The device teh author uses of counting down the days until roberto's death is a terrific idea since all we are seeing as this journalist decides to make his way after many death threats to his girlfriend and marriage in St Lucia, is that he keeps escaping death - we are worried when he decides to go on one last journalistic jaunt on his way out - and then a betrayal shocks us all, and the count down is complete - there are some great characters and intrigues along the way - a guerilla warrior woman, a stepmother who is enticing ... and the ambient well observed in a hot climate of political corruption. Really fine.

Roberto to the Dark Tower Came needs ALL the trigger warnings. Gore, death, torture, sexual assault, cruelty to animals, death of animals, language, whatever you can think of. If that is enough for you to not read it, then you probably don’t need to read the rest of my review.

If your still reading my review, then maybe you will consider picking up this novel. It was disturbing and dark, but I couldn’t make myself stop reading it. I became invested in the characters, and I wanted so bad for them to triumph, but this isn’t that kind of book. It’s the type that juxtaposes flawed characters who want to make a difference with the cruelty of those are resisting. It’s the kind of gritty realism where no one wins.

Roberto to the Dark Tower Came is written in third person present tense that gives an immediacy to the prose as Roberto, a left-wing journalist, receives death threats, makes plans to leave the country, gets pulled into reporting on one last story, and witnesses all manners of atrocities. The narrative builds suspense like a thriller, but it is layered with literary symbolism and imagery.

The most terrifying aspect of it was the realism. The story has a contemporary setting. The little details about daily life ground in it a place that may or probably does exist somewhere. Even though the country the book was set in was never directly named, at least not that I noticed, other real countries were.

It’s one thing to read about a character who witnessed someone get flayed in an epic fantasy like Game of Thrones that is set in a secondary world. It is far more disturbing in a book like this, but also probably more worth reading. Because somewhere in the world, people are living in fear of getting killed for disagreeing with governments or living on land people in power want to exploit. I can tell myself “It’s fiction, don’t let it get to you,” and it almost works with a secondary world fantasy, but with a book like this, my brain responds, “yes, fiction, these people aren’t real, but someone else might be living an equally hellish story.”

This story made me think about more social, political, and humans rights problems than I can count, but ones that stood out to me were the relationship between people and land, between those in power and those indigenous to the land, and how it’s not just things diamonds or gold, but some kind of metal or element used to make everyday things like cell phones, that directs greedy monsters to the places they destroy. How many everyday items that I take for granted are made with materials that were obtained by exploiting land and murdering those who love it?

After reading Roberto to the Dark Tower Came, I appreciate what I have and where I live ten times more than I did before, but it also makes me sick about what my privileges, safety and conveniences have cost someone else. Maybe it will drive me to research things and be more careful about what products I buy. Maybe because this book was so damned disturbing, I’ll lose myself in another story and I try to forget about.

I came away from this novel appreciating how precious my freedom is and terrified the current American leadership could make my world more like Robertos.

Overall, if you want a book that will take you out of your comfort zone, keep you up at night, engage you with a blend of literary realism and a political thriller plot, and make you think a lot, then this is the book for you.

But be warned, this book is loaded with triggers.

[Review will be posted on Reader Voracious Blog on May 24, 2018.]

"In ten days, Roberto. You must leave the country. Or else you will die."

The book opens up with Roberto waking up in the middle of the night to receive a death threat on the phone, and the narrative counts down each day before the unknown man's deadline. Roberto to the Dark Tower Came is overall a powerful novel about a young journalist in an unnamed South American country fighting for the truth when journalists - and other subversives - are routinely murdered for doing their jobs.

"The fact that someone wants to kill you for doing your job should make you realize how important that job is."

I am going to admit that I am a bit conflicted about this book. It started incredibly strong and hooked me from the opening lines, but the subsequent few days (nine, eight, and seven) dragged for me and I struggled to continue... but my desire to see what happened kept me going (and I am so glad I stuck with it!). I understand that it was important to Roberto's life to wrap things up, and to reminisce about the past, but I found the pacing to be a little slower than I would have liked. Despite the considerable amount of time in the first 40% of the book dedicated to the people in his life, barring Roberto, Daniel, and Lina the characters fell flat for me; however, the connection that I felt for those three characters was deep.

Despite the slow beginning, things really picked up around 40% in (six days before the deadline). For me this book was more about Roberto's adventure to uncover and expose the truth, it is less of a mystery/thriller. If I were to give this book a rating at 30% it would have been maybe 2.5 stars, but it is easily a 4 star ending for me. I think that many people will appreciate the buildup and character building, but for me I wanted the action to come faster!

There are interesting parallels with terrorism and the fear of terrorism being used as a means of gaining control or excusing governmental acts of force that most certainly apply in the modern climate, and the media is used to spread this message to tamper outrage. I think that is why I felt a disconnect: it felt too real but not actually discussing real events. I don't generally hold fiction up to a "reality" standard, but this almost read like nonfiction to me. It is likely that Epperson didn't name the country on purpose so that it isn't rooted so much in modern historical events, but I found it a bit distracting personally to have the narrator refer to "my country" and "my city" constantly. Regions mentioned were in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru - all countries which I have traveled to, which is probably why I was trying to pick it apart! My best guess is that Roberto is based in Colombia, and the strife depicted is a fictionalization of the FARC conflict.

cw: animal abuse, rape, murder, war

This book was one I couldn't put down fro the beginning of reading and ona subject I have tried to brig to the attention of people and organizations for about 4 decades. Maybe because of better communication worldwide, cell phones. and internet we are seeing the amount of journalists and activists that are being arrogantly murdered over trying o expose corruption and atrocities created against Indigenous people to exploit and destroy their areas. The author did a great job of bringing his characters to life in a fast paced thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat unable to stop because you need to see what is going to happen. I would recommend this book to anyone and feel it would make a great movie if true to the book.
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