Excellent!!

Columbiano is an action packed book full of suspense with unimaginable tension at every turn. It is written from the viewpoint of 15 year old Pedro, who describes his life experiences.

Some evil Guerilla soldiers arrive in his small Columbian village and Pedro is suddenly forced to watch his father be brutally executed in front of him and he is barely spared from death himself on their family farm. Afterwards, Pedro's best friend Palillo talks him into joining the Autodefensas with him. The Autodefensas are a ruthless paramilitary unit that helps the Army fight the war against the terrorist Guerrilla organization. The Autodefensas are known to recruit all ages, even children to train to fight with them.

Once recruited, Pedro and Palillo are systematically trained to fight as mercenary soldiers and subjected to such nightmarish, brutal, horrific things like they've never seen before. This turns them into strong willed fighters and snipers for their cause against the Guerrilla cocaine drug lords, and their terrorist soldiers. The whole time, Pedro still maintains his own personal goal to avenge his father's killers.

You will experience everything from hardcore action, suspense, and terror to bravery, relief, and love, with just about every emotion in between throughout the book. You will also get to know many characters that add so much to the story as well. As you can see, there is never a dull moment and you easily get invested in this very well-written story.

This is a long book, but the author, Rusty Young, has researched and written it so well, and devoted so much to his character development, with such incredible details and suspense that makes it hard to put down.

I highly recommend this great read. It is fiction yet based on true facts. You won't want to miss this one!

I would like to thank Lily Green, along with Havelock & Baker Publishing for this complimentary copy of the ebook (new edition for the US, to be published 2/1/2020) in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Imagine being forced to watch as a loved one is murdered in cold blood. That is what happened to fifteen year old Pedro Juan Gutierrez Gonzales, a Colombian boy, who was held down and forced to watch his father’s execution by guerrilla forces. That day he swore to revenge his father’s death. The novel tells the story of Pedro’s vigil and of civil war in Colombia between multiple private and Government armies who try to control the country’s territories and the lucrative cocaine production.

Pedro and his mother were forbidden by the guerrillas to return to their home or bury his father, but he defies the soldiers and buries him anyway. He joins a Paramilitary group to learn to find, fight and kill his father’s murderers. Along his journey, be learns that what he sees is not always reality, and because of his naivety, he places his trust in those In power who ultimately deceive him in the end.

This epic story written by Rusty Young, is well told, and since he lived in Colombia and worked undercover for the US Government following terrorist organizations, organized crime and cocaine trafficking, he is able to create fiction based on real life experiences. I especially enjoyed his writing style where he created suspenseful events and colorful characters to keep me reading.

There is a lot more to this book than what I have portrayed. I highly recommend to add it to your reading list.

Thanks to author Rusty Young, Lily Green at Havelock and Baker Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the chance to read this book. I can't remember that last time I wanted to dislike a book but couldn't stop loving it. It was too violent in places yet I couldn't stop reading. It was too long- I 'd never finish, yet I carried it everywhere in case I had a few minutes to swipe a few more pages.
This novel gives us an inside look at family, drug wars, cartels, revenge and acceptance. The endurance of people to rise above evil, to push forward when all seems lost, to never stop trying to do what's right when everyone is betraying them. Rusty Young writes with a deft, easy prose, creating vivid imagery without muddling the flow with five-dollar words. The language was authentic, the characters were multi-dimensional and the pacing was gripping. This is an author I will follow.

A lot of people have read this book and loved it, but I am afraid I got just over the half way mark and had to stop reading it. Quite a bit has already been written about this book both positive and negative, so I will only make a few points, first is that this book is based on fact and I learned a lot about the civil war and terrible circumstances in Columbia. Initially I was quite drawn into the lead character Pedro and his need for revenge for his father's death.
My issue with the book is that it is just too long. I think I would have preferred to read this book in parts, making it at least two separate books would have seen me finish the first book and probably opted to at some stage read the second, but to be honest I stopped reading as I felt I had had enough of the story and the characters with still no end in sight.
Perhaps one day I will pick it up again, but I just could not bring myself to finish reading it.
Thank you Havelock & Baker Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC book in exchange for an honest opinion. All the best to Rusty Young for his bright future as a writer as this book was well written, but perhaps in need of editing or splitting.

Thank you to Havelock & Baker Publishing for contacting me with an offer for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is an excellent fiction book that is based on factual events of conflict between the army and guerilla, among other groups. The main focus of the book is on child soldiers, with the point of view from one child soldier in particular who is seeking revenge.
This probably isn't a book I would normally read because the length is so long (almost 700 pages) but I am very glad I read this. It is very captivating from the start to end. I highly recommend this book.

