A review by marissasa
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was my first cozy mystery type book and although it was lighthearted and not as tightly focused on the murder as I thought it would be, I enjoyed it and found the characters well-written and likable. The *freeze frame* "yep that's me, you're probably wondering how I got here" style of narration and abundance of explanatory details in the writing were so cheesy, but that honestly made this book feel even more Filipino than it already was with its very realistic depiction of the aunties and lola, its notion of "family = relatives + every family friend in existence", and the mouth-watering traditional foods that seem to be in every chapter, because if Filipinos are anything, its cheesy! The book wasn't perfectly paced and I did predict who the true killer was at around the 2/3 mark so the reveal in the last couple chapters wasn't a shocking one, but it was a fun read and a treat to listen to on the audiobook complete with proper Tagalog pronunciation and Filipino accents. I'll definitely listen to the rest of the books in the series in the future.
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