Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan

17 reviews

dlrosebyh's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Police brutality

andievillegas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse

ravenph's review

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

unidentifiedfilipinoobject's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Classism, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Body horror, and Gore

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Vomit, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Gun violence, Medical content, and Alcoholism

asti_64's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Murder, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Police brutality and Adult/minor relationship

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

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

sincerely_bibliophile's review

emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

One thing that makes this novel so good is that it has a very short chapter but each chapter is well written, as if each chapter is like a one episode of a series. Despite of so many characters presented in the story, the author was able to introduce each with enough back story that makes this novel more interesting in every turn of the page. 

I loved how the book discusses about poverty, power and injustices. It is really frustrating because Batacan have first written this book in 1996. The problems of our country back then which inspired her to wrote this book is still evident until today (2022) 

The diversity of characters and balance between good and evil in this book makes it more interesting. I loved how the author used Father Saenz and Father Jerome as the main protagonist in the story. A representation of light amidst darkness. Hence, I can only hope that someday, more people like Father Gus, Father Jerome and Director Lastimosa are the ones who will be given authority and power over the people so that there will be less opression and that compassion may prevail instead. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Pedophilia, and Murder

j_mikyla's review

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