4.75 stars ★★★★✬
This book is for you if… ‘well-researched, long-paged book, compelling in its brutal authenticity’ is a catchphrase worthy of your attention.

⤐ Overall.
This is one of the books that reminded me of
a) why it is that I love reading so much: it's insightful and nail-biting.
b) that I should not shy away from books that I know are interesting and have potential but may frighten me due to length or their foreign genre.

Rusty Young spent many years in Colombia, working to train official forces in anti-kidnapping measures. This guy clearly knows what he's talking about in Colombiano and it shows. Not during a single moment, no matter how slow the story, was I bored with Rusty's book. It's brilliant in its acridity. Knowing that this is research-based, to me, made for a brutally honest wake-up call. It's the reason I couldn't help but engage in the plot and feel with the characters in every single minute. Pedro and his thirst for revenge absorbed me from minute one on.

To imagine at their age my biggest worries were boys and how to hide bad grades from my parents while kids like him were already grownups armed to go to war to avenge their loved ones is sickening and infuriating. I have felt every single emotion alongside the MC, I was happy, sad, excited, furious, ashamed, frightened, numbed by emotions and also rendered motionless by them.

I know for a fact that plenty of words, sentences and literary tools are out there to further underline how much I adore this book but none of them would prove satisfying.

⤐ What’s happening.
‘What I’d seen of life convinced me God was no more in charge of the planet than extraterrestrials. No sane being would permit what was occurring.’

Imagine you lived in a place where kidnappings are such a day-to-day-thing that your government hires people to train forces specifically for the purpose of counteraction. This is Pedro's life. Albeit happy in his small town with his girlfriend and his parents, it's always in your head you might go to sleep for the last time tonight. One day, this is the case for Pedro's father: ruthlessly executed by the guerrilla, he leaves behind a grieving family without a home. Stripped of all logic and self-preservation, Pedro joins the autodofensas and begins a long journey. His compass is set for revenge. The only question that remains is what more it will cost him.
_____________________
Writing quality + easy of reading = 5*

pace = 4*

plot/story in general = 5*

plot development = 4*

characters = 5*

enjoyability = 5*

insightfulness = 5*

I was completely drawn into this story, staying up far to late into the night, telling myself just one more chapter. Young, has well developed characters which I became completely invested in. Fast paced for a novel over 600 pages. This book is worth a read!

A troubling but interesting book.

So this is the story of Pedro who joins a private army at the age of fifteen after his father is killed (this is not a spoiler, I think it happened on the first page) by another private army in Colombia. What follows is his training and missions for the Autodefencas, where he learns to lead but also all the while pursuing his mission of vengeance on his father's killers.

Pedro is our only POV, and you can't help but like him even after he repeatedly does stupid things. You can see how he's being manipulated and it's sad as his moral qualms are gradually eroded as he gets more involved in the conflict and moves up the hierarchy. It doesn't help that his goal of vengeance gets himself and his friends into even more trouble or killed. The supporting cast are also pretty interesting and I would have loved a few POV's from those, especially Palillo his best friend. He's a fairly superficial guy in the main but there's a loyalty there and I like that he had certain boundaries that should not be crossed no matter what.

This was a hard book to read. Half the time I forgot how young they all were in it, but then something would come up to remind you. The training was brutal and if even half of it is true then it's really messed up. You wonder how these kids could go back to a 'normal' life. Some of the battle scenes were intense, and perhaps even more so during the smaller scale ambushes that Pedro keeps setting up to get his revenge, they were tense. What the author did very well was show the ordinary plight of the people. No matter who was in charge, no matter their best intentions, they were the ones who ended up suffering. I hope things are better there now but I kind of doubt it.

One of my main criticisms of this book is the size. It's over 600 pages and I feel that it was a bit too drawn out in places. I get the author was trying to bring in some downtime and explore characters and how Pedro's actions were affecting his family and friends but I think there was room here for tightening it all up somewhat. It also slightly bothered me that it kind of glorified certain aspects of it. Like Goodfella's for example, you experienced Pedro's pride and joy at the start before it all comes crashing down and it felt a bit off in places. According to the author Pedro was an amalgamation of different people he'd met while researching the book and it showed sometimes, he'd act out of character and it was a bit jarring.

This had been a three star review but then the end kind of blew me away. I was expecting something cynical behind it all but I was not expecting how everything was tied together, I really wonder how much of it is true and how much was put together by the author but it was very well done. Some of it I saw in advance but some aspects caught me completely by surprise. Overall it was a good book showing a side of the world that I'd heard of but never really caught my attention.

