Fran’s Reviews > Chain-Gang All-Stars > Status Update

There are so many lines I want to tease apart in this book. Some a masterclass in subtlety, others hit you like a brick. I'm so close to the end. But the book has been building up to '[he] deserves no sympathy but won't ever be undeserving of love'.

This is not an /enjoyable/ book, nor is it at all subtle, but holy shit is it a masterclass. In characters. In pov. In the framing of humanity and this fine line of hope and violence

DEEPLY harrowing already. Really riding that distinction between a Book I Enjoyed and a Book that Is Good (which is the point I know, to be discomfited rather than entertained)

I also keep having to stop to look up facts about the US prison system to see what is real and what's made up for the book. Canada's is bad, but this is smthn else entirely holy shit

all my library holds are coming in at once AHHHHHHHH