The Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico does not seem to be appropriately named. No one is lucky in this book. The book focuses on a group of high school girls, some have escaped to New York City while some are still living at the center of drug cartel activity in Columbia.

Like a conversation on white drugs, the stories skitter between one girl to the next, then to a teacher, to a guerilla, to another friend, and so on. Characters come forward and recede. No character seems to get more than smattering of pages for their story. The staccato beat of the book leaves one bereft at the end with no resolution.

I had a difficult time connecting to this book, but it was a valuable reference for the history and how the drug wars have affected people personally in places far from where my own personal experience is.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. The narrative is very compelling reading. The setting was fascinating. *The Lucky Ones* is a really enjoyable, suspenseful summer read.

<img src="http://www.reluctantm.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1nsi94.jpg" alt="" width="526" height="440" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6039" />

<p>Well, I had a good run of ARCs that didn't have something bizarre in them. No <a href="http://www.reluctantm.com/?p=3206">squid sex</a> or <a href="http://www.reluctantm.com/?p=3032">unexpected aliens</a> or <a href="http://www.reluctantm.com/?p=3587">guess what someone has multiple personalities and we're like sixty percent of the way through the book before we even mention it once</a>. I'd even started getting into <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/19462319/book/140844766">The Lucky Ones</a>. I wasn't that enthused after the first two or so chapters (each one a self-contained slice of characters that are all inter-related somehow in Columbia's many and varied civil wars/war on drugs/insurgencies/etc.), but then I got into the rhythm, wasn't thrown off by the jumping perspectives, the changes in viewpoint, even the second-person (you, we, etc.) parts.</p>

<p>Then rabbits. On cocaine.</p>

<p>Not just rabbits on cocaine. Rabbits on cocaine from their perspective because, of course, their thoughts and everything would be exactly like humans. Word-for-word.</p>

<p>One of the rabbits smokes a crack pipe.</p>

<p>And so, my respect for the novel was pretty much ruined. I tried. I really did. I got to the end. I thought all the different connections between the characters were interesting. I could see it all in my mind, the locations, the people, the sounds, but, no matter what, this is a book where a rabbit smokes a crack pipe and my mind is so small and petty that that's all I'm going to be able to associate with it.</p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/19462319/book/140844766">The Lucky Ones</a> by Julianne Pachico went on sale March 7, 2017.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

ambitious, strong prose, but more like a short story collection than a narrative. some coincidences that bugged me. fascinating look into a society i knew very little about

It's hard to figure out how to review this. It's not really a novel but more a series of connected- or not- short stories or scenarios. This method gives the reader a sense of what it was like to grow up in the dangerous atmosphere of a Colombia beset by narcos and terrorism. The writing is lush but mannered. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a novel to experience.

Covering a span from the early 1990s to present day, The Lucky Ones is a novel about Colombia that is as densely dark as that country’s rainforests. Like those forests the novel is home to a wide array of creatures ranging from the innocent to the dangerous; those that hide in the underbrush and those that can adapt quickly to the changing landscape. Who the lucky ones are is not clear because there doesn't seem to be any good fortune for the people we meet. Even those who seem to have wealth and security are not immune to the country’s violent forces.

Author Julianne Pachico permeates The Lucky Ones with trepidation and disorientation by moving her characters without any pattern. Each chapter is another characters’ story. They are met as children, adults, teachers, parents, soldiers...and then appear later in another incarnation of their life. After only two chapters I was reminded of another novel that evoked the same kind of dissonance, Sara Taylor’s The Shore. The parallels between the two begin right away—the first chapter of both is profoundly unnerving and will grab you by the throat. In The Lucky Ones it is as simple as seventeen-year-old Stephanie not wanting to go with her family on a weekend trip. The tone is set when her mother tells her that she is not to answer the phone or the door nor in any way indicate they’re away. Over protective parent? Maybe, but soon enough the mother’s warning echoes in my pounding heart. This tension never dissipates.

Other chapters include the man who was Stephanie’s teacher—now a captive being held in the forest for five years. One of his captors is a former student. His girlfriend a drug trafficker’s daughter. Junkies in NYC were once protected, rich, little girls. There are only two fixed points in The Lucky Ones. One is the schools they all attended, even though from there Pachico flings them across time and into far-off places. The second constant is violence. Whether it is between children on the playground or the horrors of covert political warfare, the novel is replete with just how brutal humans can be to each other.

Again, The Lucky Ones is similar to The Shore; both lack a linear structure that will be problematic for some. I spent more time than usual trying to piece together character trajectories—to impose some order on their lives. But it may be that Pachico’s reason for the instability and fractured feel of the novel is to mirror the reality of life in modern day Colombia. If so, she succeeds. The prose and style of these stories are staccato beats that require attention to find the rhythm. It’s worth the effort because, once found, The Lucky Ones pulses with a painful force that won't easily be forgotten.

Not my cup of tea. I found the scenes very realistic, and very painful. Thanks for the ARC, but I didn't finish.

The Lucky Ones by Julianne Pachico (debut)
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Release Date: March 7, 2017
Length: 272 pages

Single Sentence Summary: An examination of Columbia from 1993-2013, years the country was plagued by kidnappings, paramilitary activities, guerrilla warfare, and drug trafficking.

Primary Characters: The Lucky Ones is filled with many characters, but none more prominent than any other. Instead, Columbia, during a time of civil war, is its star.

Publisher’s Synopsis (in part): A prismatic tale of a group of characters who emerge and recede throughout the novel and touch one another’s lives in ways even they cannot comprehend, The Lucky Ones captures the intensity of life in Colombia as paramilitaries, guerrillas, and drug traffickers tear the country apart. Combining vivid descriptions of life under siege with a hallucinatory feel that befits its violent world.

Review: Julianne Pachico took on a huge topic for her debut novel, The Lucky Ones. Having grown up in Cali, Columbia, one might imagine that Pachico may have experienced first hand some of the events in this story. She had to have been acutely aware of many others. The novel was beautifully crafted, with no doubt as to the authenticity of the stories she told.

Through a series of chapters that fit together like puzzle pieces, Pachico created a vivid picture of Columbia and its people in its darkest years, 1993-2013. The Lucky Ones read like a series of short stories – related, but not fully connected. Many of the chapters featured students and staff from an American School in Cali. These were the stories that I most enjoyed. The first chapter, Lucky, set a serious tone for the entire novel. In it, teenage Stephanie is left alone with her housekeeper for the weekend. Her mother’s parting words to her are positively haunting.

“If the phone rings,” she says, “or the doorbell sounds – let Angelina deal with it. And make sure she tells any men who ask that we’re not in the country anymore. Could you do that for me?”

Scary! (Even more so when Angelina is nowhere to be found the next morning.) In Lemon Pie, Pachico uses Mr. B., one of the school’s teachers to examine the futility of life in captivity. Kidnapped five years earlier and promised release over and over, Mr. B. has been reduced to teaching classes at the guerrilla camp where he’s held. His students? Leaves. Twigs. Rocks. Ferns. His subject? English literature. His sanity? Questionable.

Overall, I thought Pachico’s storytelling was original and her writing earnest with a touch of humor. She used many voices to craft her novel and most were perfect. There were a few chapters that were less successful and could have easily been skipped. (Think rabbits high on coca leaves.) No one chapter was dependent on any other. Taken together they were a rich portrait of unimaginable horrors and national endurance experienced by Columbia and its people for the last quarter century. If you like short stories or you’re interested in recent political history you should add The Lucky Ones to your list of books to read! Grade: B

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

This isn't an easy book to read. It's more like a collection of intertwining short stories than a comprehensive story. Each chapter captures a different character and a different time. All deal with the time of the Columbian drug wars, taking place either in that country or NYC. They are inter-connected - the man in the second chapter is the English teacher of the girl in the first, another girl is the daughter of friends of the first girl’s parents, the childhood friend of this girl grows up to be the leader of the guerillas. On and on, each character portraying a different segment of the society. The connections are mostly done as remembrances of each other. Although I can’t begin to explain how the rabbits addicted to cocoa leaves fit in.

