I finished this book with a fierce purr in my gut. Poetic, achingly determined, stubborn, charismatic and eye opening only begin to define the power behind the eloquent writing that demands your attention. I had to keep reminding myself that this is happened just a few years ago albeit the circumstances and descriptions of treatment sound like something more believable hundreds of years ago. This book is becoming increasingly relevant with ever passing day!!!

'Riot Days' is a terrifying account of Maria Alyokhina's, a member of the activist band Pussy Riot, arrest, prosecution, and time spent in jail for doing something as simple as standing up for what she believed in. Alyokhina fought for what was right both outside of prison and inside. When we think of freedom and democracy, we believe that they could never be taken away from us. We've all heard people say "that just doesn't happen here". Sadly, it can happen anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. To create change, we must stand up for what is right and demand that our voices be heard. 'Riot Days' was a beautiful, awful reminder that these things can, in fact, happen here. I'll leave you with an inspiring quote from Alyokhina herself, "Freedom does not exist unless you fight for it every day. This is the story about how I made a choice. We are all Pussy Riot. And actions break fear. 'To Back Down an Inch is to Give Up a Mile'."

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books (UK) for giving me the opportunity to read this.

Very powerful message. I was in awe of this band's story when I first heard of it on the news in America, and am still in awe of it now. A very challenging and powerful message from women who feel they truly hold all the power they need in themselves for change to come. I think everyone would benefit from reading this book! Masha's truth is goose bump inducing, it is a woman teething constantly back forth between the edge of life and death. Freedom isn't always free and it isn't always easy. I would recommend this book to everybody. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

Riot Days is the story of member of Russian activist group Pussy Riot Maria Alyokhina's trial for a demonstration and the time she spent in prison as a result.
Initially the book confused me ,the first few pages seem like random thoughts that don't seem to connect and I nearly gave up on it. From then on it's still not exactly flowing but at least you can follow what's going on,it reads almost like a list of diary entries but once you get into the style of the thing it's easy enough to follw.
I'm glad I persevered as it's one of the best books I've read,Ms Alyokhina is an amazingly brave young woman who takes on a corrupt and brutal prison system and beats them. To do that anywhere is admirable,under such a repressive regime that does it's evil best through isolation,physical and psychological pressures to shut her up it's truly remarkable.
It's not a book for everyone,the stream of consciousness format make it's hard to read in one sense,the language and graphic scenes in another but it is a truly remarkable read.

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy in return for an honest review.

I LOVE THIS. Seriously, it was one of the best books I've ever read-- so rich with history that pertains to what's going on right now in the world, America especially.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Riot Days by MAria Alyokhina’ in exchange for my honest unbiased review.
I have to admit that I find that style of writing odd and at times hard to follow. It is certainly an eye opener at what they do. However I did get this sense that there were parts that were missing.
1) their reason for protesting and 2) they did seem to show real commitment to protesting (almost the attitude of when they felt like it)

It was an interesting insight into Russian politics and also to have someone else’s opinion other than Putins

Modern Russia does not seem to like dissidents. I didn't really understand what the group Pussy Riot tried to do or the aftermath of their short lived performance. Their protest against the Orthodox Church's support of Putin gets Maria two years in the Russian penal system. The prisons are dank, cold, isolated and poorly resourced. As a "political" she is isolated.
She is a protester so she protests. No matter what is thrown her way she stands committed to her principles seeking fair humane treatment. And she has many wins.
Her story is fascinating but the way she details her thoughts and actions are very original. Her writing seems very natural, entertaining but serious. You don't need to support her views or methods but her focus on the "big picture", resolution to succeed and to keep true to herself is seen in very few people.

I really enjoyed reading this, and found it fascinating. That said, the writing style would make it difficult for most of my population to read.

This is a really interesting and inspiring book to read. The way it is written is a little all over the place but it feels authentic to the writer. The story itself is fascinating and shocking - definitely worth a read whether you have heard of the writer or not.

Since America and Russia are besties now I figured that this book would give me some insight about our new comrades. Pussy riot gained notoriety a few years back when they preformed/protested in a cathedral in Russia. Three of the members were caught and charged with hooliganism. They each were sentenced to 2 years. Maria Alyokhina was/is one of those members. This is her account about the performance, being on the lam, getting arrested and her jail time. I enjoyed the writing but I was thrown off at first. Her writing style won't be for everyone but it's important book especially with everything going on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Maria Alyokhina for allowing me to read and review Riot Days. I appreciated having Maria's point of view, what with this band being in the media so often now for their fight.

I should have loved this one. I love memoirs, especially political and feminist ones written by women, I find Pussy Riot endlessly fascinating, I love books about how art can change the world, but with this I struggled. I found the fragmented style difficult to access (which again, weird, because I love that style normally) and put the book down around 20% in and every time I tried to read further, I got stuck.

A really interesting and well told story with wonderful writing. I found myself thinking about it when I was reading it and raced pack to pick it up.

I spotted this on Netgalley and couldn't not push the request button, I vaguely knew about Pussy Riot and the protests that got them arrested but that was the end of my knowledge so I as interested to find out more!

A Pussy Rioter's riveting, hallucinatory account of her years in Russia's criminal system and of finding power in the most powerless of situations
In February 2012, after smuggling an electric guitar into Moscow's iconic central cathedral, Maria Alyokhina and other members of the radical collective Pussy Riot performed a provocative "Punk Prayer," taking on the Orthodox church and its support for Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime.
For this, they were charged with "organized hooliganism" and were tried while confined in a cage and guarded by Rottweilers. That trial and Alyokhina's subsequent imprisonment became an international cause. For Alyokhina, her two-year sentence launched a bitter struggle against the Russian prison system and an iron-willed refusal to be deprived of her humanity. Teeming with protests and police, witnesses and cellmates, informers and interrogators, Riot Days gives voice to Alyokhina's insistence on the right to say no, whether to a prison guard or to the president. Ultimately, this insistence delivers unprecedented victories for prisoners' rights.
Evocative, wry, laser-sharp, and laconically funny, Alyokhina's account is studded with song lyrics, legal transcripts, and excerpts from her jail diary--dispatches from a young woman who has faced tyranny and returned with the proof that against all odds even one person can force its retreat.

I really struggled with this to start with, its written in a stream of consciousness style and that kind of put me off at first, but once I got used to it I really lost myself in the story. I didn't know very much about Pussy Riot, apart from what appeared in the news and I didn't know that much about Russia and how their justice system worked, though I had heard things, so it was great to see a new perspective on it and find out more about it all from a first-hand account.

You get the feeling as you're reading that Maria (or Masha) and her friends don't really have any idea what they're getting into and for me, living in a country where protesting isn't really considered that serious a crime, seeing her experience in prison was quite eye-opening. I found the warmth of character particularly inspiring, no matter how awful a time she was having, Masha refused to back down or keep quiet. This was a quick read and was really interesting, but  I think the physical book would be a much easier read, the layout didn't quite work on my old school kindle.

I had heard of Pussy Riot but didn’t really know much about them or the case that this book is about. This is a very interesting look at what happened both before, during and after the infamous event. I would have liked more details about Maria’s time in prison and what happened after she left but this was a very good read.

Riot Days is a memoir by Maria, “Masha”, Alyokhina, one of the founding members of the Russian feminist protest punk band Pussy Riot. Its subject the events following the band’s anti-Putin Demonstration in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in 2012, to the arrest and then imprisonment in Russian penal colonies.

The arrested members of the band were charged with “Hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” because the prosecutor made the case that the use of the words “Holy Shit” in the song was an attempt to insult to all of Christianity.

Obviously the pun was lost in translation.

For 30 seconds of a song Masha and her band mates were each sentenced to two years in penal colonies.

The book takes you all through the court case and it’s wonderfully presented as there are excerpts from the court transcript showing just how much of a farce their case was, or perhaps the entire Russian legal system where government opposition is concerned. Whether that’s the leaps of logic the prosecution make to charge them with more than just trespassing, or the blatant disregard from the Judge and guards.

The majority of the book concerns the penal sentence and the dire conditions, including being put in to solitary confinement with no books, barely a mattress, and just a hole in the floor to take care of your business. As well as the daily humiliations and verbal abuse from the guards, and tantamount to emotional torture when prisoners were denied theirs letters, phone calls, or visitations, in some cases a tactic used in an attempt to turn other prisoners against Masha.

There is one instance while in a jail during her trial, where it was so cold that the inmates attempted to seal cracks and gaps around the window in their cell with left over bread and spare sanitary pads.

The penal colony, the day to day regime, the so called “rehabilitation”, reminded me a lot of the Red Centre in Handmaid’s Tale – telling the girls they were either worthless or their only proper place was at home making Borsch.

Actually a lot of it reminded me of Handmaid’s Tale

I found it incredibly ironic that the reaction from the Putin regime – let’s face it, they were the ones controlling the situation – was to be draconian, Soviet even, and put the girls in prison for a long time to silence their protest, to bend them in to submission. However, the result was that not only did Pussy Riot become internationally known for their protest, but they continued to protest and defy the regime of the prison systems to fight for the human rights of their fellow prisoners.

It’s a very candid account of what it means to be a part of the resistance in Putin’s Russia, and a wakeup call to the extent of the police state and authoritarianism under Putin that is in no way to be admired or aspired to, and especially not by Western Leaders. But equally it a warning to populations who hunker down in their own ignorance to elect such leaders and parties, or blithely accepting what is presented on pro-party news outlets to maintain the fiction these regimes create.

Between the subject material and the Russian writing style it could have been heavy and dry, with
very wordy prose, but Masha kept the sentences short and simple, and created a wonderfully accessible narrative while maintaining a good pace and tone.

It’s laid out in short bursts of paragraphs, somewhere between diary entries and the transcript of a vlog. It feels very appropriate as a memory piece, rather makes me wonder whether Masha dictated the text rather than writing. I admit to start with it felt a little disjointed to read but once you get in to the momentum you find a certain kind of poetry in her style.

It’s not all doom and gloom, there is inspiration, a rallying call, for protest and for what can be achieved through persistence in the face of popularism.

I think it’s an important read for anyone who considers themselves part of a resistance, whether #MarchForOurLives, or the Time’s Up / #MeToo movements, or any anti-austerity bodies in the UK. Just to pick up a line;

“Revolution is a story. If we fell out of it, disappeared, it would be their story, not ours.”

That was in reference to the choice not to leave Russia or hide in the countryside, but I think it appeals to all of us not to think our job is done after one protest. That there needs to be persistence, that no government can be allowed to have behaviours unchecked, regardless of what the consequences might be for the protester.

(Review as appears on Goodreads)

I found the style and presentation so difficult that I did not get past chapter one. Too clever for its own good and a dull set-up. Any book that says, "put me down" is obeyed with so much good stuff out there. Sorry.

Riot Days tells the story of Maria 'Masha' Alyokhina, one of the Pussy Riot members jailed in 2012 after a performance inside a Moscow Cathedral. While at the beginning of the book we learn the motivation behind this performance, what happened the day of the performance and how Masha and other members were on the run following the event, the bulk of the book focuses on what happened after they were arrested. We're told the horrors of the Russian prison system and what happened to Masha while incarcerated. We learn of things Masha did in prison to improve the living conditions and the ways she was punished for speaking out.

I found the book fascinating and it was a quick read. My low score was more a reflection on the fact that this book has an almost stream of consciousness writing style at times. It took me a while to get into the flow of things (to the point where I almost gave up on it) but once I got it I enjoyed reading it. As I read it by ebook, I would like to see a copy of it as a physical book as I think the way it's written may book better laid out in a physical book. I think I may have picked up on the stream of consciousness style a lot faster that way and settled into the book quicker.

I heard about Pussy Riot at the time but had no idea they were jailed, much less what they went through. This short, punchy book shines a light on the shocking treatment of people in Russia as well as the bravery of Maria, who fought against the maltreatment of inmates.

I just didn't like this book at all, sorry - it may have been lost in translation, but I just didn't feel anything or care about what happened. Sorry!