To paraphrase a quote I heard from author Tayari Jones, the best novels are about people and their problems, not problems and their people. I think that quote applies to this novel. Although there are many, many problems in this book, it is about the people first, and their problems second. To me, one of the strengths of this book was its characters and the little quirks that make them unique. The story also demonstrates how one small, seemingly inconsequential action can have a huge impact on o...

I very much appreciated the way Daniel Pena writes - his lyrical and poetic voice that is altogether unique and engaging. The book moves quickly, and did feel I wanted a bit more near the end, but the unexpected made me appreciate his interesting plot and characters more.

Brutal and breathtaking. Two undocumented teenage brothers crash a plane across the Mexican border. They are separated and both drawn into the orbit of cartels, autodefensas, and the military. Their mom crosses the border to try and reunite with them in San Miguel, the town their family abandoned for Texas years before. Things do not go well.

Brutal, but vital. I can well understand the acclaim. This is definitely going to stay with me.

Bang displays a microsection of the brutality caused by the cartel presence in Mexico. The family involved faces violence and lack of agency in a downward spiral of events. Daniel Peña humanizes the people involved in the periphery of the often sensationalized drug cartel. This book was a fast and engaging read, and I would highly recommend it.

3.5 stars.This is a powerful story about what happens when adults must return back to (Northern) Mexico, where they often find a lack of familial support, organized crime, a failed state, a lack of job opportunities, and unfathomable violence. In sum, S.O.L.Two brothers go for a ride in a plane near Harlingen and crash on the Mexican side. The pilot gets kidnapped and forced to work for narcos, while the younger one heads to his family's now war ravaged ancestral home in a small town in Northern...

Very solid book dealing with super difficult material. I found myself at times in disbelief that such poverty and lawlessness can even exist. I really got into the heads of the main characters and could see the world from their point of view. Makes sense that the author is a pilot - his description of planes read like love letters!

What an amazing novel by a local author. I wonder if I can audit his classes.

This is a bracing, difficult look at the drug war on the border between the US and Mexico, told in shifting vignettes within a family ripped apart by forces immense, cruel, and totally beyond their control. At times, Pena's near-apocalyptic vision meant that I had to read other books in the middle of this one, but the strains of a society near-break down, scavenging at a mythical level that could be science fiction, and above all, the pain of people brutally affected by the confluence of events

Evocative. Detailed. Gut-wrenching. Thoughtful. Abounding with deep empathy.

A dark story, indeed."Bang" is the story of a Mexican-American family with ties on both sides of the border. Araceli, the matriarch, lives with her two sons near a fruit grove in Harlingen, Texas. She sits and waits daily for her husband, who's long since been deported back to Mexico. She lives with sorrow in her husband's absence, as well as frequent nosebleeds and blackouts from the constant exposure to pesticides. Cuauhtemoc, the more troublesome elder son, flies crop duster planes for the fr...

Heartbreaker. Should be required reading for anyone who needs help developing empathy. Great characters in a sad and frustrating situation.

An exceptionally well-written, honest, and often brutal account of the realities of life on the US/Mexico border. Set in the drug war that continues to claim lives on both sides of said border, the novel is a tale of two brothers separated by fate, and the mother who searches for them. The Mexico Daniel describes is at once apocalyptic and recognizable. One of the best books ever written on the subject of the drug war.

Uli and Cuauhtémoc are brothers in Harlingen, Texas and one night flying a crop duster on a joyride, they crash just across the border in Mexico. One brother wakes up gagged and bound, and the other wakes up in hospital. Back in Texas, their mother (Araceli) wakes up to a knock on the door from police and quickly makes her way over to Mexico to find her sons. The narrative is told between each of their perspectives in overlapping succession, and follows their search to reunite. Each time the rea...

I only got half way through before giving up. I enjoyed it in parts, such as the description of the trailer and the plane crash, but some of the chapters I found to be a drag. Maybe because it jumps from character to character in the chapters, idk. Anyway 2*, not for me.

Gut-wrenching book! I would say it was horror but much of it is based on real events.

I know I'm not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but what can I say...I'm weak. The cover of this book does not do it justice, and I don't think it attracts the type of reader that will enjoy this book the most. The cover gives the impression that the book will explore cold, faceless violence. I found myself defending this book to everyone who saw the cover for the week I carried it around. To be sure, the book does touch on extreme violence, but with much more nuance than you might expect....

Uffffff. A hard book, difficult to read and full of darkness and hopelessness. I enjoyed it's authenticity but still I hope it's exaggerated to make a point - otherwise this world is a hopeless place ...

That ending, yes. Like something out of a rated R because-of-the-violence movie except that this is the sad reality of life across the border. The writing is detailed and beautiful but the subject matter, although so very important, was very hard to digest even for me who can handle a lot. It is easier to manage material like this when I know it be fiction. Knowing this is what life is like for so many unfortunate people makes this a very difficult book to like. It is an important book everyone

Interesting book, writen in episodes of the three main characters last days. It is difficult to describe the way this book through seemingly fantastic, horrifying stories gives you a harrowing idea of the life among drug gangs in Mexico. It is brilliantly constructed. The selection of the characters to tell the story is inspired as at the beginning they are not involved in drug traficking but they seem to be innocent victims of the circumstances which some how makes the reader feel that the whol...