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.

In 2012 a group calling themselves Pussy Riot staged a protest ,called 'Punk Prayer', against Putin and the Russian government. Following their protest  the women were forced to go on the run from the law. Maria, called Masha in the memoir, is one member who gets caught and sent to prison for her 'crimes', this is her story. 

The story of Pussy Riot hit headlines worldwide, women put in prison simply for protesting. Going into this memoir I didn't know what to expect, I'd followed the story with interest but wondered what had happened to the women. This memoir explores the reasons behind the protest and what many people forget, the humans who lived it. 

The book is set out in a fragmented style, almost as if it were a diary. That said it can make it incredibly hard to read. There were times when the book jumps between time frames and situations, which caused a lot of confusion while reading and meant that I often lost concentration while reading. I also think there was an issue with the translation, some things didn't come across clearly, leaving me to guess what the author meant. 

This is an important book to read, there is a lot we don't know a lot about what happens to political prisoners. With Masha's determination and status within her prisons she was able to make some changes to the way women were treated in prison. She was able to give them some basic human rights, many of which they are denied. 

It is a fascinating look at the reasons behind the movement, however, there were points where I felt too distant from Masha, I didn't feel like I knew her as a person. She mentions a son at the beginning but he's hardly mentioned for the rest of the book, I wanted to know more about her life, her family and who she was outside Pussy Riot. 

I gave Riot Days 3 stars. While I enjoyed it and thought that it was an interesting look at the life of a political prisoner and what lead her there. That said, there were issues with the way translations came across and the format made it incredibly difficult to follow. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.

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.

I was sent an uncorrected advance proof of Riot Days by Maria Alyokhin to read and review by NetGalley
Being a supporter of Amnesty International for many years I was very interested in reading Riot Days; Maria Alyokhin’s account of her arrest and subsequent imprisonment for her involvement in political protest with the band Pussy Riot. It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the book but I was soon hooked and couldn’t put it down. The picture painted by the author of her time on trial and in prison really only scratches the surface of what she and all the other women suffered and indeed still suffer in the penal colonies in the Urals.
Maria Alyokhin can only be described as an amazing woman who is brave enough to not only stand up for what she believes in but even when incarcerated she stood up on behalf of all the women prisoners to gain better living and working conditions and to try and end the abuse thinly disguised as routine procedure. Sadly, I am sure that the appalling situation Maria encountered is echoed in numerous other colonies around the world.
This book should be a lesson to us all. We all have a voice and that voice should be heard without fear of imprisonment – a luxury that many of us take for granted in our land of free speech. We should speak out against injustice and try to change the myriad of things that are so very wrong.
I defy anyone to read this book and not be spurred on to try to make a difference.

This is a declaration of war against all that is wrong in this world. We need more people like Maria Alyokhnia in this world. A breathless and brave journey told without any frills.

Interesting read, especially to read the background story and the information that never made it in to the news.
It highlighted some important issues about Russia as a country and although it kept the politics light there are some serious issues in the country.
I didn't find it flowed too well as a book, but I am not sure if this was down to the style of writing or the translation, however as the book is more a memoir than a novel then I don't think mattered too much.

A bit of a fever dream of a book. The narrative tells the story of the author's experiences in Pussy Riot and her experiences with the Russian criminal justice system. The author's writing style is very fluid and poetic in places, including a sprinkling of song lyrics and tangential observations. For me, however, I found the style to hinder the narrative making it hard to follow at times.

This is an intriguing diary of political activist and Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina. It is heartfelt and almost despairing at times when Alyokhina describes the squalid conditions that she has to be imprisoned in after protesting in a church in Russia. However, her heroic efforts in jail even allowed her to gain some small victories, which makes her an activist through and through. From hunger strikes to taking prison guards to court, her determination should be lauded.

The copy that I received was unformatted making it a little difficult to follow new threads, but reading it as a journal definitely makes more sense as there are small blocks of personal day to day meanderings and quotes.

I picked up Riot Days as a memoir by one of the Pussy Riot group who were imprisoned in Russia for protesting. I had hoped to better understand their experience but unfortunately the structure of the book didn't work for me.
Initially I was trying to read the Advanced copy via my kindle app and I wondered if the formatting was making it difficult to read so I switched to a PDF version which was easier but still strange.
Each chapter was split into short sections with bold headings but I couldn't work out the placement of these because sometimes they seemed to relate to what had been written before and sometimes to what came next.
The text itself was almost like a cross between poetry and prose with short paragraphs and a disjointed style, more like a stream of consciousness. It left me very confused about what was happening as timelines crossed.
There were a few illustrations used, and I'm not sure if these were drawn by Maria but they were very childish and I don't think they added anything to the narrative.
The final two chapters were the most informative and seemed to be more linearly structured. In these Maria shares with us how she challenged the injustices in the prison she was in through her legal representation and made life better for the inmates.
The start didn't really help me understand exactly what the initial protest was for and so I experienced a disconnect with her plight , which was undoubtedly traumatic. To be honest it left me wanting to go back and read news items about it instead. I wonder if this is a case of lost in translation.

I did spot this quote though which spoke to me. Make good choices people.

"There is no certainty or predictability. There is no fate. There is a choice. My choice and yours, in each moment that demands it."

