As a rule, this is a genre I tend to avoid. Which is why I was genuinely surprised by its addictive effect.

I was able to greatly empathize with the main character, despite the many atrocities that he committed )all in the name of justice). So much so, that I cannot even remember a single instance where I wasn't earnestly rooting for him to succeed in all his "adventures".

For all that many people criticize the more... ugh... fictionalized (possibly romanticized?) aspects of the novel, I thing that for me it was those details that ultimately attracted me to it. Regardless of how unrealistic they may seem, sometimes you need a little bit of hope in order to be able to get up and move on.

This was a sad book. A sad book because it is based on truth.

Colombia as a country has suffered so much between the Guerrilla, the illegal paramilitary Autodefensa, the cocaine lords, and the dirty politicians.

All these groups the only thing they did was kidnap, extort, blackmail, and kill innocent people while they were gaining power and money. So many lost everything to their violence and inhuman behavior.

In Colombiano, we follow fifteen-year-old, Pedro Gutierrez. Pedro was a happy teenager who's life was normal, or as normal as it could be when the guerrilla was everywhere until his father is murdered in front of his eyes.

Pedro swears to avenge his death and to find the men responsible for his loss. He and his best friend Palillo, decide to join the Autodefensa. The Autodefensa is the main enemy of the Guerrilla. At the Finca, they will undergo military training, learn how to cut a body into pieces and dispose of it, learn how to shoot and kill the "enemy" on command and stay loyal to the group or lose their lives in the process.

With gruesome and disturbing scenes, Colombiano shows the truth about what Colombia and its people endured for so long.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Havelock & Baker Publishing via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I feel bad for this because I was approached by one of the people whose work it was to promote this to readers, but I am sorry, one year later, I'm gonna make it official.

I am DNFing this. It's way too long for my liking and I couldn't find anything appealing to the writing, story and characters for me to keep on going.

I don't think it's worth my time, sorry.

I received a free e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this very detailed book.. The characters were well developed and you really felt that they were a part of your life. You could feel their pain and suffering. It made you realize the difficulties in every day life in countries other than your own. I would definitely recommend reading for a book club because there are lot's of issues to discuss.

This took me fooooreeeeverrrr to read (I'm talking 6 months :/) but WOW, it was EPIC.

Now someone needs to make it into a movie or mini-series, please and thank you.

Full review to come.

******

Yay! I received an ARC of [book:Colombiano|35847912] from Netgalley and Havelock & Baker Publishing, in exchange for an honest review :D

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review :)

Colombiano is one of the most heartbreaking and fully confrontational books I've ever picked up. And it's so intensely confrontational because it's based off true stories, true stories told by CHILDREN. The tortures in this? Real experiences. The storyline about the Autodefensas and the Guerilla and the Colombian Civil War? Real. And that HURT.

Colombiano followed the story of Pedro, an innocent boy in a little town in Colombia that is fully overrun by Guerilla. When the Guerilla kill Pedro's father in front of him for reasons that Pedro believes are his own, Pedro is devastated and instantly determined to get revenge on the Guerilla by killing his father's killers. By joining the Autodefensas, Pedro has the best chances of revenge - or 'justice' - and so he joins with his best friend, leaving behind his grief-striken mother and his loving girlfriend. Immediately he is cast into a new world of death and absolute obedience to the rules of the Autodefensas, where torture and your own demise are the results of not following these rules. Pedro's life is completely changed.

This book managed to take the pain from the war and the emotions of boys all over the world in war zones and put it into this touching book. It is by no means a sweet book that goes easy on the torture or the pain, instead it takes the words from those boys that talked to the author, and then it throws them in the book to burn the heart of anyone who reads it. However, this book also had a touch of romance in it, as well as having the struggle of a morally grey character, the struggle of trying to decide what is right in this horrific, terrifying world.

Thank you so much to the publisher and author who provided this in exchange for an honest review ❤

The story revolves around young farm-boy, Pedro, growing up in a small country village in Colombia. After witnessing the brutal murder of his father. Pedro joins the paramilitaries on a path of revenge.

Narrated in the first person, Pedro tells of his induction and training in the paramilitaries and his path from farm-boy to killer. A searing hatred of the guerilla’s who killed his father is his motivator.

