In this very special post-July 4th episode (featuring some fireworks), the Squad discusses Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel Chain-Gang All Stars. Join in as we chat about incarceration in the United States, dystopian/futuristic methods of torture, reality tv, football, Jenna Bush Hager’s book club, and everything we hate about America. It’s a fun time. Also, there’s actually new stuff on our blog this week?!?! You don’t want to miss this.

Join us next time for another FIRE episode as we discuss the film Fire Island with one of our favorite guests, Tirzah Price, author of Manslaughter Park (episode will be out on July 28). And read along for our next bookpisode out on August 8 when we’ll be reading Piñata by Leopoldo Gout. Don’t forget to leave us a review (5 stars only… love ya). And send your feedback or questions to [email protected] or DM us on IG!

TOC
:30 – Welcome!
17:50 – Book Intro
19:30 – How do dystopian tropes work in this novel? Are we horrified it’s so close to reality?
40:15 – How did the sci-fi elements work for us?
45:50 – Does the novel cover too much ground? Too many perspectives?
1:00:12 – ~ROMANCE~
1:06:56 – The ending
1:16:50 – the Jenna of it all
1:27:44 – Ratings
1:34:09 – What’s on the blog? What’s up next?

Links:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/legislatures-passed-550-anti-trans-bills-so-far-this-year/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/11/journalist-blinded-during-protest-sues-minneapolis-police-state-patrol/
https://www.today.com/video/-chain-gang-all-stars-author-talks-about-his-action-packed-thriller-178654277518