Chain-Gang All-Stars is set in a dystopian near-future America where prison systems have been transformed into a brutal, televised blood sport called the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) program.

Through a blend of speculative and social critique, Chain-Gang All-Stars offers a chilling reflection on society's capacity for both dehumanization and resilience, challenging readers to examine where entertainment, profit, and justice intersect in harmful ways.

Hong explained: "What might seem to be a dystopian nightmare is even more terrifying because Adjei-Brenyah brilliantly broadcasts such irrefutable truths as the U.S. having the world's highest rate of incarceration, with disproportionate numbers of Black and POC prisoners.

'"[3] Similarly, Publishers Weekly highlighted how "the author delivers insightful critiques of the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, and the ways in which Hollywood and celebrity culture exploit Black talent," while also indicating that "both the political allegory and the edge-of-your-seat action work beautifully.

"[6] Library Journal's Sarah Hashimoto called Chain-Gang All-Stars "an unforgettable book reverberating with alarming truths and providing an uncomfortable look at an all-too-imaginable future".

"[8] Bidisha Mamata, writing for The Observer, called the novel "crushingly painful" with "loaded and on-the-nose commentary on racism, exploitation, inequality and the legacy and loud echoes of slavery in the US."