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WORK TITLE: The Catcher’s Trap
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.ricardophenriquez.com/
CITY: New Haven
STATE: CT
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.inkshares.com/ricardo-henriquez * https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-henriquez-7738388/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no 98034422
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no98034422
HEADING: Henriquez, Ricardo
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035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca04615849
035 __ |a (DLC)no 98034422
040 __ |a OCoLC |c OCoLC
100 10 |a Henriquez, Ricardo
667 __ |a Machine-derived authority record.
670 __ |a LCCN 94-751811: Mis canciones, p1980
953 __ |a xx00
985 __ |c OCLC |e LSPC
PERSONAL
Born in Tocopilla, Chile; immigrated to United States, 2001; married.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Universidad Católica del Norte .
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Has worked as a political and community organizer in New Haven, CT, for five years.
WRITINGS
Also the author of Paragon Falling, 2017 and Worlds Walker.
SIDELIGHTS
Ricardo Henriquez is a Chilean-born journalist. Born in rural Chile, in a village in the Atacama desert, he worked as a successful journalist for six years before immigrating to Connecticut in 2001. He continued to publish articles and stories as well as work as a political and community organizer and help nonprofits that assist families become more financially stable.
Henriquez published the fantasy novel The Catcher’s Trap in 2017. Timid Andre Campos suffers from depression. On a whim, he decides to go to a bar to meet new people. However, a run-in with Roman at a bar leads him to an after-party with some scantily dressed, odd characters. While attempting to leave the party, he is sent to a fantasy world known as The Mist, where he is abused and turned into a slave for a group of immortal psychopaths. Andre’s only path to freedom will be to gather the courage and will to take charge of his situation and embrace his will to live.
In an interview on the WSHU Web site, Henriquez talked with Tom Kuser and Ann Lopez about his motivation for writing the character Andre and his journey through The Mist. He confessed: “I went through a really deep depression. It was a really, really dark time. And when I made it to the other side, when I found help and started feeling better, I really wanted to write about it.” Additionally, in an interview on the WNPR Web site, Henriquez talked with Jeff Tyson and Lucy Nalpathanchil about how his protagonist, Andre, who is partially based on Henriquez’s own life, came into being. Henriquez mentioned that Andre “has struggled his whole life with depression and anxiety, and he is at a point in his life where it is crippling. … And one night he decides … to go to a bar and try to have fun because he thinks that it’s his fault that he feels this way,” adding that “it’s his story of transformation, from overcoming his own demons, and getting the courage to fight the demons that are enslaving people.”
Writing in Voice of Youth Advocates, Kimberly Barbour found that “with a strong message of hope, survival, and the fight to be free, The Catcher’s Trap is a must-read.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly suggested that “Andre’s first-person narration feels awkward, as if he were speaking aloud to someone rather than to himself.” In a review on the Cultured Vultures Web site, Ben Arzate lauded that “this novel’s greatest asset is how well paced the story is. This is the kind of book you’d be tempted to read in its entirety in a single afternoon.” Arzate admitted that “my biggest complaint about this book is that there are parts that fall into obvious cliché.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, September 12, 2016, review of The Catcher’s Trap, p. 38.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December 1, 2016, Kimberly Barbour, review of The Catcher’s Trap, p. 74.
ONLINE
Cultured Vultures, https://culturedvultures.com/ (September 19, 2016), Ben Arzate, review of The Catcher’s Trap.
Out Traveler, http://www.outtraveler.com/ (November 30, 2016), Bryan van Gorder, author interview.
Ricardo P. Henriquez Website, http://www.ricardophenriquez.com (July 13, 2017).
WNPR Web site, http://wnpr.org/ (September 26, 2016), Jeff Tyson and Lucy Nalpathanchil, “Ricardo Henriquez: An Immigrant Story of Resilience.”