This is certainly unusual both in its subject matter and in its style which is hard to access. The right to stand up against the Russian government is a given but it is unfortunate it was in an eccentric cause. It hardly seems worth sacrificing the upbringing and happiness of her son for such a limited cause.

It's interesting to hear Maria's side of the story rather than just the media's interpretation of the events that happened. However it definitely seems like it's translated badly (or could it be the edit?) and some bits I had to read two or three times to make sense of them and even then I sometimes just had to move on. It's a short memoir so something that would only take a couple of hours or maybe a Day but it was hard work to get through it due to the edit/mistranslation. I studied a small proportion of Russian history as part of history at school and found it interesting so it's interesting to read about how things are now. You'd almost hope that there was freedom of speech widely available but it's not like that all. I received this book free from Netgalley for an honest review and it came out last week.

All in all, that was a very insightful read.
I had no idea of the oppressive political landscape, the political entanglement with religion, and the ongoing fight for freedom and a revolution that Russians like Maria Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokno engage in.

“A narrow sliver of light in a huge field of injustice and mistreatment”

The story itself is imbedded with engaging poetry excerpts, song lyrics, and quotes.
And although I believe Maria achieved what she set out to achieve, namely documenting her ordeals and ideals whilst portraying her strong desire to make change happen and her unwillingness to waiver from her believes, I would have loved for the story to be a little more emotional. To really understand what was going through Maria’s mind, to better appreciate the sacrifices she continually made and the risks she took with the decisions she stuck to.

“If you dream alone, the dream remains only a dream, but if you dream with others, you create reality”

Great and quick read. Thanks for opening my eyes.
Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Books for a review copy.

Now I know that 5 stars disguises the difficulties in the writing style and at times the lack of structure but it reflects more the person, that is Maria Alyokhina and her struggle inside the Russian penal system.
She came to my attention on Radio 2, when I caught the end of her interview with Jeremy Vine. I had already requested this book as I had previously been a great reader of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his famous account "The Gulag Archipelago" about the Soviet forced labor camp system. I wanted to compare a modern day account of a political prisoner.
What I didn't appreciate was that the author's notority and custodial sentence surrounded her involvement with the punk group 'Pussy Riot' and their infamous playing in a Moscow cathedral.
Before I began to read this personal account, I listened again to the radio download of her interview in full which is part of a series I think about what it is to be human.
Her declaration and subsequent answers to the questions about her interment greatly impressed me and made any difficulties associated with the advanced reading copy of little concern.
No doubt the finished published book will appear more coherent and hopefully sell in its millions. I can not comprehend her self determination to see that protest is what makes us human and if we just comply we lose our identity and appear as machines.
I loved the honesty of this book, the lack of ego and self promotion. I loved her concern and inclusion of others from the prisoners to the guards and jailers. Her spirit is a crative force and could not be broken, yet the book reads not as a tribute to her resilience but that of those prisoners who do not face the prospect of an early release.
I guess the establishment sees such individuals as radical elements in a society, undermining the status quo. I guess through punk and music she has grown into the woman she is, a political activist and seeker of justice for others.
I am not sure how she is universally received from Human Rights organisations to Amnesty International. She clearly has no time for Putin's regime but as a person I can not judge her on her politics but on her humanity. Which I commend to you as you read this book for yourself.

I didn’t know what to make of this book when I requested it to read from NetGalley. Then leave an honest review after you have read it. But I am glad I did. After hearing Maria Alyokhina on the Jeremy Vine show I checked my kindle downloads and started to read Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina.
This book may only have a few pages but it gives you a strong account of the Pussy Riot that happened in Russia in 2012.
This book is raw, gripping and contains Maria’s personal account of what happened to her. Three of the group were caught and then put on trial. Two of them were jailed. Maria served 2 years sentence and started a bitter struggle against the Russian prison system and an iron-willed refusal to be deprived of her humanity. Maria is a very strong young lady and I wish her all the best for her future.
It is a shocking book and contains some shocking language but Please don’t be put off! This account of history of what happened in 2012 in Russia need to be heard.

Reviews on https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2123692350
and AMAZON UK.

Way back in 2012, Pussy Riot hit the headlines. Doubtless assisted by their memorable name, this group of masked women interrupted a church service in Moscow to protest against Vladimir Putin. Three of the group were caught and put on trial, two of them were jailed.

This is the story of Maria Alyokhina, one of the jailed women.

Riot Days is a short book, covering the lead up to the protest, the protest itself, a brief spell on the run, the trial and the prison colonies. Alyokhina narrates in a somewhat clipped, jerky fashion. Especially at the start, there is a real lack of any sense of why she and her colleagues are doing what they are doing, They don't like Putin, but there is no hint of why they don't like him. It is an almost childlike push back against authority for no reason.

This continues through the trial and prison. Alyokhina rebels against everything. She argues and pushes back in a system in which to do so has always been counter-productive. And always it seems to be without particular reason. A battle fought over a padlock that has been imposed because of a refusal to follow an instruction. Although this defies explanation, it lifts an otherwise ordinary retelling of the Gulag Archipelago to a new level. We see how a system manages to both live by an unbending framework of rules and make things up as it goes along. It is Kafkaesque, but very real. And there is a fascinating portrait of someone who is contrary regardless of consequence - and what happens when she takes on the monolithic system.

In honesty, this is not a great piece of writing. It is clunky, linear and ends abruptly. But it is so compelling it is hard to turn away.