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chartsh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
ardentlyaugustine's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. I first found it a few months ago and read that it tackles many sensitive topics, so then I bought a copy because it piqued my interest. This book sat on my bookshelf for a few months before I went to my school library and found a copy. I also found it quite ironic because my school is a catholic school with a church next to it and then I find a book in its library that contained many political views that would probably anger any close minded church goer.
My book at home was still sealed with the plastic from fully booked, but the one I found in my school's library was of course, already opened. I read the first page and then borrowed it and then I went to class to read it during our free time. I started reading from the prologue to the 2nd chapter and realized how well written it was. I then returned it to the library as I had no plans of bringing it home because I already had a copy that I could annotate. I went home that day and after doing most of my schoolwork, I immediately rummaged through my overfilled bookshelf and unwrapped the book from its plastic and started reading it.
This book is about two Jesuit priest who investigate on a case that involves a serial killer in Payatas, in Northeast Manila who kills young boys and leaves their bodies mutilated in the dump.
It's my first thriller/mystery book and even though I haven't built my standards for such a genre, I truly believe this book is a wonderful piece of art. This book got me out of my reading slump and I enjoyed reading it a lot. Every sentence I read made me want to turn more pages to find what happens next in the sequence of events. It unexpectedly captured my love for reading again and I am even more delighted that it coincidentally featured someone with the same last name as me at the acknowledgements part in the book. Although the author acknowledged her professor in the University of the Philippines (Prof. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo) it still felt surreal and I felt like I was meant to read this book somehow.
Besides the huge dump of emotions I wrote here, I adore this book. Miss or Mrs. Batacan ATEEEEEEEEE! I LOVED EVERY SINGLE BIT.
This book discusses so many social issues in the Philippines and even today, the political points made in this literary work are still relevant. It is an eye-opener on how ignorant and neglectful the government of the Philippines is, and how even the church (an organization that prides themselves in doing good and serving the Lord) abuses its power and contains so many hypocrites. It also primarily tackles how overlooked SA victims are and how Filipinos are considered to be hospitable but turns a blind eye towards a victim of social injustice. The book was able to talk about how much our country is uneducated about mental health and the cronyism that exists in our society.
I definitely think you need to read with discretion while reading this book, but in spite of that, this is a masterpiece. I am so glad I came across this book.
My book at home was still sealed with the plastic from fully booked, but the one I found in my school's library was of course, already opened. I read the first page and then borrowed it and then I went to class to read it during our free time. I started reading from the prologue to the 2nd chapter and realized how well written it was. I then returned it to the library as I had no plans of bringing it home because I already had a copy that I could annotate. I went home that day and after doing most of my schoolwork, I immediately rummaged through my overfilled bookshelf and unwrapped the book from its plastic and started reading it.
This book is about two Jesuit priest who investigate on a case that involves a serial killer in Payatas, in Northeast Manila who kills young boys and leaves their bodies mutilated in the dump.
It's my first thriller/mystery book and even though I haven't built my standards for such a genre, I truly believe this book is a wonderful piece of art. This book got me out of my reading slump and I enjoyed reading it a lot. Every sentence I read made me want to turn more pages to find what happens next in the sequence of events. It unexpectedly captured my love for reading again and I am even more delighted that it coincidentally featured someone with the same last name as me at the acknowledgements part in the book. Although the author acknowledged her professor in the University of the Philippines (Prof. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo) it still felt surreal and I felt like I was meant to read this book somehow.
Besides the huge dump of emotions I wrote here, I adore this book. Miss or Mrs. Batacan ATEEEEEEEEE! I LOVED EVERY SINGLE BIT.
This book discusses so many social issues in the Philippines and even today, the political points made in this literary work are still relevant. It is an eye-opener on how ignorant and neglectful the government of the Philippines is, and how even the church (an organization that prides themselves in doing good and serving the Lord) abuses its power and contains so many hypocrites. It also primarily tackles how overlooked SA victims are and how Filipinos are considered to be hospitable but turns a blind eye towards a victim of social injustice. The book was able to talk about how much our country is uneducated about mental health and the cronyism that exists in our society.