Rusty Young has written a harrowing and wholly believable tale filled with gruesome murders, torture and a gruelling training schedule involving boys and girls as young as eleven.
Some joined willingly whilst others have been tricked into joining. However once they are there, there is no backing out. Those that came from abusive homes have nowhere to go anyway.

At 50% I was gripped by the story, horrified by the brutal killings, but by 70% I was struggling. I’m a slow reader and I felt the same thing was happening; more killing, more torture. Reading started to feel like a chore. The book was way too long for me and I think it could have been tightened up.

Colombiano is a heart-wrenching story about a village gripped by fear and one boys fight for justice and a better future for all. A story filled with hope, friendship and love of family.

Columbiano is Rusty Young’s lengthy, wordy opus on the horrific violence of drug cartels in Colombia, with a particular focus on child soldiers.

I’ll start with the good parts of this book by commending Young’s research into the topic and dedication to the project. While the book is fiction, much of it is based off of real interviews with former child soldiers that Young conducted as part of his research. The resulting account is thorough, honest, and I think does justice to what these children suffered.

That said, child soldiers in a drug war is a pretty tough hang for a topic. If you think Don Winslow’s cartel-centric novels are a rough go, wait until you see the same things occur but with CHILDREN.

It’s not really that, as a reader, you wish that Young had sanitized the situation. That would have been a disservice to both the reader and the real life subjects who told him their stories.

But it’s tough to reconcile the oft-snappy, action-heavy plot with what is, essentially, a real downer of a topic. Young just doesn’t quite have Winslow’s ability to make us consider the ugly of a situation worth it to get to the profound.

This was a very emotional and thought-provoking read. The story of Pedro Guttierez is well-written and difficult to put down, even though you realise that it is full of pervasive, de-humanising violence that turns child-soldiers fighting guerilla wars in Colombia and other places in the world into killing machines.
Some stories, however heartbreaking they are, need to be told and I am grateful to Rusty Young for having incredible courage and compassion to write this book.

Colombiano by Rusty Young was never on my radar until Havelock & Baker Publishing reached out to me with a review copy.
 
The story sounded right up my alley. It’s been a while since I read historical fiction of such magnitude that takes place in another country; Shantaram is the first that springs to mind. Colombiano doesn't take place in India, but has a setting in Colombia.
 
The premise is about child soldiers that are enlisted by the Guerilla and Paramilitary groups. It's based on real-life because the author has had the opportunity to speak to people from those organisations to gather stories first hand.

I myself had expected a bit of a different story, but that’s because I’m not really good at reading premises. This is purely a tale of revenge. It’s about a fifteen-year-old Colombian boy and his quest to avenge his father’s murder. Pedro joins the Autodefensas together with his best friend.

The next 600 pages of the novel are about Pedro's growth in the ranks and his search for his father's killers. The novel offers a painful insight into the lives of these young recruits, including the women who also join the fight.

I couldn't put the book down even if I wanted to at times. A novel has the potential to be long-winded if it's more than 600 pages, and this one doesn't introduce any new characters at the 30% mark. It's not a complicated tale, it's shocking in its simplicity. It is what is down there, and there's no need to paint a different picture. I was never bored. I wanted Pedro to get his revenge desperately.

In short, I liked the insights into the Colombian Paramilitary & Guerilla organisations, I liked the character build-up, I liked the overall story. Here's what I didn't enjoy that much.

I wish I had the thought process of this 15 to 17 year-old-year. Pedro outsmarts almost everyone including the military leadership of the different factions. I found that to be quite a stretch. It didn't feel like a realistic tale of a young boy. The story goes from telling a horrible tale of young kids at army training to masterminds trying to take down multiple factions. It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the novel, it did create a gap between me and the characters.

All in all I'm happy that the publishers sent me this book for review. I'm curious to read the author's first book Marching Powder as well, as the plot sounds incredibly promising.

I am so proud of myself. This is the longest book I have read on my Kindle (800 pages) and I completely stepped out of my comfort zone. I really wasn’t sure that I would enjoy it and after the first five chapters, I was ready to throw in the towel. But, that isn’t how I roll and I persevered through the 165 chapters. It was undeniably long but at the same time, I could not help but be drawn in to Pedro’s story of revenge.

