If you are a fan of Orange Is The New Black, you absolutely must read this book! Out of Orange documents Cleary Wolter's life who is the inspiration for the fan favourite Alex Vause. Just like Alex, Cleary was involved with an international drug cartel that ultimately landed her and many others in prison. Her novel begins with her time spent with the cartel right up to her being released from prison after her sentence. We also get a snippet of her reaction to the show which I found to be really interesting as she states she knew nothing about it until she basically saw her life advertised on TV. I felt really sorry for Cleary at this point actually as she describes how hard she worked to rebuild her life after prison and Netflix's new show Orange Is The New Black threatened to reveal her past.
I'm interested in crime so I was excited to find out the show was based on Piper Kerman's novel Orange Is The New Black. I found it so interesting to learn about the real Piper and her experiences so when I heard Cleary Wolters was releasing her story, I could not wait to get a copy. Alex is my favourite character by a mile so I was intrigued to get to know 'the real Alex'. The show is very Piper centric so it was great to hear the other side of the story.
I found Out Of Orange a compelling read as Cleary is a very charismatic and likeable person. I feel she is very honest in telling her story and I really enjoyed her writing style as she has a witty sense of humour. It was easy to read and a true page turner especially at the beginning when I was waiting nervously for the cartel to be caught. Alex's past in the cartel is one of my favourite parts of the show so I enjoyed this part of the book the most. It was fascinating to learn how the business worked and Cleary tells her experience with great detail including how they carried great amounts of money from one country to another. She even discusses how much each member was paid for a trip which was not as much as I thought!
Her novel also features little snippets of her relationship with Piper which I found to be one of the highlights of the book as it was interesting to compare Piper and Cleary to Piper and Alex. The story of how they met and became friends is most definitely not what you think! Cleary discusses their relationship more than Piper did in her own novel so it was intriguing to learn more about them as the real story is much different to the show.
See how different the real and fictional ladies are yourself from these two photos!
Cleary also shares her experiences of first being arrested and some snippets of her time in prison. We learn about her relationships with her family too and she tells how her sister was involved in the drug cartel which has never been addressed in the show. Just like Piper's book and Season 2 of the show, Cleary describes when the pair met again in Chicago which I found a gripping part of Out of Orange as I was able to compare!
I highly recommend you pick up Cleary's novel even if you aren't a fan of Orange Is The New Black as it is truly a fantastic and highly interesting read. My copy could of taken weeks to arrive despite it being on pre-order and I do not regret my impatience of buying it on Amazon so I could get stuck in!
Out Of Orange is available on Amazon for £14.88
No comments