Sweet Hell on Fire: A Memoir of the Prison I Worked In and the Prison I Lived In

Sara Lunsford

Nov 2012 · Sourcebooks, Inc.

About this ebook

"A gritty, raw, and engrossing voice."—Publishers Weekly

A memoir unlike any other that explores addiction, crime, and redemption.

The true story of one correctional officer's life behind bars—the ones at work and the ones she built herself.

I was a bad mother,

a bad daughter,

a bad wife, a bad friend.

Boozed out and tired,

with no dreams

and no future.

But I was a good officer.

Sara Lunsford helped cage the worst of the worst, from serial killers to sex criminals—the kinds of people who go down in true crime history. At the end of every day, when she walked out the prison gate, she had to try to shed the horrors she witnessed. But the darkness invaded every part of her life, no matter how much she tried to drown herself in a liquor bottle. She couldn't hide from the things that hurt her, the things that made her bleed, the things that still rise up in the dark and choke her.

With a magnetic, raw voice that you won't soon forget, Sweet Hell on Fire grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. Perfect for nonfiction readers of Tiffany Jenkins' High Achiever and Piper Kerman's Orange is the New Black, it's a hardscrabble climb from rock bottom to the new ground of a woman who understands the meaning of sacrifice, the joy of redemption, and the quiet haven to be found in hope.

Ratings and reviews

I started this book while also reading "Orange is the New Black" so take this for what it's worth. The first half of the book was good but not good enough that I couldn't put it down... I was also trying to finish OITNB at the time so that was distracting me. Finally, I finished OITNB and focused solely on this book. I wasn't able to put the book down all morning in need to finish it. She is a hard driving corrections officer who realizes her failings, fixes what she can fix, and accepts what she can't.

Truthfully astounding in her journey for salvation