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A review by katykelly
Orange Is the New Black: My Year In a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman
4.0
4.5 stars
I've never seen the TV series, but it is the reason I read this. My husband is a big fan and I was interested enough to want to know the 'true' story of a woman's incarceration.
If you are wanting to read it, expecting the same characters and plots as the TV show, be ready to be disappointed. As my other half tells me, none of that is in the book.
Which was fine by me. I found this pretty fascinating anyway - a story of Piper's youthful misadventures, illegal drugs experiences leading her a decade later to self-surrender and to spend a year and a half in her thirties in a women's prison.
She's not your typical prisoner, which is probably why I found it so interesting - a loving fiancee waiting for her, books delivered to her regularly - could be me, could be people I know. This boiled down to: this could be me if I'd made a stupid mistake. How would I cope? What would I experience?
A supporting cast of colourful inmates and guards surround Piper as she at first keeps her head down and later learns to trust and value friendship in prison. Being a UK resident as well, seeing the inside of America's prisons was also enlightening. Their job programmes, the 'cliques', food, shops, facilities.
This audio version accompanied me on several jogs. Though I occasionally realised I was forgetting who was who in the prison, I really enjoyed listening to Piper's account of her incarceration, how she is treated, the unceremonious end to it all, her gradual realisation of the gravity of her crime and how it affected other people.
Honest and an entertaining read. Just not the TV show.
I've never seen the TV series, but it is the reason I read this. My husband is a big fan and I was interested enough to want to know the 'true' story of a woman's incarceration.
If you are wanting to read it, expecting the same characters and plots as the TV show, be ready to be disappointed. As my other half tells me, none of that is in the book.
Which was fine by me. I found this pretty fascinating anyway - a story of Piper's youthful misadventures, illegal drugs experiences leading her a decade later to self-surrender and to spend a year and a half in her thirties in a women's prison.
She's not your typical prisoner, which is probably why I found it so interesting - a loving fiancee waiting for her, books delivered to her regularly - could be me, could be people I know. This boiled down to: this could be me if I'd made a stupid mistake. How would I cope? What would I experience?
A supporting cast of colourful inmates and guards surround Piper as she at first keeps her head down and later learns to trust and value friendship in prison. Being a UK resident as well, seeing the inside of America's prisons was also enlightening. Their job programmes, the 'cliques', food, shops, facilities.
This audio version accompanied me on several jogs. Though I occasionally realised I was forgetting who was who in the prison, I really enjoyed listening to Piper's account of her incarceration, how she is treated, the unceremonious end to it all, her gradual realisation of the gravity of her crime and how it affected other people.
Honest and an entertaining read. Just not the TV show.