Animosity
I expected a documentary style book outlining the research and feedback Rusty Young had gathered from all the interviews and investigations he had in the region and with the real-life Child Soldiers. Not the case!

Colombiano is a novel styled book which is based on a fictional character, Pedro (probably an amalgamation of several people in an attempt to protect identities), who experiences the events that drove him to enrol as a child soldier and fight in a conflict that was brutal, remorseless, perilous and full of hate.

Law and order do not exist in the traditional sense in Colombia. During their troubled past, there have been a number of factions. Firstly the Colombian Army and police forces providing limited law and order in a divided country – not to mention their exposure to corruption and criminality. The second group was the FARC Guerrilla, who were peasant farmers who 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 third group were the Paramilitaries who were wealthy land and business owners, tired of the government’s failure to protect them, who formed their own private militias and ‘death squads’.
“No matter how hard you try, 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.”

When Pedro was 15 years old he had to witness his father being executed by the Guerrilla for allowing the army to drink their water on the farm. There may have been other reasons and often it was to send a message. The execution is cold and clinical but disturbingly they are not allowed to bury the body in the consecrated ground and have a priest pray for his soul. While Pedro’s parents had always pleaded with him to remain neutral, now his father’s death must be avenged.

Rusty Young creates excellent characters, particular, Pedro, and a society that is circumspect and threated by cruelty from forces on all sides. He portrays an environment where the futility of staying removed from the violence is common, where events can strike and change a life in a matter of moments, and where hate and revenge are the staple diet of young men and women. Who can say what we would do if we watched a family member murdered and the law enforcement unwilling or unable to address the crime? Unfortunately, bloodshed begets bloodshed and when all sides can cite atrocities the spiral into horror and hostility is the norm.

The length of the book is nearly 700 pages and I started it with the decision in my mind that if this dragged I would stop and not commit any more time to a book I wasn’t loving. I read the 689 pages and also read other material around the subject. One major blessing in reading a book this length is that the chapters are short and there is that feeling that you are progressing and probably reading more in a session that you may otherwise have planned. I felt the writing was excellent and the pace of the book was brilliantly maintained while becoming totally enthralled with the story.

I would highly recommend this book and I would like to thank Havelock & Baker Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC version in return for an honest review.

Having read Rusty Young’s first book ‘Marching Powder’ many years ago, and found that a fascinating read, I was very keen to read his second book. This book did certainly not disappoint me, and if anything I found it even more fascinating that his first. It is set in Columbia and tells the story of child soldiers fighting against Guerrilla warfare. It follows the tale of a young boy Pedro who witnesses his father murdered in front of him as a young boy. In retaliation to this he joins the illegal paramilitary group the ‘Autodefensas’, avenging to kill the people responsible for his father’s death. It tells his story of his brutal training, how they fight the Guerrillas in a world of corruption and cocaine trafficking and how this affects his relationships with his mother, girlfriend and best friend, as well as addresses how warfare and corruption can tear relationships and families apart. As we follow his story we also share how he develops from a boy into a young man and gets to know himself as a person, as he is faced with many difficult moral dilemmas. It is a well written book, part fact part fiction, which keeps you gripped throughout. Whilst having an idea of the kind of corruption that occurs in Columbia, it was a real insight into what we don’t hear and know about. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book wanting to know what happens to our main character, especially when he finds himself in some dangerous positions, it was also an emotional read at times, with the bloodshed, loss of life and brutality that comes with war. My thanks go out to netgalley and Havelock & Baker Publishing for the opportunity to read an ARC of this. This book is in my opinion well deserved of five stars, which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone interested in this subject matter.

The author, Rusty Young, has first-hand knowledge of the dreadful Colombian war between the pro-government Autodefensas and the communist backed FARC. Shockingly, each side was directly, or indirectly, sponsored by the distribution and sale of drugs

I was previously unaware of the roles played by child soldiers on both sides of the conflict and was quite shaken by how many were recruited from the age of 12 years old upwards.

The main character, Pedro joined the ranks of Autodefensa after being forced to watch his father being executed by FARC soldiers. It seems that most of the soldiers on both sides had personally experienced violence perpetrated on their families, which was a major recruiting factor..

The totally dehumanising training regime of the Autodefensas was quite extreme and ruthless. Any sign of weakness ending in harsh punishment or death.

The main characters are well portrayed by the author and are totally believable. Young seems to fully understand the conflicting emotions of the young soldiers faced in war situations as well as their private lives. The adult officers were also quite complex individuals, most of whom had experienced violent personal traumas in their past.

In summary, a long but very readable book, well researched, brutally but not gratuitously violent, and extremely gripping. I would love to read other books by this author.

“Colombiano” is a awesome story about child soldiers in a different country and how guns make adults of children. The characters are credible and the situations they find themselves in are detailed very graphically. This is a large book but the short chapters made it surprisingly easy to read. It was fast paced and had lots of action. I totally enjoyed it. I didn’t want to put it down until I’d read the last page. I highly recommend it! I was fortunate to receive this novel from Netgalley as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Wow, this book is epic in both size and the story it’s telling.

The Author , Rusty Young starts out telling us how he worked for the US government as a manager for Anti kidnapping in counter terrorism; this led to Rusty meeting the main protagonist, Pedro Juan Gutierrez Gonzales who tells the story of his childhood and the small Village he lived and grew up in while the FARC Guerrillas and the Colombian army battled for control.

The book itself is a work of fiction based on the events he experienced and it’s a massive book broken down into 164 chapters I guess to help pace the book. Which is done every well, you get that , “just one more chapter” feel.

We are told how a young Pedro learns to gain his fathers trust and begins to help with things in the close knit community and starts to learn exactly what it going on, the first few chapters bring us to his 15th birthday.

Witnessing his fathers cruel, vicious execution at the hands of the Guerrillas , His family is then thrown off their own Finca (farm) , and Pedro swears revenge.

Joined by his best friend Palillo, they sign up to the AUC , Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, a group of paramilitaries fighting against the Guerrillas. Pedro aims to find and kill all the Guerrillas involved in his fathers death.

Brutality’s of camp life , horrific punishments, one execution of a group of deserters is particularly harrowing and haunting and both heart breaking and awful.

Venezuelan Witch doctors, drugs labs, cocaine supermarkets, corruption , protection, drug trafficking and the whole cartel works are all prevalent in this book

The Main characters grow on you and it’s hard not to become emotionally involved with Pedro and Palillo as you read, it’s such a big book you become invested in them both, and many lesser characters like Nono and Camilla, even Alf’s 1 the brutish Commander and leader of the AUC.

It’s fascinating to read Pedro’s Character arc as he goes from Innocent boy to a hard , uncompromising superior commander of the AUC.

A coming of age story , the trials and tribulations of being a teenager In a horrendous setting , I wander how much is real and how and much is fiction.

It’s very well written , with great attention to detail and you really feel your in Colombia going through the hell with Pedro. Living through the hell and brutal atrocities of a war that appears to have no end.

there is a bit of an element as the book reaches the later stages where it can a little repetitive and for me it could have been written maybe 150 pages lighter, though this by no means makes it slow or boring and it doesn’t take away from this being a great book.

Brilliant, heart wrenching , powerful, extraordinary, a tale of revenge and at times , human attrition , this is a triumph for the author and brings to the fore a subject I knew very little about and now want to find out more.

If you have an interest in this subject this is a Must Read.

4 Stars

My copy was supplied my Net Galley for an honest and impartial review

I have a special interest in the war on drugs and Latin America related stories, so when I saw Colombiano I immediately knew I had to read it. Colombia has a special place in my heart as it gave me three wonderful months of memories during my time living in Cartagena as well as it being the place where I first met my hubby. Colombia has a complicated history though and Rusty Young does a fantastic job portraying the struggles and give insight in what it was like for innocent inhabitants and autodefensas members alike. Colombiano is a mix of facts and fiction as the author spent years working secretly for  the US government in Colombia and was able to hear a lot of testimonies of child soldiers during that time. If you want to learn more about the struggles between the guerrilla, army and autodefensas and its consequences for both country and inhabitants, this book is an excellent way to do so in an entertaining way. I know it's a huge book with over 800 pages, but it's worth every single minute of your time. Like I said before, facts and fiction are mixed in Pedro's quest for justice for the death of his father. Both sides have been incorporated into the story in such a way that feels natural and Colombiano is informative without it slowing down the pace of the story. The driving force behind Colombiano are Pedro, Palillo and the other main characters. Together they help understand what it is like living in a small village in the middle of the fight between the guerrilla and the army, and also show why someone would join the autodefensas and how that organization works. This story is about violence, drugs, power struggles and revenge, but also a coming of age story about young people growing up in such a difficult situation. Colombiano is hands down one of the best books I've read so far this year and definitely worth your time if the topic interests you. Between the writing style, characters, descriptions and plot you will have no idea this story is that long as you will find yourself turning those pages with gusto.

