Review by sullenreads - Para Kay B (o kung paano dinevastate ng pag-ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa atin)

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

3.0

it’s a great book and i didn’t really have high expectations of it but it’s still decent. the chapters are hit or miss.

chapter 1 (4*) - it was a great way to start a book and i loved irene. i despise jordan for lying and making empty promises to irene. his character was so MEH and he just gave me the ick when they had their reunion. like seriously? pretending to forget her then proceeding to fuck her the same day? YUCK

chapter 2 (2*) - i had to take a break for this chapter because who would’ve expected an incest love story in this book? not me. i can’t sympathize with the characters except for ruben and belinda (ugly name btw), poor child has to live a life with complications because of sandra and lupe’s actions. plus it was kinda flat because if you’re gonna make an incest story, i want to be utterly disgusted by the end that i wouldn’t be able to eat for days. or just blow my mind idk.

chapter 3 (3*) - might be the most boring one out of all the short stories. it’s about erica who grew up in this place called maldiaga where love didn’t exist. she flee from that place and ended up in the care of mrs. baylon, jake’s mother. so, jake is a playboy who gets girls drunk to sleep with him, already a red flag. YUCK. their love progresses and then a falling out, she leaves, he searches for maldiaga and injures him while doing it, leaving him paralyzed. erica now has a successful career but leaves it to be his caregiver (BOOO) and learns the meaning of love a little too late i guess?

chapter 4 (4.5*) - my favorite out of all. it’s a sapphic story between ester and sara. it’s angsty and tender with a great comedic relief because of aj, ester’s gay son. sara worked for ester and they first did it when ester’s husband died. i loved this so much because however tragic their story may be because of sara’s kontrabida husband, it shows that love will always find a way through things other than sex and intimacy. and, considering this was published in 2008, it’s a pretty good queer representation.

chapter 5 (3*) - one of my least favorite stories in the book. i know it’s meant to have insufferable and flawed characters but the pairing in this one got on my nerve the most. bessie, a nymphomaniac who’s the epitome of a female character written by a man, she sleeps with numerous men, is smart and witty, looks sexy in any piece of clothing, and is an aspiring actress. she uses lucas to do things for her and make her feel good about herself. lucas on the other hand is a wimp and a writer, that’s really all i can say. i have a love-hate relationship with them.

chapter 6 - shockingly, this was a fun and interesting way of ending things. it explains the things that happened in the stories like the last sentence of erica’s story. there are also parts of the book where the narration would switch to english for a mere second which annoyed me but there’s actually a reason for that. it would’ve been better if it wasn’t so clustered because it felt like some pages were fillers. i did like lucas’ ending though, not so much for the others. irene should let go of jordan and live in the present, erica and jake (well, i don’t care for them), and bessie, poor bessie, but it goes without saying that you can’t save people who don’t want to be saved.

overall, the book wasn’t a standout for me, i’m certain some people loved this much more than i did but that’s them! this is my first ricky lee novel and i like how smooth and easy to read his writing is. the pacing was alright until the 6th chapter. some of the short stories still feel incomplete and lackluster compared to the others. also, it’s kinda sad that he writes women in a somewhat objectifying way but oh well :-)

Content Warnings