I struggled with the title. The Lucky Ones. Really? The characters seem anything but. In one chapter, a lucky one is defined as one left alive, despite being cut open. And while the writing was decent, the story or should I say stories just didn't draw me in. Typically, a book like this would interest me because it's about a part of history I don't know a lot about. But there wasn't even enough concrete history to make it interesting. The book felt disjointed and only half baked, more like a dream with gossamer bits of a story. Others have raved over this, so bear in mind my opinion is in the minority. I don't do well with anything surreal and this is definitely surreal.

Bottom line: if you're the type of reader who is content with characters that show up and inhabit 20 or so pages and then disappear never to return, you'll probably like this book. That's not me. I want characters I can invest time and feeling in. And I want to know what becomes of them.


My Thanks to netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for an advance copy of this book.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. This novel was not for me. I thought the subject matter sounded great, but I was unable to sustain my interest.

I finished this but only because I had invested so much time in it already. The first story lulled me into a sense of security and I really enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed the next one about the teacher who was beginning to go crazy in captivity and began teaching “alternative children.” The rest of the stories were meh. The crazy train derailed at Watership Down on drugs and I should’ve stopped there because I half read/half skimmed the rest of it because it wasn’t making sense to me anymore and I was beyond caring. Obviously I am in the minority on this one, it looks like several people really enjoy it. I am not one of them. The stories are very well written, I enjoyed the author’s style. The content just wasn’t for me.

As a student of Latin and South American history, and intrigued by the historical events during this time period (the novel is set in Colombia in the late 90s-early 2000s), I was excited to delve into this story.

Readers may find this one comparable to interconnected short stories, rather than a novel with a prominent throughline, but Pachico shockingly illuminates the affects of the battle between paramilitary groups like FARC, the drug trade, and the government military on the residents of Colombia from 1993 to 2013.

From the literature teacher who has been kidnapped, and "teaches" to sticks and leaves in the woods in an effort to maintain his sanity, to the pet rabbits left behind at the home of a wealthy drug financier (in the story, they become addicted to the leftover coca leaves), no one remains untouched by the tragic circumstances in this country. A great, if challenging, debut effort.

Author Julianne Pachico grew up in Colombia, and her narrative sings with details particular to the region. 'The Lucky Ones' is structured as a (non-linear) series of short stories, linked by overlapping characters, situations, or imagery. Reading this is like playing a pinball game, when the ball ricochets wildly here and there, with the overall effect an uncertainty of outcome. Gabriel Garcia Marquez would applaud this young writer's splashes of magical realism. Chapters span an era when FARC and other para-military groups struggled for power with drug lords and elected governments. Exquisite details pull the reader into the heart of Colombia where rule of law has dissolved. In such a world, people are held hostage to circumstance. Wealth doesn't insulate one from violence. A school is not necessarily a sanctuary. A birthday party can turn really strange really fast. A teacher is not immune from kidnapping. In my opinion, the best fiction bears witness to a world in turmoil, engages the reader with characters who are snared in high-stakes moral struggles that exist beneath the surface of world headlines. Applause to Ms. Pachico for a brilliant debut, a journey into complicated places.

Pachico's debut is sort of a series of interconnected stories revolving around Colombia in the 1990s and 2000s--when things were more than a little unsettled and disappearances were rampant. Some sections worked better than others--most of the characters are absurdly well-off, but when we finally get the POV of one of their maids, it's not that compelling (and features perhaps one coincidence too many). Just a few too many young, wealthy girls as characters--although I imagine that is a world the author knows well, I would have liked a little more variety. (But don't even get me started on the bunnies.) I did like how some of the storylines were unresolved, which of course fits in with the themes of the disappearances. Strong writing here, I just wished for a bit more from the characterization and plot. B+.

