Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik @EricaFerencik @GalleryBooks #bookreview #thriller

Title: Into the Jungle

Author: Erica Ferencik

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Publication Date: May 21, 2019

Page Count: 320

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

In this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of the “haunting, twisting thrill ride” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) The River at Night, a young woman leaves behind everything she knows to take on the Bolivian jungle, but her excursion abroad quickly turns into a fight for her life.

Lily Bushwold thought she’d found the antidote to endless foster care and group homes: a teaching job in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As soon as she could steal enough cash for the plane, she was on it.

When the gig falls through and Lily stays in Bolivia, she finds bonding with other broke, rudderless girls at the local hostel isn’t the life she wants either. Tired of hustling and already world-weary, crazy love finds her in the form she least expected: Omar, a savvy, handsome local man who’d abandoned his life as a hunter in Ayachero—a remote jungle village—to try his hand at city life.

When Omar learns that a jaguar has killed his four-year-old nephew in Ayachero, he gives Lily a choice: Stay alone in the unforgiving city, or travel to the last in a string of ever-more-isolated river towns in the jungles of Bolivia. Thirty-foot anaconda? Puppy-sized spiders? Vengeful shamans with unspeakable powers? Love-struck Lily is oblivious. She follows Omar to this ruthless new world of lawless poachers, bullheaded missionaries, and desperate indigenous tribes driven to the brink of extinction. To survive, Lily must navigate the jungle–its wonders as well as its terrors—using only her wits and resilience.

Primal, gripping, and terrifying, Into the Jungle features Erica Ferencik’s signature “visceral, white-knuckle” (Entertainment Weekly) prose that will sink its fangs into you and not let go.

Ah the things you learn from reading… with Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik  I learned that a trip into the Bolivian jungle will never be put on my bucket list. I’m not one that has a fear of snakes or spiders but when things are bigger than you are and quite hungry I think I’ll go the other way.

Lily Bushwold is an American teenager that has only known the life of bouncing from one foster home to the next. Lily wants nothing more than to escape that kind of life having grown up living out of her backpack so when she hears of a job in Cochabamba, Bolivia she scraps all the cash she can and buys a plane ticket.

Unfortunately for Lily things aren’t much better in Bolivia when her job falls through. Finding a few other girls she goes back to her stealing ways living at the local hostel and wondering where her next meal will come from. The Lily meets Omar, this handsome local wins Lily’s heart and when he is packing up to head deep into the jungle to his remote village Lily decides to go with him.

Into the Jungle is one of those books that is the perfect read for those curious about other countries and like to travel there through the stories they read. Erica Ferencik brought the Bolivian jungle to life to keep the pages turning wondering what hazard would come Lily’s way next and would she survive them all. For somebody like myself used to a McDonald’s or Starbucks at every turn it was fun to read about Lily’s adventure but I sure don’t think I’d ever try it!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online: 

   Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Erica Ferencik is a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Boston University. Her work has appeared in Salon and The Boston Globe, as well as on National Public Radio. Find out more on her website EricaFerencik.com and follow her on Twitter @EricaFerencik. She is the author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle.