Helloooooo my friends! I have been offline because of some technical issues with the blog (lesson: never leave migrating hosts to the last two weeks) but today, things have hopefully all been fixed and you are able to see this post. I have an exciting announcement coming up, but first, I want to share a review:
My book club wanted to read something local-ish to us (and which came from a country whose food we wanted to try) and as soon as someone mentioned “Philipines”, I said, “Let’s read Smaller and Smaller Circles.”
My review was posted on my old blog, so I thought it would be good to do another review, especially since a lot of what I loved the first time, I also loved this time (down to the exact chapter that I wanted everyone to read – Chapter 34, by the way).
Smaller and Smaller Circles basically explores the idea that “hurt people hurt people.” Father Saenz, a priest and forensic anthropologist, is drawn into a case where boys are being found murdered, their faces cut off. Together with his good friend, Father Jerome, the two priests go up against corruption in the government to try and gain justice for the people.
One thing that struck me about this book was its compassion for all the characters. There are no clearly evil characters – one guy that I saw as an obstacle to Father Saenz and Father Jerome’s work was, in one chapter, suddenly made human by his backstory. It really made the book unique.
You can see my full review on Goodreads, but most importantly, let me share some of my friend’s reactions:
Overall reaction: “we liked it! I thought it was very heavy and therefore a bit hard to read cos it’s just a lot of heavy topics, but writing-wise it was very readable“
On Chapter 34, aka the one that left an impact on me: “omg that was really well written”
If you’re squeamish, you might have to be like a friend who skipped over some of the descriptions – it’s not exactly lunch material (in her opinion)!
So, if you’re looking to explore Filipino literature and you’re the type that reads more genre fiction (or you just like crime fiction in general), please give this book a try! It is really very good!
Featured Image: Photo from Canva
Sounds heavy read but interesting and I like it that there wasn’t a clear villain which very true to reality.
Yes! It’s a great book, I highly recommend it!
I’ve never heard of this book before but I might have to look more into it
It’s great (but very intense), I’d definitely recommend it!