You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
610 reviews by:
cas_reads_anything
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
The miscommunication trope really drags on for much longer than I would have liked. Still, Seraphina and her sisters are likable characters that I wanted to root for, and the parrot was sweet too.
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like all truly remarkable speculative fiction, Chain-Gang All-Stars is deeply rooted in the real world even as it twists the circumstances. I read it alongside Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and the callout of some of the same real 8th Amendment cases in both Just Mercy and the footnotes of Chain-Gang was both impressive and also heartbreaking. It also made me think of one of my very first forays into speculative fiction, Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist. Like that book, I suspect this one will stick with me for years.
I literally do not have a single negative thing to say about this book and whatever the next thing Adjei-Brenyah publishes will be an auto-buy for me.
I literally do not have a single negative thing to say about this book and whatever the next thing Adjei-Brenyah publishes will be an auto-buy for me.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I suffered, truly
Godkiller summary (this is off the top of my head so correct me if I'm wrong):
Our title character is the Godkiller Kissen, whose childhood village attempted to sacrifice her & her family to a rival god via burning alive. Kissen survived due to her father sacrificing his own life to a water god in place of hers, but she lost her leg.
In the present, in a neighboring country where the worshipping of gods is forbidden due to a god war years ago, Kissen works as a godkiller, going around to minor deities and destroying them. She runs into Inara, another POV character, who is a girl bound to Skediceth, a tiny god of white lies. Instead of killing Inara, Kissen protects her and takes her on a journey to figure out how to un-bind her and Skediceth.
Meanwhile, Elogast, a former Knight of the King turned baker, is approached by King Arren to go on one last mission. The king is alive only through a bargain with a god (not a great look for a king who has forbidden gods) and is now dying. As one of Arrens former closest friends, Elogast agrees to travel to the city of the gods (Blenraden) to save the king's life.
This started off a little slower and finished strong. I loved the characters even where the plot was a little weak
Our title character is the Godkiller Kissen, whose childhood village attempted to sacrifice her & her family to a rival god via burning alive. Kissen survived due to her father sacrificing his own life to a water god in place of hers, but she lost her leg.
In the present, in a neighboring country where the worshipping of gods is forbidden due to a god war years ago, Kissen works as a godkiller, going around to minor deities and destroying them. She runs into Inara, another POV character, who is a girl bound to Skediceth, a tiny god of white lies. Instead of killing Inara, Kissen protects her and takes her on a journey to figure out how to un-bind her and Skediceth.
Meanwhile, Elogast, a former Knight of the King turned baker, is approached by King Arren to go on one last mission. The king is alive only through a bargain with a god (not a great look for a king who has forbidden gods) and is now dying. As one of Arrens former closest friends, Elogast agrees to travel to the city of the gods (Blenraden) to save the king's life.
This started off a little slower and finished strong. I loved the characters even where the plot was a little weak
