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In this article I propose that the style of the "narco-novel" in Colombia has been a phenomenon greatly welcomed by publishers and readers. Writers like Jorge Franco - in the case of fiction and chronicle - and Gustavo Bolivar, among others, bring to the lines stereotyped and real characters of the narco-traffic and drug-dealing world. Thus, I consider that this aesthetic has exploited the figure of the drug baron, the violence in the cities and the proper language of this representation of the world. These elements grab the attention of the audience that thinks the more sensationalist the story, the better they will find it. It is highlighted that this style exploits not just the figure of the drugdealer/trafficker but also the extreme violence it generates, attached to the many other elements that represent this specific world. Such elements are powerful and tackle the readers' interest, to which the story is a perfect gimmick. On the contrary, proposals as that of Juan Gabriel Vasquez are becoming stronger in the field of Colombian novel as the need to take a critical distance from the tendency of "presentism" in narco novelets. His work gets closer to a more critical reflection of such reality by introducing alternative stylistic elements. It allows the reader to get a fine picture of the reality by keeping the frame that reflects the everyday life to which readers are more used to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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