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.

And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. 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. Chain-Gang All-Starsby Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon Books) If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands in the game of retribution. Slowly, you plot.īut when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.Īcceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. Because this was not the first offence against you. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. She already knows which option suits her best… Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati (Sourcebooks Landmark)Īs for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. Additionally, a familiar author co-created a very queer and very magical graphic novel centered around softball. There’s a newly translated visual novel that will guarantee to crack a smile. (The latter in satire format from a beloved fantasy writer.) However, the list doesn’t just feature not all serious books and thrillers. The final lists include a number of books that feature topics like hidden Black history, the prison industrial complex, female rage, and the whiteness of publishing. A number of these titles publish in May-including four dropping today! However, that didn’t make it that much easier to narrow down our picks this month. One list consists of graphic novels and manga, and another of books. At the start of the year, I compiled two lists of the most anticipated titles of 2023.

We should all be feminists