WSHU Website, http://wshu.org/ (March 27, 2017), Tom Kuser and Ann Lopez, author interview.*
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Ricardo Henriquez: An Immigrant Story of Resilience
By JEFF TYSON & LUCY NALPATHANCHIL • SEP 26, 2016
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Ricardo Henriquez is a Chilean immigrant and author of the new novel The Catcher's Trap
Ricardo Henriquez is a Chilean immigrant and author of the new novel The Catcher's Trap
CHION WOLF / WNPR
Thousands of immigrants move to Connecticut each year. Who are they and why do they come here? We’re starting an occasional series on Where We Live to hear their stories.
Ricardo Henriquez quit his job as a prominent journalist in Chile and sold everything he owned before moving to Connecticut in 2001.
We spoke with him about his journey to the Nutmeg State from a small Chilean town in the Atacama Desert. And we heard about his new fantasy novel hitting bookstores in November, called The Catcher's Trap.
Interview highlights:
On growing up in Chile during former president Augusto Pinochet's rule
"I was born and raised in a really dark time in my country. I was born during dictatorship... violations to human rights was a daily thing... We were far from the capital, and far from the big, big things that were happening... but we also were surrounded by military and police that could kill us at any moment."
On developing an interest in writing and storytelling
"My grandmother and I would walk to school every morning, and I would tell her stories... stories that I made up... I was obsessed with "Murder, She Wrote" -- obsessed when I was little -- and the first short story I wrote was a "Murder, She Wrote" chapter... It was one page long."
On becoming a journalist
"I wanted to be a writer... but my parents said that writers don't make money, and I was the first person in my family to go to college, and they were not going to make sacrifices for a career that was not going to give me an income... I graduated from high school. Pinochet was leaving the regime in two years, and the journalism schools opened, so I was the first wave of journalists that graduated when we returned to democracy. My parents were terrified, but it was a compromise."
On coming out as gay while in Chile
"I came out, like, really early on, and it was not great. [Chile] is still a really conservative country... At some point, I hated myself so much because of who I was, and what I was doing to my family. That was the way that I saw it... but I made a decision. I said, I either kill myself, or I just accept who I am, and thank God I decided the second one."
On leaving Chile for Connecticut
"I was actually a really successful journalist. I had a really great career. I was working at the equivalent of the White House, and I was young, and I was really proud of the work that I was doing, but I was in constant threat of losing my job because I was gay, because I was out... And at some point, I said I cannot live like that anymore... I sold everything I owned, and I moved to the U.S., which thanks to Hollywood, I thought it was like the place to be if you were gay."
On living in Connecticut
"It feels like home... it's amazing how places become home, how something that at the beginning felt so foreign and so different to me, eventually -- a lot faster than I thought it would -- it felt like home, and I felt part of it, and even a little bit defensive of it, when I would hear... especially people in my country talking against the United States, or saying things that were not kind."
On facing discrimination as an immigrant
"I always tell my friends -- my friends that don't get discriminated [against] because they're white -- I [say] until you get asked at least once a month if you are the 'help', then you don't get it... there's nothing wrong with any one of those jobs. It's just the assumption that bothers."
On new fantasy novel The Catcher's Trap
"I went through a really dark time in my life. I had a really deep depression. I wanted to turn that into something positive, so I got the idea of writing this novel... The Catcher's Trap is the story of this young Latino man... He has struggled his whole life with depression and anxiety, and he is at a point in his life where it is crippling... And one night he decides... to go to a bar and try to have fun because he thinks that it's his fault that he feels this way, and that doesn't work out too well for him. He meets a bunch of strangers. He goes with them to a party, and before he knows it, the party is a trap, and he ended up in an alternate universe as a slave, working the fields with a bunch of other human slaves that have been there for generations. And it's his story of transformation, from overcoming his own demons, and getting the courage to fight the demons that are enslaving people."
Ricardo Henriquez was born in the small fishing and mining town of Tocopilla, Chile. He received a degree in journalism from the Universidad Católica del Norte and worked as a political journalist for six years before immigrating to the United States in 2001. For five years he served as a political and community organizer in New Haven, Connecticut. His experiences working with those lacking hope and resources have inspired some of the characters in his writing.
