*Thank you to the author for the free ARC, (via NetGalley), for an honest and fair review.

Rusty Young has performed an amazing feat, by pooling lots of real life stories and experiences into a narrative for easy reading. With engaging characters and a storyline which grips you throughout.

Pedro is a young boy in Colombia, when his life is turned upside down by a traumatic event. Following his life, the reader is reminded of the harsh reality for many in Colombia. During the civil war, which created a tragic socio-economic way of life, the reader is taken on a tumultuous journey with Pedro as he discovers himself and what is important in life.

Colombiano by Rusty Young is a story you will not soon forget. This is a work of fiction though the horrors of the Colombian civil war and its aftermath are part of history. The author worked in Colombia with the Anti-Kidnapping Program in a country that averaged eight kidnappings per day. While in-country, he interviewed the child soldiers on both sides of the war and these are the basis of this novel. Pedro, a fifteen-year-old boy, witnessed the execution of his father, by guerillas. He was executed for allegedly providing drinking water to their enemies. They then banned Pedro and his mother from their farm. The boy vowed to avenge his father’s death and joined and was trained by the paramilitaries. Brutality became part of his daily existence. This is a story of revenge and a story of children fighting a war. I admit that I skipped some passages due to the graphic violence but this is a book that needed to be written and needs to be read. Thank you to Havelock & Baker Publishing and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Colombiano by Rusty Young is a story that is difficult to read, but one that needs to be told. Backing up the fiction with hard facts, the author gets to the very heart of the shocking truths of child soldiers in a post Escobar Colombia. It is a world of unfathomable violence, and Mr Young's personal experience of this tumultuous time lends gravitas to the world that is inhabited by young Pedro. This is a book that will stay with you long after you have turned the final page.

I was heartened to learn that 10% of the royalties generated from this novel will go toward the rehabilitation of former child soldiers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Havelock and Baker Publishing for the opportunity to read this important novel.

My thanks to Havelock and Baker Publishing for the invitation to read and review via NetGalley a digital copy of ‘Colombiano’ by Rusty Young in exchange for an honest review. It was published in ebook and audiobook editions in March 2019 with the paperback edition to be published on 1 February 2020.

Rusty Young worked secretly for the US government in Colombia for four years. He was shocked by the stories of child soldiers that he encountered and vowed that one day he would find a way to allow their voices and their stories to be heard. ‘Colombiano’ is the result blending fact and fiction.

He focused primarily on the life of one teenager, Pedro Gutierrez, who joins a paramilitary group in order to exact revenge on the Guerrillas who had brutally murdered his father.

It’s a classic premise to chart a journey of revenge and the toll that such extracts upon the heart and soul. However, this was so violent and I found that I was zoning out and so set it aside at 40%.

While I appreciated the author’s intention to relate the stories of the Colombian child soldiers and his work to assist in their rehabilitation, I just found this novel far too long at over 800 pages. The level of detail continually broke the tension for me.

Clearly I am in the minority given the rave reviews but sometimes novels are just not good fits for individual readers.

This is a well-researched novel. It tells the story of 15-year-old Pedro, who is a normal boy growing up on his family’s farm in a small town in Colombia when his father is murdered in front of him by the country’s anti-government Guerrillas. Pedro vows to avenge his father’s death and signs on with the violent paramilitary organization Autodefensas Unidas. Along with other boys and girls his young age, Pedro undergoes merciless training to become a fighting machine.

While well-researched, I found the style of writing in this novel not to my liking. It resembles YA or popular fiction rather than literary fiction. The story is told in a pattern of “then this happened…then this happened…then this happened”. It gets the job done, but the characters and place end up feeling flatter than I wished. That said, I know a lot of people, including my husband, who would really enjoy this. It’s action-packed from start to finish and contains lots of well-defined (in terms of good and bad) characters. It’s an excellent alternative to a cookie-cutter spy novel or thriller. It’s told in the form of short chapters, which keeps the 650+ pages moving.

<b>"Everyone here has hard luck stories, Pedro," Alfa 1 cut in, already impatient. "Get to the point and don't think you're special." He dismissed me after summarizing the most important events in my entire life in his notebook, using only three words: <i>Guerrilla killed father.</i></b>

<b>WOW.</b> This is one <i>EPIC</i> book!! It was a bit daunting at first, when I realized it was over 700 pages (800 on Kindle), but folks, it is honestly <i>worth every page!</i> There was a lot of violence, but given the subject matter and location, that's a given. The book is also based on true facts, so authenticity is key. Author Rusty Young is the most obvious and credible choice to write this novel - just read his bio; you'll be convinced too.