One thing is for certain, reading this story, you do forget how young Pedro is. He joins the Paramilitary at such a young age but seems to be older than his years. It is only his hot-hotheadedness and poor judgements that reminded me that Pedro is still a young boy who should not be experiencing the life he is living. It is tragic on all accounts: from witnessing his father’s murder to the steps he goes to ensure revenge on all those involved.

The supporting cast of characters add variety to the story although, I did sometimes find it confusing to keep track of each character’s identity. By far, my favourite was Palillo: he is young, fun and provides much needed humour. But, he is also the steady support that Pedro needs throughout his difficult, emotive journey. Palillo stands by Pedro right until the very end and with Young’s Epilogue, I really hoped it was an indication of a very happy future for the two.

Events that are portrayed in this account are a mixture of fact and novelisation. However, knowing that young children are being exposed to this lifestyle is both terrifying and horrific. Innocence is eradicated and it felt like a Hollywood film set, especially the disregard for violence and guns. The writer successfully captures this traumatic lifestyle and how few choices young people had: fight, or be fought with. The Author’s note at the end of the book indicates that Young is dedicating 10% of profits to helping young Colombian children who are exposed to violence and, after reading this novel, could not agree more to such a worthwhile cause.

Whilst I found my attention waning in places, this was still an interesting and exciting story. Having taken a leap of faith by reading this book, I think Pedro’s story will continue to haunt me for a while. Over the many pages, I grew to care for him and felt frustrated by his sometimes immature, impassioned decisions; other times, I completely supported his quest and wanted to see him find peace within himself.

This novel exposes a way of life that is known about, but the true extent of it is only fully revealed if you take the time to research it. Young has done this for his readers and created an epic story that shows a son’s love for his father can dominate a lifetime of choices.

With thanks to Havelock & Baker and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pedro's life is turned upside down when Guerrilla soldiers execute his father right in front of him and he and his mother are banished from their farm. Wanting vengeance against the men responsible, Pedro and his best friend Palillo join an illegal Paramilitary group.

Whilst this is outside my usual genres I read, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I truly appreciated the time that Rusty Young had spent researching and his incredible writing ability that created such a strong image that the reader could not ignore or ever forget.

It is a large book but I felt it the story felt every page.It was believable and addictive and action packed. I spent the majority of it on the edge of my seat.

I want to thank Netgalley and the Publisher Havelock and Baker Publishing for providing me with a copy of this wonderful book for review.

4.5★
“When I was eight, the boy I’d sat next to in class was hit by a truck. Devastated, I refused to go to school. But knowing there had been a time before our friendship made it possible to imagine a time after. A parent is different. There is no time before a parent. A parent is always.”

This is a long, terrifying look at the worst of the disaster that awaits those in Colombia who dare to cross the . . . well, the army, the Guerrillas, or the paramilitary vigilantes that form a third force. All of them seem to get mixed up in or affected by the drug trade somewhere along the line, and the children who are gathered into the fold by Guerrillas and paramilitary forces are indoctrinated young.

The Australian-born author lived in Colombia and spent a lot of time with the youngsters about whom this is written. It is written as fiction, but told in the first person by Pedro, who's just lost his father and can’t imagine life without him. I would say this is something like a ghost-written autobiography, but with the addition of conversations, romance, and the fierce feelings of a teen-aged boy who grows old and jaded before his time.

He gives us good background on how Colombians ended up stuck not just between a rock and hard place, but between a rock, a hard place, and an impossible place. There is no way out. Elections and government are far removed from the villages where the action takes place. Sure, they have them, but it’s like the Mafia – pay your ever-increasing protection money, and we won’t burn your place down and torture you.

They call these ‘vacunas’, vaccinations – which should be protection enough, right? But what happens when you’ve paid the guerrilla forces but not someone else who’s threatening you?

“But in a country with two terrorist organisations whose members numbered in the tens of thousands, it didn’t pay to advertise my job. The first group was the FARC Guerrilla. In the 1960s, peasant farmers took up arms, aiming to fight poverty and social inequality by toppling the government and installing communist rule. To fund their revolution, they ‘taxed’ businesses and kidnapped the rich, appropriating their lands for redistribution to the poor.

The second group – the Paramilitaries – was created in response. Wealthy land and business owners, tired of the government’s failure to protect them, formed their own private militias and ‘death squads’.”

