Into the Jungle
Book Review
By Erica Ferencik
Finished 08-15-2019
Genre: Action, Contemporary
Basic Plot: Lily is a 19 year old with no plans. She is living in Bolivia after leaving the US and 18 years of foster care behind. Working and living at a hostel, she isn’t sure where she’s headed. Until one night, she meets Omar. Now her life is going in a brand new direction, into the heart of the Amazon jungle. Lily will learn what survival in a true jungle means, banking on her experience growing up having to work for everything she’s gotten.
This was a book club pick and not something I generally would have found myself reading, but it turned out to be a blast! As you would expect, life is hard in the jungle but Lily has Omar, the love of her life to help guide her through all the trials and tribulations this new way of living has to offer. Lily’s character was a great development and while at times this story became heart breaking and frustrating, it was overall beautiful and full of soul.
I gave it a 4 out of 5 because while the plot was fast and creative, there were a few times for me I found myself annoyed at character behaviors so I just didn’t get that connection from this as I would from a book I give 5 stars. I liked the narrative for the most par though and absolutely enjoyed this book. This author layered in a lot of elements, action, romance, mythology, you name it, there’s probably traces of it in here. It was compact for such a heavily emotionally loaded story making it easy to fly through. If you’re interested in a taste of the Amazon from an outsider’s curious perspective, this is for you.