The story is narrated by Pedro Gutierrez. He and his family are trying to live under the radar on their farm in a community right in the middle of a waging political civil war. When Pedro's father is shot dead in front of him by Guerrilla soldiers, he's finally forced to take sides. He joins a paramilitary group, thus unraveling the story of a boy setting out to avenge his father’s death.

The war is being fought between two domestic groups and the Columbian Government's army. A resistance group named the FARC Guerrilla consists of farmers who have banded together to fight poverty and social inequality. They want to topple the government and install communist rule. To fund their revolution, they tax businesses and kidnap rich civilian farmers, appropriating their lands for redistribution to the poor. The second resistance group is the Paramilitaries, created by wealthy land and business owners, tired of the governments failure to protect them. They form their own private militias and ‘death squads’, secretly working alongside the army in an attempt to defeat the corrupt and violent Guerilla organization.

Over months of training with the Paramilitaries, Pedro experiences hostility, brutality and bloodshed, in an effort to weed out the weak. In his blind ambition he makes a lot of really stupid, rash and selfish decisions, affecting those around him, and effecting a perpetual and barbarous succession of events. But I had to keep reminding myself that he and his comrades were literally KIDS fighting these wars!

The writing is exceptional, the pace is phenomenal, and the content is spellbinding and powerful. This is a must read, you won't want to put it down!

<i>My sincerest thanks to Lily Green at Havelock & Baker Publishing and Netgally for considering me for this ARC, in turn for providing an honest and unbiased review.</i>

4-4.5 stars

This was a tough one to read, but it was also very eye-opening. This is basically the story of the conflict between the guerillas, the autodefencias, and the government army in Colombia told through the eyes of Pedro Gutierrez, a boy who is drawn into the conflict (voluntarily or otherwise--that's a matter of debate) when his father is executed in front of him by Guerrilla forces. We are given explicit descriptions of the brutality that many child soldiers (both in the audtodefencias and in the guerrillas) experienced as they learned to be killers in a war that was not of their own making. As Pedro makes poor decision after poor decision, you are left to wonder how much of it was people were manipulating his hate to fuel him and how much of it was because he just couldn't see past his own selfish need for revenge. It was probably the pressure cooker of both. I read this while our country's president is pushing for strikes against Iran and all I can think of is that no one wins during war except the weapons manufacturers and the already rich men (and women) who are profiting from it. Sigh. But what I did like is that as brutal as some of the leaders were on all sides, even the worst of them were humanized in one way or another (although I hated the Diazes throughout the book), and you were made to think about the reasons for the fighting and that there were good men on all sides. One of the messages that came through loud and clear to me was that innocents ended up dying for the almighty dollar and some of the brutal fighters are fighting purely for survival, not just for themselves but for their families. But corrupt leaders will take advantage of that pain and use it for their own means. No winners.

This was a long book (the kindle edition I was sent has 924 pages), but it didn't feel that way, in part because the chapters were fairly short and I was able to read it in chunks. Also, the author's style is such that it's almost as if the main character is telling his story long after he's had a chance to heal from it and there is some feeling of detachment almost. The narrator at times talks about how stupid he was or he'll say foreshadowing statements that end up taking away some of the tension. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. On the one hand, I think the author could have written this in such a way to really pull at the heartstrings. But then I don't know if many people could have made it through the book because some of the scenes were so painful and disturbing. Instead, I found it engrossing and riveting as I tried to figure out how this could end up well for the narrator. By making him the narrator, you know he makes it through alive, and perhaps you have some inkling that his state-of-mind is, if not without regret, at least he's at peace with himself.

One last thought. The very last part seemed kind of silly, but it's kind of in keeping with Palilo himself and his irrepressible optimism. I really loved his character, and I'm glad he was there as the voice of reason, as well as a humorous foil. He made the tough parts of the story easier to handle. In the end, I'm glad I took the time to read this book. I learned a great deal about a country and period of history that I knew only headlines. This book shared personal stories and put humanity in the midst of all the pain. I'm hoping that because Rusty Young based this story on hundreds of firsthand accounts that some of the kids made it through this time whole enough to make real lives for themselves, much as the survivors in this story made it through.

Special thanks to #HavelockandBakerPublishing, who offered me this ARC in exchange for an honest review, as well as #NetGalley for hosting it.

‘Why do you want to tell your story?’

Presented as a novel, this book is a blend of fact and fiction set in post-Pablo Escobar Colombia. The author, Rusty Young, spent seven years living in Colombia. I read that he spent four of those years working for the US government in counter terrorism. Through his job, he met several different people, including special forces soldiers, undercover intelligence agents and members of the two main paramilitary terrorist organisations: the FARC and the AUC (Autodefensas). And, consequently, he became aware of the plight of child soldiers, some of whom were only eight years old when they were recruited.

This is the story of Pedro Gutiérrez, a fifteen-year-old boy, whose life is ripped apart when his father is executed in front of him, and he and his mother are banished from the family farm by FARC guerrillas.

‘It wasn’t until my late childhood that I realised that the war was all around me, and always had been.’

Pedro wants revenge, and he swears to kill the five men responsible. He and his best friend join an illegal paramilitary group where they are trained to fight and to kill. Any sign of weakness is punished severely. Pedro’s desire for vengeance becomes justification for his own acts of violence, and he risks losing those he loves as a result. Can Pedro be saved?

This is not an enjoyable novel, but it is an important (albeit uncomfortable) read. Why? Consider the lives of child soldiers. Why are they so vulnerable to recruitment? If they survive their experiences, how can they recover from the lives they’ve been forced to live? Is it possible to recover from such trauma? How can you identify who to trust? Mr Young’s novel explores the context within Colombia: political unrest (and failure); drug cartels and rural villages held to ransom.

‘Goodbye is for people you’ll see again.’

I’ll finish with this extract (from ‘About the Author’) at the end of the book:

‘Since 2011, Rusty’s house has been the headquarters for a foundation that helps rehabilitate and resocialise former child soldiers. Ten percent of his royalties from this book will go to assisting Colombian children affected by violence.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Havelock and Baker Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I really wish this was a 10 star system - I'd give this book a solid 7. But alas, I have to rate it a 3.

The book is long but beyond engrossing. I couldn't put it down. It's about the children who are recruited to become fighters in the drugs was of Colombia.

First and foremost, everybody should but this book if for no other reason then a portion of the proceeds go to helping rehabilitate children who are victims of this savagery.

The book is a somewhat historical fiction account of the drug wars in Colombia during the late 20th century. The names of the characters are changed, but with some basic ingenuity, Google can help you figure out who many of the primary characters and events are.

The book follows Pedro, a 15 year old who joins the Autodefensas after the warring Guerillas kill his father in front of him. Pedro is out for revenge and rises through the ranks of the Autodefensas pretty quickly.

The things I like about this book is that it brings to life all the brutality in this war. It's horrific what happened. The writing is smooth and incredibly easy to read and, in fact, after reading this I'm very eager to read Rusty Young's other novel.

There are, however, a few things that I think could've been better. First, the book doesn't need to be as long as it is. A little bit more editing could've greatly shortened the novel without losing any elements of the story.

4 bright stars for a very long(819 pages) book. The author was an undercover agent for the U.S. Government. He was assisting the Colombian Government's anti terrorist operations. During this time he interviewed many former soldiers from FARC, the Communist guerrilla organization, and AUC, the right wing paramilitary organization.
FARC has waged war against the government for 50 years or more. Both they and AUC draft child soldiers as young as 8 years old. The civil war is vicious and cruel. Both sides use torture and profit from sale of narcotics.
The book is an autobiography of an ex AUC soldier whose name has been changed. It starts with Pedro joining the AUC after FARC murders his father in front of him. At the end of the book peace is declared by all sides. According to news stories, the peace has held up for several years, but FARC has recently complained of unfair treatment.
One quote by Pedro: "To someone who has not had a parent stolen from them, I can only attempt to explain how t feels. It's like having part of yourself hacked off without warning."
Thanks to Havelock & Baker Publishing for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.

The fact and fiction in the coming of age story are blended perfectly by Rusty Young. You can tell he spent a lot of time researching Post-Pablo Escobar Columbia and he was not afraid to hold back in his writing to create an image the reader could not ignore.

The vengeance that Pedro swears has him hunting down the men responsible for his father’s execution and it leads to him go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Will he stop himself before he becomes as bad as the men who killed his father? or will his passion and drive for revenge cost him all he has left?

The story that Young creates is breath-taking, believable, action-packed and addictive. It’s a large book but he just has a lot to say and he is saying things that people want to hear. His story opens the door to many issues that people want to keep shut and I commend him for this.

