Gustavo Florentin

Received via Netgalley from Curiosity Quills Press in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel is a young woman whose sister has gone missing. In her relentless search for her sister she finds herself lost in an underworld of sex and death. Someone in this world is abducting, and severely torturing girls who have no one to care if they are missing. Is Rachel's sister one? Can Rachel avoid becoming the next victim?

I want to start off by stating that the book does a fantastic job describing what a Schwarzschild Radius is, and being a physics connoisseur I appreciated that. Unfortunately, I felt the description was a bit late in the game, and missed its chance to be something more awe inspiring. The deep philosophical meaning that the Schwarzschild Radius revelation was supposed to reveal arrived a little but too late. It’s a pity because an early revelation would have set up a deep and moving story with two layers: the mystery and the philosophic.
The latent revelation of the story’s deeper meaning also did little to offset the strange reality Rachel lives in. She is apparently a teenager, who is somehow in university. She is allowed to work in a strip club without anyone being suspicious and her parents never question her absences. Mostly I just can’t figure out how someone under 18 is already deeply embedded into college, since graduation age is on average 17 - a few months doesn't make a mature, independent adult.
The awkward relationships, sentence structures and unreality of situations became bothersome early on – and continue to ruin the story. I feel the author tried to make the story much more serious and inspirational than their skill levels. If the author spends some time honing their skills, and revisiting this work I feel this would be a fantastic read. The major detail of age should altered as well to make story more believable..
A great story that requires honing before it should be published to a wider market, but has a fantastic base structure. A good read that could be so much more with just a few tweaks of information timing and some work on character interactions.… (més)

4 ½ Stars

This is going to be one of those hard-to-write reviews. Why? Because I liked The Schwarzschild Radius by Gustavo Florentin, but couple of times I almost gave up on finishing it.
Let me explain, The Schwarzschild Radius is well-written and has a story that you can’t help but get into it and couple of pages into it you are trapped and want/need to know what is coming next; BUT – yes, a “but” in capitals – the content of the book is so disturbing it was difficult for me to read it. There were parts I read really fast and with one eye closed because they were just too upsetting for me.
The Schwarzschild Radius shows the depravity of the human race and how low a person can fall. It also deals with very serious and terrifying topics like pedophilia, child prostitution, sadism, torture, and human trafficking.

The book starts with an online auction. The Webmaster is auctioning Olivia’s life. The winner will decide how Olivia will die and the torture she should suffer for days before her death.
Rachel is desperate to find her missing sister Olivia. She knows the police is doing its best to find her, but she also knows the police can’t go to places where she can go. With that in mind she starts to trace Olivia’s steps and discovers secrets she didn’t know about her sister. Secrets that take her to work in a strip joint and to give private dances in the homes of rich pedophiles. The underworld Rachel discovers is horrifying, disturbing and worst of all, easily trapping.
Rachel takes advantage of her visits to these houses by hacking the computers of her “customers”. She is sure one of them knows what happened to Olivia. The only problem is Rachel’s investigation has caught the Webmaster’s attention and he is willing to do anything to stop her.

Read the rest of my review at The Bookaholic Cat… (més)

I would like to thank Curiosity Quills Press for granting me a copy of this e-book to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.

Goodreads Blurb:
"Rachel, an 18-year-old Columbia University student, descends into the netherworld of runaways and predators to find her sister, Olivia, who has suddenly disappeared.

After getting a job in a strip joint where Olivia worked, then doing private shows in the homes of rich clients, Rachel discovers that Olivia has been abducted by a killer who auctions the deaths of young girls in an eBay of agony.

When she finds Olivia, Rachel becomes the killer’s next target."

This book will take you for a ride that you'll want to get off, but you just can't tear yourself away from it until you know how it all turns out. Initially I wasn't too sure what to make of this book, but about an eighth of the way in it really picked up and the storyline became much clearer. This book has strong female protagonists who survive in some of the worst conditions and depravity known to humans. The question is, can they survive long enough to get themselves out, using only their wits, and relying on each other when possible?

Rachel is absolutely brilliant. At 18 she goes to Columbia University and is fast-tracked for a Nobel Prize according to everyone who knows her. And her adopted sister is just as brilliant, set to enroll in Harvard at the tender age of 16. These two girls have the world at their feet, and are extremely close. Or so Rachel thought, until Olivia disappears and all kinds of strange things come to light. But Rachel doesn't care what her sister has gotten herself tangled up in, she's determined to find her before it's too late.

Rachel is a fount of strength, which she must rely on if she's going to survive the shock and horror of retracing, and following in, Olivia's steps. Her first time stripping in a peepshow joint is almost too much for her, but thoughts of what might be happening to Olivia keep her going, and coming back shift after shift. Especially because she knows Olivia is on borrowed time. As a diabetic on insulin she needs regular shots to stay alive, and she only ever carries enough for one day.

As Rachel delves deeper and deeper into the seedy underbelly of NYC and the depraved men who live there, she learns more than she wants to know about what Olivia was doing. And eventually she understands why, which leads her to take up where Olivia left off. Now Rachel is struggling to save not one life but two. Will her own life be hanging in the balance before all is said and done?

Florentin has done an excellent job of developing the raw emotions of predator and prey in this mentally stimulating story. He does an incredible job of defining the antagonists, how they think, and in at least one case, how he became who he is by the time Olivia crosses his path. The horror of what goes on is very visceral, and sadly it probably has its roots in reality, if it isn't happening in similar ways as I write this review.

The arc of the story is well blended to match the character development, as well as the pacing of the increasing levels of suspense. Without a doubt this book will keep you up late at night, unable to set it down until you've read the very last page. It may keep you up well after that, but that is an entirely different issue. . . Or is it? While this is rated for teens and young adults, I wouldn't want my soon to be 14-year-old niece reading this anytime soon. I'd say 18 would be about the youngest I'd recommend for this book, but that's just one woman's opinion. Maybe it would be good for younger girls who are more prone to become runaways or slip through the cracks - hopefully they might think twice about trying it on their own after reading this. That's not to say this book should be rated differently, but it does contain some very disturbing scenes. On the other hand it also demonstrates the power of love and of human perseverance, so it balances out fairly evenly. Regardless, it is a powerful read, and one well worth your time if you enjoy suspense, strong characters, and excellent pacing.… (més)