I definitely think you need to read with discretion while reading this book, but in spite of that, this is a masterpiece. I am so glad I came across this book.
bobbiecabrera's review against another edition
5.0
This review is also found on my blog: A Poised Quill! :)
--
Borrowing from the vocabulary of the great Stephen King, unputdownable.
This book provides a more than your raw and gritty crime fiction. This provides a shrewd look into institutions--both in our criminal justice system and in the Roman Catholic Church. It is laced in politics and for the first time in a long while, I didn't mind. In hindsight, I realized that you really couldn't write about Manila without getting political. This book served like a slap in the face of our political system and even the piousness of the Church. It's a juicy and interesting take on Philippine politics set in a whodunit. It's layered and multi-faceted. It gives the readers a glimpse at the affluence of the rich marred with corruption, and a jarring picture of poverty deeply rooted in even more corruption and social diseases.
It is so refreshing to read something that is set in a location I am fully familiar with. I could empathize with Father Lucero's frustration in EDSA traffic. I could almost smell the monstrous dump of Payatas. I could almost hear and smell the rain during the monsoon. The book is heavily laced with Pinoy culture with and it made reading through this a breeze. The pancit canton, carinderia, pollution and flooded roads--everything felt so eerily familiar and solid. So this is how it feels reading about your own home.. Location isn't just what I loved about this. The setting would not matter if the story is vapid and a barely-passable standard for a Wattpad flick. (Still hasn't gotten over my aversion-to-romance-novels phase.) I love crime fiction. I'm no expert on it, but the feeling of reading one is addictive. The suspense, the intrigue, the gore and the horror. And Smaller and Smaller Circles isn't just an okay story. It's raw and well-thought out. The characters are spot-on and people I can easily point out on a normal day walking in Manila. They are realistic and so, jarring in their possibilities.
Another thing I loved about this book is how flawlessly integrated the Filipino humor is on such a serious book. It was dead-on (forgive the pun) and I found myself laughing at even the smallest interactions. It shines a light at how Filipino humor is a form of resilience in surviving shock.
At the start, I had a hunch who did it. But how the mystery and twists unfurled was so enjoyable that it kept me at the edge of my seat. It was one of the best crime fictions I've read in a while. No wonder why this was also the fastest I've read in a long while.
Definitely my best read of the year.
This book is far, far from the shallow "stories" that often dominates the local bookstore's best sellers list. You know, the vlogger's bound compilation of beauty picture vaguely passing as "books"; badly proofread anthology of mundane and inane shallowness of "instapoets"; a compilation poorly-worded love advice from hypocritical bible-thumping celebrities. Those kinds of stories.
I hope to see more of Batacan’s whodunits in the shelves in the very near future. I wish to see more Filipino authors like her conquer the shelves of our bookstores and conquer both local and international bestseller lists.
--
"The Church in this great Catholic country of ours is the last great, unexamined mystery. And I think you know what happens when you don't let the sunlight into dark places." - Director Lastimosa, Smaller and Smaller Circles
--
Borrowing from the vocabulary of the great Stephen King, unputdownable.
This book provides a more than your raw and gritty crime fiction. This provides a shrewd look into institutions--both in our criminal justice system and in the Roman Catholic Church. It is laced in politics and for the first time in a long while, I didn't mind. In hindsight, I realized that you really couldn't write about Manila without getting political. This book served like a slap in the face of our political system and even the piousness of the Church. It's a juicy and interesting take on Philippine politics set in a whodunit. It's layered and multi-faceted. It gives the readers a glimpse at the affluence of the rich marred with corruption, and a jarring picture of poverty deeply rooted in even more corruption and social diseases.
