover eerily similar murders taking place in rapid succession all over the country. 

Man, this was one funny, entertaining book. Dark and funny as hell and Percival Everett is clearly as mad as a box of frogs. And have I mentioned it’s funny? If I had Everett’s sense of humour I reckon I would have been better-liked at school. Brilliant, brilliant book.

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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PREMISE:  By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that Black men and women contend with every day in this country.

These stories explore urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and the ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world. In “The Finkelstein Five,” Adjei-Brenyah reckons with the brutal prejudice of our justice system. In “Zimmer Land,” we see a far-too-easy-to-believe imagining of racism as sport. And “Friday Black” and “How to Sell a Jacket as Told by IceKing” show the horrors of consumerism and the toll it takes on us all.

My second book of 2024, which I picked up after reading the jaw-droppingly great Chain-Gang All Stars. A collection of dark-as-fuck stories which are well worth reading. Top notch.