Reviews tagging 'Death'

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

11 reviews

fliyalu's review

dark mysterious tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

ravenph's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Torture

itzjez's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping and Pedophilia

Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse

helliepad's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

The author mentioned that she wrote this book feeling angry at the justice system and corruptness present in all Philippine bureaucratic and civil systems. I can feel it, and I can understand it.

What's worse is that though this book was written in the 90s, edited in 2013, and I've read it in 2022, this could have very well been a contemporary novel still set in my current time, or perhaps even in my grandchildren's time. It is the first time I've seen priests being involved investigators in crime novels instead of just witnesses.

Every single character in this book is dealing with decades of moral muck and personal issues and I don't have any poetic words for it. This is a situation that happens every day and I'm too familiar with the helpless, bleak feeling of the Philippines' extrajudicial system to even be surprised at it.

Very honest portrait.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking

itskayleighlove's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

j_mikyla's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Death

dgrachel's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad

3.0

A good mystery and I appreciated that it was set in a country I usually don't read about. It is a sad tale, though, and graphic, so pay attention to the trigger warnings. I do wish I'd read it in print instead of listening to the audio, because while the audio narrator was good, I think the story would have been more immersive in print and I'm sure there are details I missed that would have made the experience richer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Death, Child death, Murder, Pedophilia, and Violence

talkbookswithangela's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Blood, and Gore

mepitts's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very much enjoyed the Philippine and Catholic context and the narrator’s accents. Struggled with the extremely detailed graphic nature of the crimes being investigated. (Seems like in these morally ambivalent days, for a protagonist to have moral authority he has to be battling some kind of “violence porn”) Even so, recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Torture

ssconsequat's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death, Addiction, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Addiction