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  • Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

  • The Gruesome True Story of a Man Who Survived Thailand's Deadliest Prison
  • By: T. M. Hoy
  • Narrated by: Jim Frangione
  • Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (300 ratings)
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Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton cover art

Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

By: T. M. Hoy
Narrated by: Jim Frangione
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Editor reviews

The real-life account of an American serving time in a Thailand prison, Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton summons listeners to a gruesome realm of chronic hunger, unchecked violence, torture, degradation, and extortion. Performer Jim Frangione speaks with the resigned disquiet of an inmate struggling to come to grips with the cruelest confinement, his hushed baritone punctuated by shock and disgust as bizarre, often gruesome, prison rituals unfold routinely. T. M. Hoy's memoir, written in the hope he might bribe his way to freedom using its proceeds, is sure to inflame and excite listeners with its unnerving portrayal of a third world penal system.

Summary

A collection of unspeakable degradation, fear, and agony through the eyes of an American locked up abroad.

Prison is harsh enough, but as a foreigner (farang) in a strange land, jail time is an even more horrifying reality. Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton is a collection of short stories chronicling T. M. Hoy’s descent into the harrowing world of Southeast Asian prison life. Through his eyes, listeners will experience the bizarre events of daily life in a Thai maximum security prison: feel the weight of the chains he wears; the stomachaches from lack of food; witness the murders, drug overdoses, torture, and unbridled cruelty that ensues.

Sentenced to life in prison, Hoy does his best to accept the fate he’s been given. While attempting to "adjust" to this third-world hellhole, he contracts tuberculosis and nearly loses his life.

Hoy’s stories are brutal and his words are heart-wrenching. Go places you’ve only seen in your nightmares, to a world in which few survive, and none emerge unscathed...and if you’re lucky, you’ll die before you really begin to suffer.

©2012 T. M. Hoy (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

an interesting story...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

it could do with more of a narrative rather than a series of separate stories

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

it'd be a little conceited to offer suggestions to change a true story....

Which character – as performed by Jim Frangione – was your favourite?

the gauloise smoking Frenchman.

Do you think Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

the story seems pretty complete to me.

Any additional comments?

it removed any last inclination I had to smuggle heroin through SE Asia

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Never going to Thailand

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is an interesting book. I enjoyed it. The author had a tough time in the Bangkok Hilton and the storys made me feel ill. Tale's like the ones in the book have been played out in movies and in audio before, but nothing like you will hear.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton?

One inmate had a cat and was raising it in the prison......... What happend next made me curse out loud. And when the inmate got released and the author visited him My heart dropped.

What about Jim Frangione’s performance did you like?

Jim made the story very entertaining. A good strong performance.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Impersonal and boring

I am not sure how the author managed to make such an interesting subject so boring.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Had me gripped, if you like crime stories, with a true twist...this book is for you! Need more like this

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Starts out ok

Starts out ok, but the stories get more and more unlikely as the book goes on. Had to stop listening when the author likened himself to a vampire getting energy from deaths during a storm.
He also didn’t mention his crime. This is found suspect.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

There are better out there.

I feel harsh writing book reviews on books I haven’t really liked but I guess that’s why you review.

For books on prison life, in my opinion, there are much better books. For me Marching Powder by Rusty Young or Hotel Kerobokan by Kathryn Bonella give a much better account.

Sadly this was a culmination of other people’s narrative that didn’t quite come together as smoothly.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Made me gag!

It’s the only book that has made me gag!
Gripping, sad, funny and enlightening. An enjoyable read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible and gripping.

Incredible and gripping stories set in the harshest of environments. One of the few books I've listened to more than once.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Short stories about others in Thai prison

Short stories of others in Thai prison
You only find out why Hoy is in jail at the very end and that’s not really clear. His time in jail didn’t sound as bad as other Thai jail stories. Could imagine his time spent in American prison worse.
Other then the lack of personal statements the audio book was easy listening some good stories but no real attachment to Hoy as he’s just telling the tails of others.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring and no connection

I love true crime and insight but this is just boring. Narration is flat, stories are boring and I don’t like that you don’t even know what the author was accused of.
No connection to author or his experience. Not for me!

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