I've been wanting to read something like Colombiano for a long time, but without really knowing exactly what it would be. Rusty Young does an impeccable job overlaying facts and events with fictional characters and circumstances. I had to resist my urge to find out if every person or utterance *actually* happened, because it doesn't really change anything. The stories in this book are representative of a larger issue and have real-world, human consequences. It didn't matter if there was a kid named 'Coca-Cola'.

The novel did end up being a lot longer than I thought, but the chapters are relatively short & digestible. That said, there's definitely parts that could have been cut down. I think Young was trying to incorporate his main subjects' full testimony of the conditions in Colombia and perhaps didn't feel right about removing these portions.

One thing I appreciated was that the author didn't skim over the women and girls who were caught up in the fighting as well. It might have been easy for a protagonist who's young & male to brush off what happens to his female comrades, but he confronts the sexual exploitation and straight-up assault by commanders and other enlistees towards those in their own ranks. And though not as often, the racism in the country is pointed out by way of Pedro's best friend, Palillo.

The ending was as much of a resolution as you could hope for in a no-win situation like this. For anyone who wishes to gain some insight into the other side of the 'War On Drugs', I strongly recommend Colombiano.
I can tell this will be one of my favorites of the year!

What an incredible book!

Was excited to read Colombiano and see what the story was about, then became apprehensive after reading reviews suggestive to the violence, but this is so much more then the moments of grim horror.

A teenage boy well loved, well brought up, and well protected by his family has his world turned upside down, and the safety and security of his respectable family jeopardised. People live in fear of the guerrilla, and actions have consequences, especially growing up in politically sensitive times, right in the middle of 2 warring sides.

The main character, Pedro, isn’t an adult at the start of the story, but someone who is still very much a caring, loving, but hurt child who quickly enters into an adult world naively driven by his emotions. With a motive fresh in his mind, and an obsession to deal with it, there was only one thing for him to do - get revenge. Caught up in a world where innocent people are extorted and powerful people have their own agenda and means to gain control, Pedro slowly becomes like the enemy, but is soon made to realise that the situation surrounding him was far greater than he is or ever was, making him just a pawn in a game of guerrilla warfare.

Full of planning, plotting, training, and taking action (war games), with an undertone of love, care and trying to make right. A story of a teenage boy becoming a man living in tough times. It’s quite a commitment to get through, but the chapters are short and I kept wanting to read more. So well written and a story to be told. Keep reading to the very end.

Colombiano by Rusty Young brilliantly blends fact and fiction in a thrilling, terrifying ride through deepest, darkest Colombia. It is a savage, no holds barred telling of the war between the Autodefensas and FARC and explicitly details the various activities practised such as kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, murder, and most disturbing of all: the recruitment of child soldiers.

I had to remind myself many times that this was a novel based on truth. Mr. Young has meticulously researched the country, it’s inhabitants and the plays of the drug wars, and his research is woven astoundingly well through these pages. I also had to remind myself that the characters in this novel were the same age as my teenage sons. It is a sad, poignant telling of lives lived that many of us cannot fathom. Ultimately, it is an intense lesson in history as much as it is an unputdownable thriller.

I enjoyed it immensely. It was fast paced, full of action, and easy to read. It will keep you up all night. You won’t want to put it down until you’ve read the last page.

A book of violence and history. A country with many problems. Very good location and background information. Take my hat off to the author for bringing this story to readers.

Full disclosure, I started this figuring for an epic fail. Huge book which I always liked in the past but nowadays generally just tombs of terrible writing.

I was surprised, quick chapters for more readability, great story about child soldiers on a different continent and how guns make no one a child. The authors life work in the arena brings this fictional account of revenge with a lot more pop and sizzle than the average fare. Watch out Don Wilson!!! Read on brothers and sisters.

While well written and engaging, and definitely a story that needs to be told, I could not bring myself to finish this book. About a quarter of the way in, I found myself to be stressed out and depressed by the story, and could not go on. It actually caused my PTSD to flare up. I'm sorry that I can't offer a better review, but I wish the author all of the luck in the world. Again, the story HAS to be told. It just can't be done by me.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Havelock and Baker Publishing and the author, Rusty Young, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Colombiano in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
Wow, what a story! This book kept me up into the early hours. It is a powerful story of murder, revenge and redemption that will stay with you long after you turn that last page.
A word of warning though, it is probably not a book for the faint hearted due to the graphic nature of the violence.
Well worth a read.