Henriquez has fifteen years of experience writing columns for local newspapers, starting blogs, and sharing his thoughts on social media. He currently lives in Connecticut with his husband and their dog, Penny-Lane. When he’s not writing, he works at a nonprofit that helps families become financially stable. The Catcher’s Trap is his first novel.
QUEST10NS: Ricardo Henriquez
Ricardo Henriquez
The Chilean author just released the horror novel, The Catcher's Trap, and shares a horrible travel experience.
BY BRYAN VAN GORDER
NOVEMBER 30 2016 1:05 PM EST
57 SHARES Share on Twitter Share on Facebook
In his fast-paced and tense novel, The Catcher’s Trap, Chilean author Ricardo Henriquez introduces us to an entirely original, richly detailed universe filled with strong, well-developed characters trying to survive their nightmarish new world. Sure, there are plenty of horrible monsters lurking on every page, but it’s the glimmers of joy found in the despair, the humor poking through the inhumane, that may just be the book's cruelest beasts.
And, after finishing this nail-biter, we sat down with the author, who now lives in Connecticut with his husband and their dog, for a round of QUEST10NS:
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1. Where did you go on your last trip?
My husband, I went to Puerto Rico. We had visited Vieques before, but we never spent any time in San Juan. It was a fantastic trip. Relaxing. Great Food, great drinks and beautiful people.
2. What is your favorite memory from it?
We spent one day walking through the rainforest in El Yunque. It was such an exciting and inspiring day. It was very scary at times because we had to do a lot more rock climbing and swimming than I was expecting, but it was all worth it. There is so much beauty in that forest.
3. What was your most horrific travel experience?
In Vieques, while I was swimming in the bioluminescent bay a jellyfish stung me. I discovered that night that I am allergic to jellyfish and had to be rushed to the emergency room. I’m not going to lie, at one point I thought that was it for me. Thankfully eventually they got me under control.
4. What is your favorite tourist trap?
The Blue Lagoon in Iceland. A total tourist trap, but one that is worth every penny. What a beautiful and magical place. I’ve been there during summer and winter both times it was like a totally new experience. I recommend winter just because the snow makes it otherworldly.
5. What should a first-time visitor to Chile be sure to see?
Go to the Atacama Desert in the north of the country. You won’t see anything like it anywhere else in the world. Entire valleys covered in dunes and salt. Flocks of Pink flamingos crossing the sky. A lagoon with water so thick you can’t sink in it and a sky at night that seems to be right over your head. A must see.
6. Favorite local hangout in Connecticut?
New Haven. During the day, just walking around the Yale campus and admiring the beautiful architecture. At night pizza at Bar, the best pizza in the country. Make sure to have the mashed potatoes and bacon pizza.
7. Your favorite married-couple weekend trip?
Any bed and breakfast in New England during the fall. The fall in New England is beautiful and the only right way to admire it is at a cozy bed and breakfast full of antiques.
8. Favorite pet-friendly hotel?
I actually have never traveled with my dog. She hates cars, so it is not an option.
9. Club that inspired the underground party in The Catcher’s Trap?
The long gone but never forgotten Limelight. Limelight was the first club I visited in New York and the place where I experienced some of the most amazing parties.
10. Where will you go on your next adventure?
I am the vacation planner in my house, and I have a couple of places in mind that I will run by my husband (I usually put on a PowerPoint presentation for him, because I’m that crazy) I’m thinking Panama, Stockholm or London will be on the list.
Author Interview: Ricardo Henriquez, 'The Catcher's Trap'
By TOM KUSER & ANN LOPEZ • MAR 27, 2017
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Writer Ricardo Henriquez speaks to Morning Edition Host Tom Kuser about his new book, The Catcher's Trap, at the WSHU studio last week.
Writer Ricardo Henriquez speaks to Morning Edition Host Tom Kuser about his new book, The Catcher's Trap, at the WSHU studio last week.
ANN LOPEZ / WSHU
Listen Listening...10:35
The door to hell stands under a fluorescent light in an alley in Queens. The devil himself showed me.
This is how Ricardo Henriquez begins his first novel, The Catcher’s Trap.