Pedro is a kid, fifteen, and the only way he can fight against the Guerrillas who killed his father is to join the paramilitaries, the Autodefensas, since he’s too young for the army. He and his friends live in the small town of Llorona.

“In Llorona, we didn’t call them Autodefensas or Paramilitaries, or even paras or paracos like they did in newspapers. They were simply los duros – the hard men. The duros were the archenemy of the Guerrilla. Fearsome hit squads committed to wiping out communism, they’d been founded in cities and worked their way into towns and villages, then outwards into the mountains where Guerrilla bases were located.””

And why do they have this overwhelming need to join up and fight? Here’s the Guerrilla leader talking to Pedro’s mother

“Zorrillo looked from Mamá to me. ‘We know your names. We know where you …’ he paused to smirk, ‘used to live. We have people everywhere watching. There’s nowhere in this country we won’t find you. The penalty for defiance is death.’ He fired his rifle into the air. ‘¡Viva la revolución!’”

I will not quote any of the horrific, blood-curdling descriptions of what happens to those who break the rules. Alongside those are poignant episodes about loyalty, tender teen-age love, friends protecting each other and their families, and the almost adoptive approach that some superiors took to the young kids in their charge – until they broke some rule. Incidentally, they recruit both boys and girls.

It’s scary stuff, well-written with great feeling, and an exciting story. It is long, and I found myself skimming some sections in the middle, wondering who those editors are who condense books for The Reader’s Digest. Somehow, an exceptional editor can tighten up a long story and make it more accessible to readers without losing the essence.

The politics, the intrigue, the double-dealing, the change of loyalties – it’s all here, and it’s all terrifying. Again, I feel lucky to have had the life I’ve had. From the author’s epilogue:

“At the peak of the war, an estimated 11,000 to 14,000 children were involved in the conflict, a third of whom were girls. The former soldiers, some as young as eight when they joined, described in detail their reasons for enlisting, their hatred of the enemy, their gruelling military training, their political indoctrination and their horrific experiences in battle.”

It’s an excellent book, published in 2017, and I congratulate the author on his work. I also thank NetGalley and Havelock and Baker Publishing for my copy for review.

There’s an interview with the author here:
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-rusty-young/8739626

This one was tough for me. The writing is concise, the imagery brutal, and the fact that this is based partially on real events is frightening. Colombiano is not a book for the faint-hearted, but that doesn't mean we should shy away from the brutal reality that Rusty Young aims to uncover. I had to take stop-and-go breaks with this one, often because I needed a moment for something later. At other times, it was so gruesome and terrible that I couldn't look away from the pages.

This is one that is memorable, and Young's clean writing style makes it as palatable as this subject matter can allow. This isn't one I'd mark for a re-read, but it's a part of history that certainly deserves the kind of scrutiny and exploration that Colombiano provides in spades.

As fifteen-year-old Pedro Gutierrez was forced to watch his father being murdered, he vowed he would do everything in his power to get vengeance against the men responsible. Grieving, angry and determined, Pedro and his best friend Palillo joined the Autodefensas – opposition to the powerful and brutal Guerrilla, the group that the men he would kill belonged to. Pedro had been a naïve teenager whose love for his girlfriend Camila, his mother and father, as well as fishing with his Papa had kept him innocent. His life would change dramatically in the two and a half years he was with the Autodefensas.

Pedro’s obsession with finding his father’s killers overrode any common sense he might have and Palillo did all he could to keep Pedro from doing crazy things. But would the world of violence he had descended into turn him into a killer as well? Would he turn into one of the monsters he was pursuing?

What an incredible tale, told by Aussie author Rusty Young after his seven years in Colombia where he interviewed special forces soldiers, snipers, undercover intelligence agents and members of the brutal gangs which were at war in the country. The child soldiers were the ones who tore his heart apart, and so, in telling their story, Colombiano was born. Blending fact with fiction, this story – at 820 pages – is a long one, but one well worth reading. Pedro was an excellent character as was Palillo and I was captivated by the story; by the heartache and poignancy which saw a coming of age story along with a thriller like none I’ve ever read before. A superbly told story, Colombiano is one I highly recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a fan of Shantaram you are going to love this book. Set in Colombia, a young man watches his father get killed. He then makes it his purpose to seek revenge on who did this. To do this he joins the autodefences. You get carried on a journey of his justice and revenge and are captured as he finds himself in the middle of an elaborate drug trafficking scheme involving his allies and enemies. You lose his losses and gain his gains. This book I written so you feel fully immersed in the story. The language Rusty Young uses makes this book easy to read and at the same time give the perfect amount of detail so you can really picture each scene and feel each emotion. Loved reading this and was so that it had to end.