The Lucky Ones is set in war-torn Columbia, during the height of the drug wars. It is a fascinating, somewhat tragic, look at how people from all walks of life lived and survived with the constant violence and danger all around them. Billed as a literary jigsaw puzzle, it is indeed eye-opening to see how each piece, each character's life, fit together in unexpected ways. It was a little hard to follow at times, partly because of the way it jumps back and forth in time, but more so because it sometimes took a while to figure out who the main character of that particular chapter actually was. But I could not stop reading, waiting to see what the next chapter would bring to light, how the lives of these classmates intersected and were woven together in ways I would never have imagined. Just an excellent book - this one may haunt me for a while. Many thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for allowing me to read this in return for an honest review. 4.5 stars!

Having spent time in Colombia, I'm always fascinated toread the literature of the region, but for me, some of the stories in the collection were marvelous, but others fell flat, and I actually miss the emotional tug of a novel. I never really felt the characters were fleshed out, even though I enjoyed the stories.

“Some things don’t ever deserve to be told.”

We come upon the characters in this novel in a sort of disarray of time. Usually I am bothered by disorder in a novel, wait, is this the present or the past? But it worked here. In a war torn country, memories torture the survivors and time doesn’t much seem like a straight line anyway. The reader doesn’t really know for fact who the bad or good guys are, because all seem a bit of both. Military, drug lords, privileged schoolgirl darlings- all we know is even those privileged can’t hide behind their money. In the first of the collection of interconnected stories that create this novel, it is 2003 and young Stephanie remains behind as her parents go to a party in the mountains. Costing her maid Angelina her day off, their interactions reveal the reek of being spoiled. As Stephanie snidely orders Angelina about, there is no need to question who the ‘Lucky Ones’ are, but that’s about to change. A menacing man will disrupt her plans in ways she couldn’t imagine when she declined the party with her family. That entitled attitude is about the crumble in the horror of reality.

When the readers encounter an American, former English teacher clinging to sanity as he teaches a vine covered ceiba tree, leaves, sticks, branches, and the river stones- the sheer terror of his situation is hard to miss. A prisoner now, but for what? Why? What is to become of him? His only anchor is to continue on as if he is still teaching students. His skin is infected and his mind. Something about this particular story endeared me the most to him. A teacher’s purpose is simply to engage young minds, nothing criminal and yet how did he end up here? Why did he come?

Former students remember cruelties, and they are ugly! Some get their revenge, and chose drastic life paths. Others we meet in America, remembering Columbia like a distant dream or nightmare, depending on how the light hits their memories. This novel is populated by characters that are vastly different in their status. Where one is living a life with wealth beyond imagining others are struggling in the worst poverty, some are trying to cling to their dignity in their horrific situations but all of them merge in the chaos of civil war in their country. The stories felt terribly real. Some moments are rotten, some are commonplace bullying so many kids go through, others are unfathomable for those of us living in a country without such civil strife. Such a strange novel, and yet wonderful. All the characters are prisoners of time, their own breaking mind, the past and their memories, or of war itself.

Publication Date: March 7, 2017

Random House Publishing

Spiegel & Grau

How does one live in a country during a constant war? How does one stay safe, sane and whole? The war is in Columbia and it has been going on for years. Different factions – FARC, guerillas, warlord wannabes, drug kingpins, gangs, the military – are all seeking victory. But the war has been going on for so long, no one even knows what victory will even look like.

Julianne Pachico has taken this relentless war and chosen young students, teachers, families, and servants as the ones who try to carve a future out of a war that has no reason, no end and perhaps no future. In several linked stories, Pachico’s narrative is like a camera’s eye, swooping in on a young teen left alone in an upscale home, when an ominous knock suddenly changes her life. Pachico moves on to a professor held hostage for so many months in the jungle. He clings to sanity by reliving his lessons as he teaches the stones and leaves. A young guerilla, a former ridiculed classmate, with too much responsibility, questions his role even as he callously gives orders leading to others deaths. Pachico’s book covers the wealthy and the poor, those who escaped and who thought they escaped. What unites these stories is the relationship between these people, often unknown to them or just tangential. What unites these stories is the sense of terror lurking in beautiful jungle settings, rich homes or poor barrios. No one is safe. Dread permeates their lives as does a ceaseless hope that somehow something may be put right – even if it leads to revenge or redemption.

Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this opportunity to read an outstanding collection.