Thanks to Havelock & Baker Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for a review, it did not affect my opinion on it.

3.5 stars rounded up.

It took me a minute after finishing this book before I could sit down and write a proper review, this book challenged me in ways that I was not expected. Going into it I (thought that I) had a passable knowledge of the history and current situation in Colombia but the plight of child soldiers caught up in the violence was something that I had never considered, maybe I didn’t want to. However, in Colombiano Young manages to highlight their story by a wonderful melding of fact and fiction in this powerful, poignant and compelling coming of age story.

At c.700 pages it should feel onerous to get through but at no point is that ever the case, instead it is breath-taking read showing strength and survival in unimaginable circumstances. I was engrossed from the start and struggled to put it down.

The author manages to brilliantly meld fact and fiction in the creation of Pedro and his friends and when I remembered that it felt overwhelming at times and made it all the more real, gripping me from beginning to end. There is a lot of violence in the book, as you would expect when dealing with the topic of child soldiers and conflict, but at no point does it ever feel that the violence is there to entertain.

This story is one that will stay with me for a long time, there were parts that were difficult to read but I challenge anyone to read this and not be emotionally invested it.

5 starts for what is one of my top 5 reads this year; a truly powerful, emotional and compelling coming of age story.

Many thanks to Havelock & Baker Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Australian born author Rusty Young writes about what he knows. Hired by the U.S government to work in their Columbian Anti-Kidnapping Program, he interviewed hundreds of child soldiers 'recruited' by extremist paramilitary organizations at war with each other and the Columbian military. From these interviews and experiences, he mined out this story of 15 year old Pedro Gutierrez, a happy-go-lucky kid whose life is shattered when he is forced to witness the murder of his father at the hands of five men, members of FARC: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, an extreme left terrorist organization. Banished from the family farm, Pedro vows revenge which he feels he can best achieve by joining the 'autodefensas', a right- wing paramilitary group. In his relentless, systematic pursuit of those who killed his Papa, Pedro weaves his way through a web of heartbreaking atrocities, lies, deceit, drug traffickers, political corruption and violence.
He will never be the same.

Rusty Young shines a light on a world many knew little about: The 50+ year Colombian Conflict. A nation under siege by violence, drugs, corruption. I know I didn't. And it's the truth of the novel that makes it affecting.

However, at over 800 pages on my Kindle, it's a whopper and I felt it suffered for it. The first person narrative was a bit stilted and, although easily accessible, unimaginative. But still, there was a raw, primitive quality that suited the subject matter. It's difficult to give color and flamboyance to world of violence and despair. I give Colombiano: 3 and a half stars

First of all thanks to Net Galley for asking me to read and review this ARC.
Loved this story and loved the characters. What a sad situation that probably still goes on in Columbia. Using children to attain power and persuade the people to follow their ways.
This author wrote in such a way that was easy to read and not too technical. The book was a little too long and so I lost interest at times but not too much. I also read up on the author and his research on this book and found it to be fascinating. He actually interviewed child soldiers and it brought this story more to life for me.
Very good.

Excellent read. I had an idea of the subject of the book, but still, I did not know what to expect. Rusty Young explains and describes the situation in Colombia. He does so through the story of Pedro. To me the book is really interesting. More than a novel, this book is a documentary. We discover the violence of the endless war that has been destroying Colombia for decades.

'Colombiano' is Pedro's story and it is also the story of all these children and teenagers who flee a desperate situation at home to become either a guerillero or a paramilitary. Pedro's journey takes us into a world where violence, greed and betrayal occur on a daily basis. We learn about child soldiers and how they are emotionally destroyed, drug war, kidnapping.... The book is very well documented and very quickly we understand why Pedro says "You have to pick a side, and if you don't, one will be picked for you."

A must read!

Colombiano is Rusty Young’s second book, following on from his successful debut, Marching Powder. This work focuses on the topic of child soldiers participating, often reluctantly, in the bloody Colombian conflict between left-wing Guerrillas (FARC) and right-wing Paramilitaries (Autodefensas). The Australian author has spent many years living in Colombia and through his Counter-Terrorism work has developed a special interest in the plight of child soldiers.

The protagonist Pedro is a teenager who becomes embroiled in the brutal conflict after witnessing the cold-blooded murder of his father by the Guerrillas on his family’s farm. Seeking revenge, he decides to join the Autodefensas to hunt down his father’s murderers. Pedro sinks into a depraved world of extreme violence populated by ruthless killers. At the same time, this is a coming of age story as Pedro embarks on a relationship with his girlfriend Camilla.

