Book #49 of 2018:
Out of Orange by Cleary Wolters
The Netflix prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black began as an adaptation of a true-life memoir, with the character Alex Vause based on a figure from author Piper Kerman’s past. Out of Orange is that woman’s own account of her time as a smuggler-turned-prisoner, but it’s unfortunately nowhere near as compelling as the first book or the show. Blame the editors for some awkward, repetitive, and disjointed language, but the story itself is also quite slow and often focused on mundane details like the minutia of flight plans or a revolving door of the author’s lovers and pet cats. And since it’s largely missing the advocacy for criminal justice reform that helps make the original Kerman memoir so effective, there’s really not much here to recommend at all.
★☆☆☆☆
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