It’s a story about Andres, a young man, from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who is crashing on his cousin’s couch in Queens. One night he follows a group of strangers to a raunchy rave, gets kidnapped, and finds himself imprisoned in a brutal alternate reality called The Mist. And then, life for Andres gets a whole lot worse.
Ricardo Henriquez joined Morning Edition Host Tom Kuser in the studio to talk about his novel. Below is a transcript of a portion of their conversation.
Where did the idea for Andres and his descent into The Mist come from?
Many years ago, probably, like, five or six years ago, I went through a really deep depression. It was a really, really dark time. And when I made it to the other side, when I found help and started feeling better, I really wanted to write about it.
I used to be a journalist. I love writing. But I decided that I didn’t want to write, like, the number one million memoir about ‘I had a depression.’ And I wanted to turn it into something fun. And I am a huge horror and fantasy fan, I am a big nerd, so I was, like, what’s best? I’ll write a metaphor for that whole time. And that’s The Catcher’s Trap.
You include in the story a number of pretty vivid scenes of torture and abuse. Very disturbing descriptions, in fact, I almost found myself having to put it aside, but by that point in time, I was too invested in the story so I had to keep going. Why did you include them and why are they important to your narrative?
Every single piece of The Catcher’s Trap was thought through. I decided that all that violence and abuse had to be there because that’s how it felt. There was nobody being violent to me. That’s how depression felt to me. It was like someone was bashing me every single day, and I was a victim of that horrible, horrible feeling. And I felt like many things that were feelings, I turned into objects and physical representations of what I was feeling and the violence and the torture and the blood is the representation of the worst pieces of that depression.
I was born in Tocopilla, a small fishing and mining town in the north of Chile.
My passion for creating worlds started when I was around 5 and realized my tiny town in the middle of the Atacama Desert lacked the excitement my young mind craved.
The sun in that corner of the world chases you like a rabid dog, and I would ride away from it on my bike while imagining worlds full of adventures and dangerous monsters.
Later on, I turned my love for writing into a profession and became a political journalist.
In 2001 I decided to emigrate to the United States, looking for adventure and a less hostile environment for LGBT people.
After 15 years of writing columns for local newspapers, starting and closing blogs and sharing my thoughts on social media, I embarked on the dangerous quest of writing a novel.
My first book, The Catcher's Trap, will be available in a bookstore close to you in the fall.
But you can pre-order it now.
Henriquez, Ricardo. The Catcher's Trap
Kimberly Barbour
Voice of Youth Advocates.
39.5 (Dec. 2016): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2016 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
4Q * 4P * S * NA * A/YA
Henriquez, Ricardo. The Catcher's Trap. Inkshares, 2016. 150p. $13.99 Trade pb. 978-1-942645-04-7.
Andres Campos, a young man living in Queens, New York, is the black sheep of his traditional Puerto Rican family. He feels isolated, abandoned,
and uncomfortable in his surroundings. To conquer his crippling depression, he decides to face his fears and go to the city's new hot spot. There
he meets an intriguing man named Roman. Despite some hesitation, Andres follows Roman to a party, where he is overcome with a sense of
wrongness. Trapped and unable to flee, Andres is transferred to another dimension known as "The Mist," where he is enslaved to keep the lives of
his captors eternal. To escape Roman and the overseers of The Mist, Andres becomes the hero of his story and conquers his personal demons, as
well as the ones keeping him there.
In his debut novel, Henriquez dramatically portrays what it is like to struggle with depression and anxiety. He uses metaphors, most prominently
The Mist, to explain the debilitating hold many people suffering from depression deal with on a daily basis. Andres's struggle will be easily
relatable and comforting for anyone dealing with mental illness; they will know they are not alone. His rise from victim to hero will also give
readers hope and encouragement. This novel uniquely and eloquently covers a subject that is all too often dismissed or ignored. With a strong
message of hope, survival, and the fight to be free, The Catcher's Trap is a must-read.--Kimberly Barbour.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Barbour, Kimberly. "Henriquez, Ricardo. The Catcher's Trap." Voice of Youth Advocates, Dec. 2016, p. 74. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA474767990&it=r&asid=24bcd0bfe261f5157cf9a5d959d793f6. Accessed 1 June
2017.