Colombiano

Pedro Gutierrez’s story fills all the 700 pages of this book. . . .and starts movie-like with the sleepy happy village, and a tender father and son scene. Within a few pages, the father is executed before his son’s eyes, and we are *Off* to the races in this tale of all the ways revenge doesn’t win. Every so often there is girlfriend sex which accomplishes ?calm? what we are working for? But the rest of the revenge romp is filled with incredibly difficult things that happen to everyone else: villagers trapped in cross-hairs of the haters, pimple-faced youngsters, six-year old girls, groups whose heads are literally later used as footballs, and one of the final catches – an old villain who thought blowing up a pond of vampire fish is more wicked than all the torture, rape and murders he’s inflicted on this tale. Still, our Pedro returns home, chastened, finishing up his last year in high school. He apologizes to Mama, explains why he wasn’t the reason his Papa died (this makes it better?), he gets his girl (he will have to lose the tattoo), and impliedly, the blue crate he digs up with a friend has the millions of the one of the bad guys he’s murdered.

All is well in the land.

Hmfph! 1 star is as far as I can go.

A sincere thanks to Rusty Young, Havelock & Baker Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Columbiano is a fast paced thriller about 15 year old Pedro Gutierrez who witnesses the execution of his father by ruthless Guerrilla soldiers. Like many other child soldiers in Columbia he joins opposing forces to seek retribution for his father’s death.

The book is well researched and very informative. Rusty Young shows this world of violence, crime, corruption, and drugs through his own experiences in Columbia. I would have liked to see the book with far less pages.

3 out of 5 stars

Many thanks to Lily Green at Havelock & Baker Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of Columbiano in exchange for an honest review.

One of the most compelling novels of our time. A must-read given the circumstances and political climate of our world today. Written expertly by a journalist who strives to put reality into personal terms we can all understand. Giving the reader more than a glimpse into the struggles and motivations of many families searching for a better life, it encourages thought and leads one into a more complete understanding and compassionate mindset. Essential for anyone seeking to explore more of a world view and less insular way of choosing principles to live by, and lead byxexample.

Being a voracious reader, I also have to say that this is also one of the cleanest edits I have seen in the last 20 years. One does not find typos, errors in punctuation or syntax, ior nconsistencies in continuity of format. This speaks exceedingly well of both writer and publisher. Well done!

This book was so far out of my comfort zone that I wasn't sure I should read it, but I'm so very glad I did. The author, Rusty Young, did an excellent job of making the character, Pedro, someone I cared about. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Pedro, his friends, family, and the other people in his life.

Until I read this book, then watched some videos and read other material, I had very little understanding about the massive use of children to fight civil wars in Columbia. This story deals with two terrorist groups that use thousands of children to fight their wars, children that are forced to watch and participate in torture and murders. Once in these organizations, these children have no real hope of escaping, except by death. Everyday brings a new chance to watch those around them endure brutality or death by those who rule their lives.

Men's lust for power and money drive these wars and cocaine fuels the war machine. Townsfolk live in poverty and fear as both sides reign terror on the people, sometimes pretending to protect or help them while really using humans as fodder for their greed and brutality. Once I started reading, I did not want to put this book down. Not only did I learn what might cause children to think their only hope might be to join a terrorist group, I also was able to see that possibly even the worst of the barbarian soldiers, once had to face such decisions, as children, to save their own lives or the lives of their families.

Pedro and his mother and father live on their small farm and have managed to stay out of the fray as much as they can until finally Pedro and his dad anger one of the factions. Pedro's dad is murdered in front of Pedro and his mother and Pedro vows to kill the men who were involved in his father's death, the same men who forbid Pedro and his mother to bury his father or ever set foot on their farm again. Pedro joins the other terrorist group, which claims it's helping the people by fighting the guerrilla group. It's only later, once there is no turning back, that Pedro knows that he's trapped in a organization that is as brutal as the one that killed his father. Yet the desire for revenge keeps Pedro finding excuses to "soldier" on, often becoming what he hates most.

This is such a heartrending story and it's based in fact. It's hard enough imagining grownups seeing and enduring such horrible cruelty but knowing that children are thrown into this world and expected to live and perpetuate more horror on others, is horrifying. How do they come back from this, if they ever have a chance to do so?

I want to thank NetGalley and Lily with Havelock & Baker Publishing for providing this ARC to me.

Colombiano has been on my TBR list ever since it was first published in Australia in 2017. Having majored in Latin American studies in college I have long been interested the internecine struggles that have for decades been taking place in Colombia between the narcotraffickers, the military, the communist revolutionaries and the right-wing paramilitary militias.

Rusty Young is an ideal author to tell this story. An Australian journalist who has lived for in Colombia for eight years, part of which was spent working secretly for the US government doing counter-terrorism and anti-kidnapping work. In his work he spent many months interviewing former child soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Although earning their trust was particularly challenging, Young was able to do so and heard many accounts of their lives which he borrowed from to create this very engaging novel.

