Beautiful concept but very obviously hastily written, poor character development, improper grammar and misuse of vocabulary throughout, unnecessary footnotes that eb between fact and fiction. Overall comes off as a well intended, rushed high school paper that had to meet a set word count.

Awfully bad wow

Fantastic overall, initial reaction was concern with the level of violence which proved to be a central requirement of the story. Footnotes were intriguing and the book is an indictment of our Prison system. I don’t think an evolution from something like MMA to the CAPE program is completely unimaginable.

I kept reading hoping something original would happen, but the disappointment of predictability was what I encountered. Friday black was such a brilliant and original read. This book read as if it were an novelization of a movie.

Simply incredible. One the best books I've read in the last 10 years. Searing.

I used to count Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bachman and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margarette Atwood as my top two favorite books; Chain Gang All-Stars is now my number one. How can one adequately write a review for such a prolific, life changing, soul challenging work of literature? Please read this book, it will change you. “I love you”.