This is Rusty Young's second instalment. I loved Marching Powder and although it read much like a work of fiction, it wasn't. The same was the case with Colombiano. It was based on fact, through and through, but read like a work of fiction, such was the unbelievable nature of so many of the facts and the incidents he describes. How can such corruption be allowed in the 21st century? It's not cloak and dagger stuff, the world's stage knows about it yet the super powers seem to be able to do nothing. Pedro Gutiérrez is such a likeable character, with thoughts that any ordinary teenager has preoccupying his mind until his life is unceremoniously ripped apart by guerrilla soldiers when his father is murdered right in front of hi, He seeks revenge and joins an illegal army which trains young child soldiers to become ruthless killers. This is Pedro's story, which mirrors the stories of so many children in these corrupt nations. This is a captivating, heartbreaking read that I won't forget in a hurry!!

This was a long, yet great read. It was descriptive and harsh, but exactly when it needed to be. What an eye-opening story which blew me away about child soldiers in Colombia. In reading about Rusty Young, I was expecting more of a documentary style novel based on his intense & investigative interviews conducted prior to writing this book. It was a very pleasant surprise to be captivated from the first page and brought on a page-turning journey right until the very end.

**Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary ebook in exchange for an honest review**

Thank you Netgalley, Havelock & Baker Publishing and Rusty Young for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

Colombiano is a novel about struggle to survive. Perdo, 15 year old, sees his father being brutally killed by drug traffickers. For his back talk, the bandits banned him and his mother from their farm. Pedro seeks help with local authorities but finds nothing. He sees only one way for justice and revenge. He joins paramilitary organization, that is supposedly work with government but essentially is the same as bandits. The organization doe not have an age limit for joining, so it is full of teenagers who are being taught how to operate a gun and how to survive in conflict.
These kids had to grow too fast.

It is not an easy book - it has a lot of blood, cruelty, trauma and desperation. My heart was bleeding when I read Colombiano. I cannot turn my head around the fact that how desperate they must have been to join Paramilitary.

I think the novel is extremely well written. It could have been shorter (900 pages is no joke), and sometimes I struggled to remember that they were teenagers, barely 16 year olds, operating machine guns and picking enemies one by one. However, I think everyone should read it. It provides knowledge and perspective on the world I have never seen and experienced.

This the most deserving 5 star rating I have ever given.

I don’t know if there is anything I can say about this book that would do it justice. It's been well over a day since I finished reading it and I still can barely put into words how amazing it is! Probably the best book I've read in I don't know how long and a story that will stay with me to the end of times.

Colombiano is the powerful tale of a fifteen year old boy named Pedro, who joins an illegal paramilitary group after he was forced to watch his father being brutally murdered right in front of him by the FARC guerrilla. As if this wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him, he and his mother are also banished from their family's farm. Furious and overcome with grief, he vows to find and punish the men responsible.

As the story goes on, Pedro spirals deep into a world of unspeakable violence. Having already murdered two of the men responsible for his father's death, he finds himself at a crossroads - can he stop himself before he becomes just like the ones he is hunting or will he let his obsession with revenge take everything all he has left?

I started reading this book in November last year and only finished it the other day, but not for a lack of trying or because it isn't good.

It is haunting.
It is gripping and poignant.
It is destined to provoke, enlighten and it's just so utterly captivating.

But it's 689 pages long and I couldn't always find the right times to read it. As a matter of fact, I am actually glad I took my time to enjoy it, because this way I could let each chapter sink in, rather than just taking too much in at once.

Colombiano is not only a gripping coming of age novel, it offers a glimpse into a dark side of Colombia's history, while also showing the redeeming power of love. I want to say more about the plot because there is SO much going on, but I also don't want to spoil anything for any future readers. That is why I'll stop here.

But one more thing: if you get the chance READ. THIS. BOOK.!!!