Official Review: Under This Terrible Sun by Carlos Busqued

[Neleh403]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Under This Terrible Sun" by Carlos Busqued.]

Under This Terrible Sun is the first novel by Carlos Busqued. It is based in Argentina, in a remote town called Lapachito. It follows three main characters. Cetarti is a man, who constantly high on Marijuana and obsessed with nature documentaries receives news that this mother and brother have been murdered by his mother’s partner. He travels to the town of Lapachito where he meets Duarte who helps Cetarti settle his mother’s life insurance (for a fee of course). Duarte is an extremely unpleasant character, who spends his time not only selling drugs but kidnapping people and holding them to ransom. Danielito is Duarte’s side kick who helps him with his numerous illegal activities. Cetarti somehow gets himself involved with the seedy dealings of Duarte and Danielito with consequences for all.

This story is generally well written but hard going in areas with random chapters added that have no bearing on the storyline. The character descriptions were weak, however some of the descriptive surrounding the area where the story was set and the poverty in these areas was excellent. You could almost be there.

The beginning of this novel lures the reader into the poverty stricken areas of Argentina and how and why people turn to drugs to alleviate the suffering that is all around them. However after the first few chapters you begin to question where this story is going. It does focus on the three main characters but will then veer off course. I have to say that some of the scenes set by the author were abhorrent to say the least with erotic scenes that made me feel extremely uncomfortable and close to not finishing the book. In my opinion these were completely unnecessary and had no real meaning to the story.

I feel that this novel was drawn out. It was approximately 190 pages long but could have easily been condensed, especially if the pornographic scenes were deleted. Animal cruelty was another issue in this book and one that was again not necessary. We all know that such detestable acts go on in life but I personally don’t want to read about it in a fictional book.

I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. The storyline was generally good and the descriptions of the areas and how people live their lives was excellent. However the ending was very poor and due to the explicit nature of some of the book I would not recommend it.

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[Megan Young]

Thanks for the review, probably a book I wouldnt read.