DAMNIFICADOS - JJ Amaworo Wilson


 In the heart of a large city in a Latin American country is a once-abandoned high-rise tower. It is now filled with squatters - families with nowhere else to as well as loners just looking for a safe place to dwell.  These are the 'damnificados' - the unwanted; those damned to dwell where no one else dares to live. They become a city unto themselves, watching out for one another, creating schools, and stores to meet their needs.

But while the building was abandoned before the damnificados took over, it still has an owner and he wants it back. He asks nicely, trying to point out that they don't really have a right to be in the building, but the damnificado community isn't willing to move.

The building owner will return with an army and face off against the ragtag bunch of squatters but fate, more than skill, may save them on more than one occasion. 

Wow.  This book came completely out of the blue for me, but author JJ Amaworo Wilson quickly grabs the reader's attention with some really great characters in a really great situation.  We are brought into the damnificado community and we feel like we belong there.

There's a lot of humor here, despite a couple of private armies ready to kill every man, woman, and child in the tower, but the humor isn't a moment of respite from the threats and violence - it's the humor of everyday humans and the absurdities of fate.

What really makes this book such a wonderful read, though, is the humanity. There is much to be admired about the damnificados - the people in the community appear to have a respect for one another (sometimes that respect is shown by leaving someone alone) and they will stand up for their community against overwhelming odds.

This is one of those rare books that I'm putting in my 'read again' pile and I think it might be one of the best new books I've read so far this year.

Looking for a good book? Damnificados by JJ Amaworo Wilson is an excellent morality tale with great characters, some humor and absurdity,  set in the modern era in the center of any major city. This is well worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Damnificados

author: JJ Amaworo Wilson

publisher: PM Press

ISBN: 1629631175

paperback, 272 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

THE YOUNGER GODS - Michael R. Underwood

Image
 Jacob Greene is a child of cultists - extremists with a deep connection to powerful gods.  To stay in good favor and receive great powers from these gods Jacob's family (both biological family and cult group family) must occasion a sacrifice now then. Jacob doesn't seem to question this (it's how he's been raised, after all) until the time he brings his best friend home to be brutally sacrificed. Jacob believes that his friend is a willing participant, honored to be chosen, informed of what was about to take place by Jacob's father.   Of course nothing could be further from the truth and the friend does NOT go willingly. This shatters Jacob's belief and has him question his faith and he leaves his family and cult in order to think things through. But it's not easy to escape powerful gods, and despite being in the city of New York, all signs point to the fact that the gods know where he is and that something big is about to go down. Although the description
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more