This could be Don Winslow's greatest book. And trust me, THAT'S saying something. From page 1, this book never took it's foot off the gas pedal. It's like riding Space Mountain on coke. ( )

Gave it a shot, but it's just not my thing. ( )

Ben y Chon son dos tíos que saben disfrutar de la vida: les encanta el sexo, el voleibol, la cerveza y las chicas. Ophelia, más conocida como O., tiene fama de alcanzar orgasmos muy escandalosos (por eso sus amigas a veces la llaman Multi O.) y está loca por Ben y Chon. En fin, que se acuesta con ambos. Pero lo que de verdad hace diferentes a Ben y Chon de los demás es que producen la mejor maría del mundo. ¿Algún problema? Ninguno. Bueno, sí, uno: el cartel de Baja. La esencia del narcotráfico mexicano. Que, además, está compuesto por unos tipos con muy malas pulgas: o les das lo que desean o te cortan la cabeza. Son auténticos salvajes. Y ahora, vaya por Dios, tienen secuestrada a O. porque quieren la hierba de Ben y Chon. ¿Qué hacer? Solo hay tres salidas:
1. Hacerles el juego.
2. Encontrar y rescatar a O.
3. Pagar veinte millones de dólares.

This was my 3rd Winslow book and least favorite by far - the Southern Cal trio featured were not as interesting to me as the other books - I believe because the focus was too much on their lifestyle and sexual preferences/lives.... ( )

A very unique book, if nothing else. At 289 chapters, you might think it would be long, but it was fairly short; some chapters were only one or two words, but they often are incomplete sentences, continued in the next chapter, so they aren't very good places to stop reading. I think they're just arbitrary breaks added on impulses. Or maybe it's just a style, which is almost a stream of consciousness style.

The story is both brutal and humorous. Lots of unexplained references and terms that some people might not know, although I knew most of them. If you're politically correct, you probably will find lots of places to cringe, but it was probably necessary for the story and style.

To me, a big lesson in the story is that if you live outside the law, you need to be more than just honest - you need to realize that when things go wrong, you never know what it might take to make them right, if possible. When the laws aren't written down, anything can happen. And in this book, they do. Or maybe the lesson is simply if you break the law, don't do it in a way that will attract too much attention. ( )