I was excited about the prospect of immersing myself in a human story played out in the cocaine fuelled conflict in Colombia at that time. However, I really found this book heavy going.

The characters were underdeveloped. They didn’t resonate with me at all, I was indifferent to what happened to them – I should have cared, but due to their superficial back stories I found them very thin. I do acknowledge though, creating easily understood characters would be made more difficult by the fact they fought for a terrorist organisation responsible for countless atrocities over the years.

The transition between scenes wasn’t skilfully executed and often caught me by surprise. The dialogue was delivered rapidly and was very conversational, almost transactional, which did little to help understand what was going on inside the characters heads and hearts. I also didn’t experience a sense of place – the whole experience was like a graphic comic book with no pictures. The plot was predictable and considering the subject matter there was little or no suspense.

Coming in at over 600 pages the book is overly long. Ironically, much more could have been said by losing 200 pages with more skilful writing. I didn’t enjoy this book, it could have been an important piece of work.

2/5 stars.

Many thanks to Lily from Havelock & Baker Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

Ooof.. what an intense book! I need to collect my thoughts before I start on a full review. To be honest, I was kind of in a reading slump when I sat down to read this, so it took me quite a while, as it's also very long. But as I got through the first few chapters, I couldn't put it down.
The writing style is engaging and the story is just.. intense. It's based on real events and I feel the book is very well researched. Even though I would have probably skipped this book if I saw it in the bookstore, I loved reading it and it got me thinking. More thoughts later.

Wow. This book was gripping, tragic, gruesome yet I’m so glad I read it. It’s not an easy read, with vivid detail about a horrendous civil war, made all the more upsetting by the fact that the author had based the novel on interviews with child soldiers.
I would stop reading feeling unable to carry on but would inevitably find myself drawn back, riveted by a genuine empathy for and desire to know what happened to the characters.
I honestly didn’t know if I would be able to finish reading it but I’m so glad I did - stick with it, its worth it!
I received a free copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

First, I would like to thank Havelock & Baker Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. In this case, providing such a review is a delight.

“They came on a Wednesday to execute my father.”

So begins Rusty Young’s new novel about the conflict in Colombia between the army, paramilitary forces, guerrilla forces, and drug lords. Told from the perspective of fifteen-year-old Pedro who joins the paramilitary forces (Autodefensa) after witnessing his father’s execution by guerrilla forces, this novel offers a vivid and chilling account of one child’s loss of innocence against the backdrop of a war that forces civilians to choose sides:

“Both the army and the guerillas would ask if you had milk, rice, sugar, or cooking oil to spare… If you said, ‘Sorry, I have nothing to spare, they might search your property and prove you were lying. But if you gave them something and your neighbor snitched, the other side could accuse you of collaborating with the enemy.

Traitor, if you do, liar if you don’t. Either way you are jodido.

That’s what you foreigners and people from the big cities don’t understand. No matter how hard you, you can’t remain neutral. Eventually you have to pick a side. And if you don’t, one will be picked for you. As it was for me.”

For Pedro, that side is the Autodefensa, the paramilitary forces that have a loose alliance with the army and which he believes affords him the best opportunity to find “justice” for his father’s death and his mother’s banishment from the family finca. The reader follows Pedro on his journey from bootcamp to child soldier commanding other children in battle, where many will die. We see Pedro learn to kill and watch helplessly as he becomes emotionally numb to killing. And yet, the author also never lets us forget that this is a child who has been forced to grow up too fast. These reminders come in many forms. For example, on his first leave from camp, his former school principle tells him that he was top of his class on the geography exam that he had taken on the same day as his father’s murders. We also see the child in his continued love for his girlfriend and his desire to build a future with her. It is this desire and his hard-earned realization that what he has pursued was not “justice” but revenge that ultimately allows him to begin rebuilding his life, rather than remained trapped in an unending cycle of violence:

“Trigeño had convinced me our war was between good and evil. But I now saw that it was just one big cycle of interconnected violence in a struggle for power, financed by cocaine trafficking…I no longer thought of what I’d been doing as justice, instead I called it by its proper name revenge.”

