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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
dark
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Keri Blakinger's narrative goes back and forth between her arrival in jail and the experiences that brought her there. She was arrested with heroin, and her case got more attention than most because Blakinger had been a competitive figure skater as a teen, and was a Cornell student at the time of her bust.
Blakinger's story, in and out of prison is bleak, but as she narrates it in the audiobook isn't so harsh that it's impossible to take in. Her voice is blunt and youthful. She's done some things and seen some things and doesn't shy away from them. She is candid about the race and class privileges that make her story different from those of many of her fellow incarcerees. Now that she is out of prison, her journalism beat is Texas prisons, so she's giving back (and taking names).
Blakinger's story, in and out of prison is bleak, but as she narrates it in the audiobook isn't so harsh that it's impossible to take in. Her voice is blunt and youthful. She's done some things and seen some things and doesn't shy away from them. She is candid about the race and class privileges that make her story different from those of many of her fellow incarcerees. Now that she is out of prison, her journalism beat is Texas prisons, so she's giving back (and taking names).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I like to think of Keri Blakinger’s prison memoir as the inverse of Tara Westover’s Educated. Instead of getting educated, the book is about a very gifted young woman becoming “uneducated” and pushing down to the lowest rungs of society before getting her “holy shit” moment.
It is a good, swift read.
I don’t usually like to help crooks make money from their list of “greatest hits” but Blakinger does a little more good than ill and deserves a look.
It is a good, swift read.
I don’t usually like to help crooks make money from their list of “greatest hits” but Blakinger does a little more good than ill and deserves a look.
A riveting memoir about a successful girl who's an Olympic hopeful figure skater with an eating disorder and drug abuse. She grows into a Cornell student who goes to jail for almost two years. The memoir ends with her after prison in a successful writing career and a Cornell degree.
Harsh, hard story but it does get better toward the end. A revealing look at what our prison system is. A fair amount of language and graphic situations, but I don’t think you can write a memoir like this without it.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced