This book is activist Maria Alyokhina’s account of her experiences with Punk rock group Pussy Riot from its founding to the last day of her prison term in 2013. The writing and structure may be chaotic and off putting for some but in these times of political uprisings it's an important book that I will recommend to friends and family.

Maria Alyokhina briefly achieved worldwide fame as as the leader of the Russian punk performance art group, Pussy Riot, after performing for mere moments in a Russian church a song disrespecting Vladimir Putin. She was arrested as a political prisoner and disappeared not just from public consciousness, but literally to the Russian gulag as a dissident. Told unconventionally often in a stream of consciousness, this is her story. The beginning is a little confusing as it is filled with prose, lyrics, and disparate thoughts, but this chronicle is very much worth reading and a sharp lesson to those who claim the American government is fascist. This is what real political oppression looks like and not much has changed since the Soviet era. It's a very personal story as Maria gains her confidence and becomes a spokesperson fighting for the rights of political prisoners hidden away in Russian prisons in the Urals

A very gripping account about being part of one of the most infamous group of modern revolutionaries. Once you pick this up you won't want to put it down. A political memoir for the modern age.

A memoir of one bands protest in Russia. A tale that brings to light the modern Russian penal system and one woman's struggle against injustice and corruption.

Couldn't read on time due to a broken e reader. My sincere apologies to the author and publisher for this.

Most of the books in my winter round-up have been written by someone famous but without the balaclava, you probably wouldn't recognise Maria Alyokhina's name. You'll definitely know who Pussy Riot are though. This book isn't definitive account of the shortlived activist band but rather Maria's personal recollections of what it was like to live through this highly publicised time in her life: the plan, the protest, the arrest, the jail time. The book is only about 200 pages but it's powerful in its everydayness. Well, doing activism is pretty normal to me but maybe not so much for everyone - but still, you would imagine by the way that Russia treated these women that they'd tried to blow something up rather than sing a song in a church. One of the things I've always found so fascinating about Pussy Riot is how they went from the fringes of Russian society to international icons within a matter days, and what a huge struggle it was for them to adjust. This book is a nice window into that experience.

A blunt, honest look at the infamous Pussy Riot protests and the incarceration of the members. This is a raw, emotional memoir and I would recommend it highly

From activist, Pussy Riot member and freedom fighter Maria Alyokhina is a warts and all version of her arrest, trial and imprisonment in a penal colony in Russia. It is blunt and rather shocking at how the inmates are treated within the system. It made for an illuminating read.

This book was a real contradiction in many ways. The writing style could be random and disjointed and the prose often was simple and bare. However the raw emotion it generated cannot be described. I actually couldn't put this book down and all but read in one sitting

I didn't like this book, maybe because of the language used, or the short sentences, but it didn't appeal, and I didn't finish it because it frustrated me. I couldn't get into it. You might like it if you like the band, maybe it is biased more towards teenagers.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

From activist, Pussy Riot member and freedom fighter Maria Alyokhina, a raw, hallucinatory, passionate account of her arrest, trial and imprisonment in a penal colony in the Urals for standing up for what she believed in. Freedom doesn't exist unless you fight for it every day. Revolution is history. If we decided to fall out of it, to disappear, that would mean it would not be our history, but theirs. Not our country, but theirs. In this sense, we didn't take off our masks. We never left the church. On a T-shirt, I had written 'To Back Down an Inch is to Give Up a Mile'. I felt there was no sense in wearing a T-shirt with those words if you didn't hold yourself to them. We have the right to refuse. This is our right, yours and mine. You can't know all the laws by heart; you don't know what will happen if you refuse. But you have to try.

This was one surreal book to read. I am going to start by discounting the writing style - that is hardly relevant to me in this case. It isn't a novel that needs to follow style and structure rules. It is a memoir of a time Maria was a political prisoner in Russia for protesting - or hooliganism as I think it was called at the time - and her raw, uncensored telling of that time is shocking and confronting.

Also, this is a fascinating look at Russia - its politics, its legal system, its view of "undesirables" and their treatment of individuals whom they think are a risk. Certainly an eye-opening read!


Paul
ARH

Raw and honest account of a first-hand experience of the Russian penal system, exposing what Masha went through in order to improve the horrendous conditions and fight for basic human rights.

The book is an autobiography of a pussy rioter telling how the organisation started, of what she did and her resultant trial and imprisonment. It is a straightforward lyrical account which develops into a mix of prose and verse with cartoon illustrations. As she says they wanted to prick Putin’s arse. This they did by staging an unauthorised punk rock concert in a Moscow Cathedral with obscene lyrics insulting the establishment before being evicted. From the reaction by the authorities that resulted they certainly did as there was a show trial and a severe prison sentence give out. Even in prison she is able to upset the status quo by exposing the corruption and wrong doing of the prison regime and bring about change. The story is of a young lady with courage and an indomitable spirit that could not be suppressed despite a prison regime of humiliation and physical oppression from which she survives undaunted.

Riot days was one of those books that you want everyone to read. Mainly due to the fact that the book is superb but it ignites in you the feeling that we all should stand up for what is right. Not many books have the power to do that and I will buying copies to pass out it!!

Personal elements are kept to a minimum throughout Riot Days. In fact, the writing moves at such a pace that you don’t have time to get to know many of those around the activist. Peppered with references to a troupe of Russian protesters and dissidents who have inspired her, this is not a story of the individual, but a reminder to constantly fight for our freedom and history. Once injustice is normalised, atrocities no longer shocking, our lives are no longer our own. As Maria says to a guard asking her to end one of her many hunger strikes, “I protest wherever I can, wherever I need to. That’s my nature. I need to protest.”

From the absurdities of her trial, in which Maria and her fellow band member are placed in cages, to the horrifying conditions in prison, where sanitary towels are stuffed into gaps in the windows in an attempt to block out the bitter cold, this is a harrowing picture of human rights abuses in Russia. Towards the end of Maria’s book, she recounts a conversation with one of the friendlier guards in the colony. Irina Vasilievna, who has worked there for 40 years, exposes the reality that, “Nothing has changed. Look around you. Does it look like anything ever changes in this country?”

This lies at the heart of Riot Days, an urgent warning against the stasis not just gripping Russia, but waiting to creep in if we are not vigilant enough to stop it. This an important read at a time when Western headlines on Brexit and Trump are eclipsing stories around regimes giving less and less in the way of democracy.

In August 2012, something happened in Russia that had quite an impact on the music scene: members of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk rock band inspired by the Riot Grrrl! movement of the 90s, were arrested for performing/protesting in a church.

Riot Days tells the story of that event, its leadup and its fallout, from the point of view of band member Maria Alyokhina. Originally a protest against the alignment of church and state, Alyokhina's fight soon becomes about much more - it is a fight for equality, for respect, for prisoners to be treated as human beings. Through her eyes, we see the cruelty and degradation brought upon her and her fellow inmates, the deceit and duplicity rife amongst those in charge, and how unjust the justice system really is. Whilst we only have her side of the story here, we also have proof in her court appearances and changes made because of them - Alyokhina really did make a difference.

Her account is interspersed with lyrics, poetry, drawings, and quotes from politicians, her own court appearances and others involved in the case. Occasionally, the chronology is hard to follow, but this reflects her mental state at the time (hunger strikes and confinement take their toll); the account does make sense as a whole. This is not just a recounting of events, but a comment on friendship, family and relationships; on prejudice and descrimination; on what makes us human and how we can fight to hold onto that.

There's true poetry within these words.

Whatever your political, religious, social, or musical leanings, Riot Days is an engrossing insight into the socio-political landscape of Russia and the world in the recent past, as well as what it is to be imprisoned. We cannot deny that Maria Alyokhina's actions changed lives: this book may yet change more. Truly worthwhile.

Riot Days was one of my favourite books of the year but now I see the author has a close relationship with someone on the far right I feel I can't trust any of it! So disappointing!

SUCH an important memoir. I remember seeing Pussy Riot in the news at the time of their arrest but this book opened my eyes to the treatment of political prisoners in Russia that you just don’t seen in the mainstream news. The writing style was interesting- reminds me of fictionalised books about Russian political prisoners I’ve read. It’s all the more harrowing for being a true account.

This exhilarating, if somewhat fragmented and unstructured, book is feminist activist Maria Alyokhina’s account of her experiences with Punk rock group Pussy Riot from its founding in the winter of 2011-12 to the last day of her prison term in 2013. It’s a vivid indictment of Russian political repression and its infamous criminal justice system, and an atmospheric and evocative portrait of the reality of prison life. It’s an impressionistic account, but nonetheless powerful for that and I found it gripping and compelling. Her imprisonment for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after the group's performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral on the eve of the presidential election is relatively familiar but this personal account fills in many of the gaps and certainly deepened my own comprehension of the group and their activities. It’s quite a dry and factual account and Alyokhina gives very little away about her deeper feelings and emotions, but the narrative is interleaved with drawings by her son Filip which helps to humanise her and her plight. An illuminating and very readable book, and an important one for anyone wishing to understand more about contemporary Russia.

Maria Alyokhina is a Pussy Riot member who was sent to penal camps for two years after taking part in an infamous anti-Putin protest in a cathedral in Moscow. She writes about her arrest and later imprisonment, and what it is like to be an activist in a repressive state.

This book was utterly fascinating. I had a vague awareness of Pussy Riot when I received this book, and I knew this would be completely up my street. It was really interesting to see how the human right mechanisms came into play and how effective they were in helping Maria. As someone who studies international human rights law at university, this was really beneficial for me personally to see it from a different perspective, but even generally I think Alyokhina's writing really shows the lengths we still need to take to be able to protect political activism and the inherent weaknesses of the current systems in play in combating repressive regimes. Further, Riot Days thoroughly deserves its space amongst other texts about the suppression of expression, such as 1984.

I was particularly drawn in by the latter section when she is in the prison camp. She writes about the conditions she and her fellow prisoners lived under, the casual cruelty shown by many of the staff as well as her enduring activism in improving the system. Her greatest impact as an activist was not the protest itself, but the international notoriety she gained from it. Alyokhina was able to engage with her higher profile in the world to improve the conditions in the penal camp, getting fair pay for the prisoners' work as well as a variety of environmental improvements. She is a born advocate.

I really admired the way Alyokhina put Riot Days together. She has a big personality and it shows; black humour permeates every chapter and you can feel the anger at injustice and defiance rippling through the pages. The writing is visceral and almost a stream of consciousness; I usually prefer a fuller narrative but it really works its magic here as you are completely drawn into the world of penal camps in the desolate Urals. Part of its effect lies in her young and slightly undeveloped voice and together it has crafted a wonderful addition to the canon. With that being said, it does jump around a lot and perhaps at some points stronger editing would have been appreciated to keep everything a bit more solid.

I am really interested to read more autobiographies about political activism in Russia, China and similar states where those freedoms of expression are often undermined. I am so glad I got to read Maria's story and I am sure we will be hearing more from her now she has gained her freedom. You can tell her time in prison has only wetted her appetite for using her voice to advocate for freedom.

Thank you to Netgalley and Allen Lane for sending me a copy for review.