It is so refreshing to read something that is set in a location I am fully familiar with. I could empathize with Father Lucero's frustration in EDSA traffic. I could almost smell the monstrous dump of Payatas. I could almost hear and smell the rain during the monsoon. The book is heavily laced with Pinoy culture with and it made reading through this a breeze. The pancit canton, carinderia, pollution and flooded roads--everything felt so eerily familiar and solid. So this is how it feels reading about your own home.. Location isn't just what I loved about this. The setting would not matter if the story is vapid and a barely-passable standard for a Wattpad flick. (Still hasn't gotten over my aversion-to-romance-novels phase.) I love crime fiction. I'm no expert on it, but the feeling of reading one is addictive. The suspense, the intrigue, the gore and the horror. And Smaller and Smaller Circles isn't just an okay story. It's raw and well-thought out. The characters are spot-on and people I can easily point out on a normal day walking in Manila. They are realistic and so, jarring in their possibilities.
Another thing I loved about this book is how flawlessly integrated the Filipino humor is on such a serious book. It was dead-on (forgive the pun) and I found myself laughing at even the smallest interactions. It shines a light at how Filipino humor is a form of resilience in surviving shock.
At the start, I had a hunch who did it. But how the mystery and twists unfurled was so enjoyable that it kept me at the edge of my seat. It was one of the best crime fictions I've read in a while. No wonder why this was also the fastest I've read in a long while.
Definitely my best read of the year.
This book is far, far from the shallow "stories" that often dominates the local bookstore's best sellers list. You know, the vlogger's bound compilation of beauty picture vaguely passing as "books"; badly proofread anthology of mundane and inane shallowness of "instapoets"; a compilation poorly-worded love advice from hypocritical bible-thumping celebrities. Those kinds of stories.
I hope to see more of Batacan’s whodunits in the shelves in the very near future. I wish to see more Filipino authors like her conquer the shelves of our bookstores and conquer both local and international bestseller lists.
--
"The Church in this great Catholic country of ours is the last great, unexamined mystery. And I think you know what happens when you don't let the sunlight into dark places." - Director Lastimosa, Smaller and Smaller Circles
md11's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
snowmanreads's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dlrosebyh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Filipino men are either of the two Ts: trash or treasure. And while this is cliché, Filipinos take this very seriously, hence why Smaller and Smaller Circles didn’t feel fiction at all while reading this.
If you’re familiar with Philippines politics, every element in the novel shouldn’t surprise you. Yup, priests can be corrupt, can be evil, and it happens more regularly than expected. But what’s so groundbreaking about this book is that it breaks the conservatism of our country in some sort of way.
Growing up as a Filipino in a conservative Catholic household, I've always been told to not do certain things, and consuming media against the 5th commandment (AKA: thou shalt not kill) is extremely prohibited. Smaller and Smaller Circles winning as a Philippine National Book Award sure stirred a lot of conversation, but it was deserving of the attention.
One thing Filipino authors never fail to do is to bring up the social issues in our country. In this book, we can see that with the underlying child labor plot, where children are forced to work because they’re in poverty.
While, yes, I know that the book is something not new or has been done before, I also really enjoyed reading it. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m Filipino, but this book felt somehow like home. It was easy to read, to digest, and you don’t need a lot of brainpowers unlike a majority of crime/mystery novels.
Overall, I believe that Smaller and Smaller Circles might be cliché, but it’s an eye-opening novel about the things happening in the Philippines, a third-world country who do not have the privileges first-world & second-world countries have.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Child abuse
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Police brutality
charmxlypi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I read this due to a suggestion of a friend and came to love it overall. The only reason for me not providing it a 5/5 is because of how I wished there was more content and something more into the details of the other characters; especially Jerome. It explains the reality of the PH and there is beauty behind the way it portrays the ugliness predominant in the country. It took me a while to read this, taking copious breaks in between but I can also count it as something of an easy read.
If you are searching for something that gives you a glimpse of the grimy reality behind the streets of Payatas in the Philippines, the perspectives of two priests into the situation of the church as well as the police. It is a worthwhile read. And all the more interesting to me as a Psychology major. Even with the 4/5, I can highly recommend this book.
If you are searching for something that gives you a glimpse of the grimy reality behind the streets of Payatas in the Philippines, the perspectives of two priests into the situation of the church as well as the police. It is a worthwhile read. And all the more interesting to me as a Psychology major. Even with the 4/5, I can highly recommend this book.
thereadingkoala's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0