Reviews

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

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zaisgraph's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Absolutely gripping and captivating. Pretty straightforward. Apart from being entertaining, this book says alot of things and says them well. Do I feel that the main themes of corruption and the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church are overused? Yes. Did Miss Batacan handle these well? Also yes! She was not absolutely antagonistic in her POV. Kinda refreshing tbh.

Some of the characters have random motivations that sorta go nowhere. It also feels that she (the author) struggled to create particularly good red herrings. Smaller and Smaller Circles reminded me of a Karin Slaughter procedural, but yeahh this one is better (than the few I've read... keep writing girl!)

theciz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

A mystery/thriller with a very intriguing premise, let down by a very rote and mediocre execution. Two crime-fighting priests, experts in forensics and psychology, hunt for a serial killer of children in a notoriously poor neighbourhood in Manila - not your run of the mill set up.

Unfortunately, the characters are one dimensional (the two main characters being priests barely factors in to their personalities somehow, they banter the exact same as tv cops), the plot is incredibly predictable (the killer is obvious from a mile off), plot points and secondary characters drop off all over the place and there are numerous clunky info dumps about social issues in the Philippines. I didn’t really feel like I learned much about society or the church there that I couldn’t have already made an educated guess about, and the points being made by the author really aren’t subtle.

The writing also isn’t great - overall it just seemed like the author was mimicking the style of every generic 90s American detective thriller, rather than anything original.

juanakrus's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cerisewon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

kamiiiiiille's review against another edition

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4.0

Solid 4.5, kinda wishing for a slightly better ending.

maiborromeo's review against another edition

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5.0

Smaller and smaller circles is the first ever book I've read which was written by a Filipino. It has also opened my mind that we Filipinos are capable of such talent and skill in interweaving a story of international caliber. I had this past stereotype for Philippine Literature of being "baduy". But this book opened my eyes to a whole new perspective and introduced me to the wide, beautiful and unique prose of Filipinos.