The book tells the story of Pedro Gutiérrez, the fifteen-year old son of a farmer who lives on a <i>finca</i> near a small village that lies between the strongholds of the government forces and communist guerillas. When guerillas attack their farm and force Pedro to watch the execution of his father, he vows revenge and joins the right-wing paramilitary forces. What follows is a heartbreaking description of life in a world ruled by whoever has the biggest guns. I enjoyed Colombiano very much. My only criticism, and it is minor, is that parts of it read like the a young adult novel. This is not surprising seeing as the majority of the characters are young adults but in places it lacked nuance giving the story a fictional flavor that a story based on actual events shouldn’t have.

* The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2314994912
http://www.librarything.com/work/20059926/summary/175907897
https://www.amazon.com/review/RT9PP0TZGD07U/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
Also posted on Amazon

I found that Palillo Hernandez could be fairly arrogant - though there did come a period where he grew out of that a bit. This was a book that was quite well done, and I'm glad that there was a period where things settled down a little bit.
I got a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This novel mixes a bit of both fact and fiction, revenge, corruption, cocaine, and betrayal. This is the violent world that Pedro lives in.

When his grandfather is executed in his presence, he and his mother are banished from their home.

Swearing vengeance against the five men responsible, Pedro, with his best friend, Palillo, joins an illegal Paramilitary group, where he is trained to fight, kill and crush any sign of weakness.

This is quite a story .. it's an extremely long read, but truly worth reading. It's a page-turning, action packed, story of a boy's becoming a man... a man who will have to make some hard decisions. Will he become as violent and vicious as those he is hunting? Is there a line to be crossed?

The author has done his research thoroughly in creating an epic novel with credible characters. I was captivated from the very first page to the very last.

4.5 stars

Many thanks to the author / Havelock & Baker Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this incredible novel. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Colombiano is a big book, I mean that in more than one way. First of all, it is physically massive (I actually read it on my kindle, but the dots to show the length of the book and how far you've got through it spread across the whole screen). But it also deals with some very large events. The story itself is based on the stories that Rusty Young was told when interviewing ex-child soldiers. I don't know how much of it is 'real' and how much is fiction, it all felt very real.
The book itself, despite its length, is easy to read. I mean that in the sense that the chapters are very short. The story is so engaging that it's a good thing. Short chapters meant that you can keep reading just one more, while longer chapters would have been more likely to make me wait until I actually had time to read. Told from the point of view of Pedro, who witnesses his father's murder and sets out to gain what he claims is justice, but is actually revenge, we follow him as he progresses through the ranks of the Autodefensas. The things that Pedro witnesses and overtime is more of a part of, are brutal. This is a dirty gorilla war, brutality is expected. The confronting part of this book is that as we are following Pedro on his journey, we can't help but sympathise with his situation and why he does something. More than once I found myself rooting for him only to wonder how I could even for a second buy into what was happening.
I came into this knowing next to nothing about Columbia beyond the thoughts of cocaine, coffee and South America. I don't know that I 'know' much more now, but it's certainly a country that I would like to know more about. I hope that over time its wounds can be healed and its people find peace. Especially the likes of Pedro and his friends and enemies who lost their childhood to horror and bloodshed.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Colombiano, a book with over 800 pages... but I liked every one of it. The chapters were short, so it was easy to take a break. Usually, in a book with short chapters, I am often tempted to read 'one more chapter'. In this case, I liked the breaks because they gave me the opportunity to take it all in. Because what I read, was often gruesome, emotional, heartbreaking. Pedro's story begins at age 15, when his father was killed before his eyes, and he and his mother are driven from their farm. Pedro joins the Autodafensas in the first place because he wants revenge for his father's death, but also because he wants to survive. The autodafensas give him the security of a group he belongs to (although he needs to go through a lot before he earns their protection), and they pay him, so that he can buy necessities for himself and send money to his mother.
The book describes the two years Pedro and his friends are with the Autodafensas. During this time, from a child, Pedro becomes a man who has many responsibilities, kills when he is in danger or encounters an enemy, and in the mean time tries to be loyal to his friends.
And this is Columbia...war, drugs, corrupt politics, Guerrilla, Autodafensas, people being robbed, killed, disappearing...what a country to live in!

The story Rusty Young tells us, is put together from all the interviews he had with child soldiers and other people. He describes very well the horrors these kids had to live through, while they were sort of getting used to it and even being proud of their status. This is a story that will stay with me!

Many thanks to Lily from Havelock and Baker Publishing who provided this ebook in exchange for my honest review.