Chain Gang All Stars

“Make them love a version of you. That’s the important part, no matter what you do. Love, then get out.”

Melancholia Bishop says this to Thurwar during their fight, before allowing herself to be killed by Thurwar. From the beginning, one of the novel’s central themes is highlighted: Love and Forgiveness as Restorative Justice.

“I LOVE YOU, the whole world screamed […] She was a vessel for it, love, and every deathmatch she preached it explicitly. Love, love, love. She forced love into this loveless space, made it the subject of her life. She showed them that she, the Hurricane, was capable of great love, and that if they’d look they’d see they were too. And maybe someday they would understand what they’d enabled, what they’d created.”

Staxxx, likewise, showcases Love and Forgiveness as Restorative Justice from the beginning. Although she has a troubled past, she refuses to be defined by it. Instead, she preaches love in a bleak place, an act of resistance that helps the collective effort toward restorative justice.

“She tried to absorb these moments, these few moments in her life when she was not being observed by hundreds of thousands, but instead was just under the watch of a few weak men. When there were no cameras floating up her ass, asking her to be the Hurricane. Here she could regret freely, she could hope openly, she could be herself. She tried to think of herself specifically.

[…]

One of the guards hit her in the ribs with his baton […] ‘Come on, convict.’ She wanted to enjoy this time with the self she hardly ever got to see. She could feel a deep dread, the adrenaline comedown, a headache, and a hard fear of the retribution that could come for her in one of so many ways. She told herself that she was Hamara Stacker. She told herself that she was Hurricane Staxxx. Then she told herself that she was also neither of those people.”

The tension between the characters’ regular names and the nicknames they’re given as celebrities in the CAPE program highlights the dissociative effect of having one’s identity co-opted for profit. Staxxx struggles to decide who she is—Hamara, Hurricane, neither, or both. Rediscovering her identity has been made more difficult by intrusive thoughts resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety