Sing Her Down

“Kill someone and she becomes part of you…Take her life and where do you put it?” Trying to rid yourself of your victim’s voice is “A rubber band you can never snap.” The women doing time in an Arizona prison in Pochoda’s latest, including our downtrodden hero, Florida, are firmly stuck, mentally and physically. Until COVID hits and some are released to allow for social distancing. Florida was due for release soon anyway, and the early liberty doesn’t seem much like a gift when she’s stuck in Arizona with no way to get home to Los Angeles. Life’s been cruel to Florida (real name: Florence, but prison nicknames stick), and the first setback—the Department of Corrections forgetting to feed her when she’s enduring quarantine in a dead-end motel—sets her on the road, fleeing parole restrictions. On the bus to freedom, she runs into her nemesis Dios, another former inmate, and the Orange is the New Black comparisons start to stack up, with former rich-kid Florida taking Piper’s role and Dios Red’s. But this transporting tale is much more a coming-of-age saga than an OITNB spinoff. With Officer Lobos—Florida’s doppelganger in haplessness and hard luck—on her tail, can Florida outgrow her prison persona and find freedom?