What makes this novel so powerful is that the author has done his research. As noted in the book’s prologue, Rusty Young spent four months interviewing former child soldiers at an albergue—a halfway house for child soldiers exiting the vicious civil war. He also worked in Colombia as a manager for a US-government counterterrorism program in anti-kidnapping. For those of you who may tremble in fear that this background means that the book has a preachy or journalistic style, you can relax. This is a novel, which from the first sentence immerses you in Pedro’s life and maintains its suspense throughout. At the same time, the author provides the reader, who may know nothing about Colombian history prior to picking up this book, all the necessary history to be able to follow the story line. This history is masterfully provided through the various characters’ voices, so that you never have the feeling that you are reading a dry history or are back in a classroom listening to a lecture.

My only criticism—and it is a small one—concerns the ending. Given the experiences of Pedro and his friends, this novel has a bit too much of a “happily ever after” ending, as it is doubtful that they would be able to put aside their past and embrace their future quite so easily. That said, this book is a must–read, as it paints a complex picture of war, one in which children become the pawns of powerful forces and the lines between good and evil, right and wrong, are not so easy to discern.

I want to thank NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. Personally, I didn't enjoy the book, and didn't finish it. Honestly, I found it boring. The characters are dull, poorly written, and mildly robotic. The pace of the book was very slow moving, and it seemed the same thing happened on every page. There isn't anything dynamic, or gripping to keep the story moving, or to keep the reader interested. The story was missing emotion, character depth, and background information/details.

What a book! It's a must read and It's well researched for what goes on in the story it makes you feel like you are going through this war with these characters! Received from Net Galley . You never really know what goes on in another country and this gives you a idea on what problems that they have on drugs. It was kinda long for me but couldn't quit reading to find out what happens. A boy becomes a man before his time and the emotions are so real! It's a must read!!

*Many thank to Rusty Young, Havelock&Baker Publishing and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
This is a novel that I will remember but I will not reread it at any time in the future. I appreciate the Author's effort to present Columbia most complicated times under FARC. I followed the news regarding this organzation and the brutality of life under its terror, however, this novel opened my eyes to the crude reality that prevailed in those days and what impact it had on ordinary people. The novel tells a story of a boy, Pedro, who, seeking revenge for his father's murder turns into a cruel man, like the man who killed his father. While half way through, I realized that cruelty and easiness to kill or lose one's life became so common that life itself had no value any more. A most terrifyng conclusion to a novel ... 'Colombiano' is an important witness to those times, but the novel is too long, and very much disturbing and upsetting.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Genre:
Contemporary Fiction + Cultural

So many great reviews and a high average rating score for this book. The story, in short, is a tale of revenge carried out by this young boy called Pedro for the brutal murder of his father by the FARC Guerrilla soldiers (a terrorist organization) in Colombia. What Pedro does to avenge the murderers of his father is join FARC Guerrilla's opposition, the Paramilitaries. Throughout the story, we see how this 15-year-old teenager will grow, train and does all that it takes to reach the goal he set for himself.

I have not read books or stories before about Colombia and the crime scene there. All the knowledge I have is basically from a few articles or what comes in the news. The author states at the beginning of this book that this story is a true story narrated to him by Pedro himself. Of course, all the names were changed. And the two terrorist groups have members that reach tens of thousands. This shows the degree of danger people there are living in. Regarding the story itself, I'm not sure what part of it could be a fiction other than the names, but what was fascinating is Pedro's reply when asked why he wanted his story to be told, he said "To help. People need to understand the truth in order to heal their scars".

The story due to its nature has lots of violence, so be warned. I found the shooting scene between the two brothers to be very brutal and frightening. Just imagine this happening to you or before you! There are such scenes that are difficult to read so one has to be cautious. There are some interesting characters in the story other than the main character but the author concentrated more on Pedro as this is his journey, his story. One aspect I feel detached me from the main character was the multiple states of emotions he kept going through. From acting like a teenager to becoming in pain for the loss of his father, then becoming a killer and a part of a gang. I feel the timeframe to achieve all this was not sufficient. Of course, this is his true story and I am not questioning it but I find it a little hard to digest.

Now to the biggest drawback of this book which in my opinion is its length. I call a book big when it is 500 pages or more. And for such books, I tend to question the length when I finish reading it. Since I got a digital copy I am not sure of the exact number of pages here but on Goodreads, it ranges from 700 - 800 pages in total. I feel that 150 - 200 pages could've easily cut from this book without affecting the storyline. Actually this could have been more compact and more gripping. I feel the unnecessary length has dragged the story at some places and made the pace slower for my taste. What compensates the length of the book is the length of the chapters, they are many and short so reading pace might feel a bit faster than usual.

I am glad that I read Colombiano, I liked the story and I wish that I loved it as much as my friends did to be one of my favorite books of the year, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I am giving Colombiano a strong 3.5 stars out of 5.0

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a digital copy of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.