6/1/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1496347977110 2/3
Gale Document Number: GALE|A474767990
---
6/1/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1496347977110 3/3
The Catcher's Trap
Publishers Weekly.
263.37 (Sept. 12, 2016): p38.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Catcher's Trap
Ricardo Henriquez. Inkshares, $13.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-942645-04-7
Meant to highlight a young man's progression from timidity to heroism, this stilted and preachy horror story is chockfull of gross-outs but short
on substance. Andre Campos is quiet and shy, and has been struggling with depression. He resolves to get out and meet people, but meeting
Roman at a bar was the worst thing that could happen to him. Roman and his odd friends invite Andre to a party where clothes are being shed like
snake-skins and people don't look quite right. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, he wakes up in a parallel dimension. His captors tie him to
a pole, lash him with a whip, and rape him before putting him to work as a slave picking flowers that are said to offer eternal life. What follows is
a series of set pieces involving torture and debasement, until Andre attempts to start a revolution. Andre's first-person narration feels awkward, as
if he were speaking aloud to someone rather than to himself, and the lack of nuance in the storytelling is stark. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Catcher's Trap." Publishers Weekly, 12 Sept. 2016, p. 38. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464046251&it=r&asid=4e5f0c6dcbd4306e4f47863dd516138d. Accessed 1 June
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464046251
BOOK REVIEW: The Catcher’s Trap By Ricardo Henriquez
BOOKS
Ben ArzateBy Ben Arzate On Sep 19, 2016
The catcher's trap
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The Catcher's Trap
Source: Google Books
Andres has been depressed and physically weak since he was a child. One night, he decides to go out and try go out and have some fun instead of sitting at home. While out, he meets a fascinating but vaguely threatening man named Roman. Roman invites him to a party which Andres reluctantly goes to. After he passes out at the party, he wakes up to find he’s in an alternative dimension. He’s enslaved and forced to work in a field harvesting crops for powerful immortal psychopaths. If he wants to escape, he’ll need to find the strength to fight back.
“I was dragged into the eye of the hurricane, a spot that seemed protected by an invisible force field. I could see the chaotic mass still rolling around me, but somehow I was safe, nobody was bumping into me or grabbing me. I felt a second of relief but it went away soon. I couldn’t see the wall or any sign of the exit.”
The Catcher’s Trap is a dark fantasy novel with a relatively simple but well delivered premise. Andres is the unlikely hero who seeks to overcome the awful situation he’s thrown into. Much of the middle consists of Andres adjusting to his life as a slave in this alternative world known as The Mist. He makes friends with the other slaves and finds strength inside to keep from giving up, despite the horrible torture he’s put through.
This novel’s greatest asset is how well paced the story is. This is the kind of book you’d be tempted to read in its entirety in a single afternoon. The plot moves forward with a lot of momentum and it keeps you interested in where the story are going to go. It’s a fun page-turner. The ending especially works well. It ends at just the right point to keep me in suspense and eager for the next book.
“The putrid smell of decaying food overwhelmed my senses. I started gagging. Bile erupted from my mouth with violence. The sour taste was all over. I was vomiting and spitting at the same time. But I was alive.”
The world of The Mist is a relatively simple one. A harsh world ruled by immortals turned evil by the crystal plants that the slaves are forced to harness. Andres and the other slaves are caught up in warring factions of the world. There’s not too much detail on the nature of the factions, the history of the world is rather basic. However, this book is clearly only the first part in a and I imagine we’ll see more detail in future installments.
My biggest complaint about this book is that there are parts that fall into obvious cliché. Andres learns of a prophecy about an ancient hero who will lead a revolt against the immortal rulers of The Mist. Even Andres himself points out the parallels to other works like Harry Potter. Personally, I haven’t been able to take the “ancient prophecy” trope seriously since The Lego Movie.