Smaller and smaller circles by F.H. Batacan

"In northeast Manila's Quezon City is a district called Payatas--a 50-acre dump that is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of teenage boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf. In the rainy summer of 1997, two Jesuit priests take the matter of protecting their flock into their own hands. Father Gus Saenz has been a priest for three decades, but he is also a respected forensic anthropologist, one of the few in the Philippines, and has been tapped by the Director of the National Bureau of Investigations as a backup for police efforts. Together with his protege, Father Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, Saenz dedicates himself to tracking down the monster preying on these impoverished boys. Cited as the first Filipino crime novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles is a poetic masterpiece of literary noir, a sensitive depiction of a time and place, and fascinating story about the Catholic Church and its place in its devotees' lives and communities"--

I did not want to finish. I'm proud to read this book; my first Philippine novel!

a book all filipinos should read at least once in their lifetime.

the story starts strong with a harrowingly grotesque prologue, and moves forward following a priest-detective hybrid tandem as they uncover a bleak and anger-inducing mystery: the monthly murders of young boys by a payatas serial killer.

i thought characterization was great. priests saenz and jerome theorizing the murderer’s methods and motives was always a page-turner, and i enjoyed their symbolic parent/mentor and child/mentee dynamics. ben arcinas was so successfully infuriating that i genuinely wished for him to rot in hell (i was pleasantly surprised by his redemption arc albeit i thought it a bit too swift). there is this one chapter — by far the most impactful and most demoralizing — where the victims' mothers were informed of their sons' murder , that on its own, i would've rated six stars. overall, i never would’ve thought a book following the investigations of two scholarly priests would be this interesting.

critique-wise, i will say that the first third of the novel contains quite clunky exposition but i found that smaller and smaller circles gets warmer and more insightful as you read progressively. things start to get seriously unsettling about 75% in the book so be forewarned. unfortunately, the weakest component of this story is its conclusion: it was too abrupt (though, perhaps that was deliberate on batacan's end, so that she could demonstrate how misfortunes never wrap up with satisfaction). on a similar note, i am fervent in wishing that alex should've gotten a less depressing, less unjust ending. but i guess that's the point of this novel: to illustrate how unfair life can be.

to future readers, don't start this with expectations of mindboggling mystery. i've found its qualities are more appreciated if received less for the criminal investigation unfurling, and more for its (realistic) reflections of filipino cultural faults. it remarkably unveils insight into the utter incompetence of philippine law enforcement, goddamn corruption, expediency, and complete absence of due process. as i read through the chapters, i thought that smaller and smaller circles might as well be a work of non-fiction.

such important thematic coverage of injustice. quite the heavy book and quite the wake up call. it left me angry. irate, even... more dreadfully, this book is a meaningfully imposing narrative of victims of abuse who consequently inflict abuse too... of a child so badly harmed that he grew up broken, driven to harm others in turn. the sad reality of victims of evil, and of how they wrongfully mistreated and forsaken.