Title: Village Americana
Author: Roberto Scarlato
Publication date: April 7th 2013
Genre: Survival Thriller
Pages: 43
Source: From author for an honest review
Purchase: Amazon
Due to violence and strong language, I recommend this for readers 18+
While taking a class trip to South America, sixteen friends are ambushed, captured and taken to a nearby village run by a mad man. It becomes clear that this is no ordinary village. It is a village of slaves, psychological warfare, and pure terror. With nothing but her wits and the voice of her dead uncle to guide her, Brooke Kylee must find a way to escape the horror while still maintaining the one thing she has left: her sanity.
VILLAGE AMERICANA is a 10,000 word novella.
I read Village Americana in one sitting and could not take my eyes off of my Kindle. This story was craziness and sadness and hopefulness. It took me a while to figure out if I liked this novella or not - I'm a fan of thrillers, but torture is something I have a hard time reading about or watching in a movie.
Brooke was a really kick ass character. I'm not sure I would have made it five minutes in that ordeal. She was a fighter on automatic pilot and didn't allow herself to fall apart, maybe holding that off for later. I had no idea how this was going to play out - it was completely intense. I don't know how I survived just reading it! Many times I found myself holding my breath with my heart racing, and I'll admit to losing some faith in humanity.
I'd like to think I'm not a pansy, but I needed to decompress afterward with cute fluffy cat videos. It was that intense of a read with a ton of things happening in a short period of time. I feel I must warn you there are gory and disturbing scenes. If you're squeamish of violent and disturbing images, this is not a story for you.
I'd like to think I'm not a pansy, but I needed to decompress afterward with cute fluffy cat videos. It was that intense of a read with a ton of things happening in a short period of time. I feel I must warn you there are gory and disturbing scenes. If you're squeamish of violent and disturbing images, this is not a story for you.
I don't know exactly what made this group of men go crazy in the jungle, and I'm not sure I want to know. All I know is they were what makes up some of my worst nightmares.
My Rating:
I thought it was cute that you had to watch fluffy cat videos after! This sounds like a dark read and I probably wouldn't pick it up. I just can't stomach stories like that, no matter how much cat videos I watch. Haha. Great review though! :)
ReplyDelete-Kimi at Geeky Chiquitas
Lol, I hoped someone would get a chuckle from that! I feel like I should warn potential readers about the torture because I wouldn't want someone walking in blind to that in a story, you know? Thank you, Kimi! :)
DeleteI love dark reads, but I think this is too dark even for my taste, lol. Reading this was really brave act.Yay for you! I don't handle gore well :) I prefer getting mind-fucked, but without too much violence.
ReplyDeleteIt's short but packs a punch in the time it takes to read it, that's for sure. I tend to be brave-ish when it comes to horror and thrillers, but the older I get, the less brave I am, lol. Thanks for stopping by! :)
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