Darkest Dreams
#StrangeLit
Paranormal, Horror, Fantasy
September 2015
e-book
ARC from Bookish Diaries Book Tours
This is what happens you allow yourself to unlock your dreams: You may just find the darkness that lurks there. Explore the tragic, the romantic, and the comedic side of our darkness in these stories.
Bayani by Motzie Dapul
In the year 2050, Patrick "Paquino" Aquino: president of the Philippines, former superhero, and murderer—not necessarily in that order—deals with the consequences of his actions following four years of martial law and the raid that ended a bloody political dynasty in the far north.
With a death sentence looming over his head and a revolution rising against him, he begins to wonder if his bid to save the country, made back when he was the impetuous young bayani Lastikid, is worth dying for.
Book Review
Bayani by Motzie Dapul
I first heard of Motzie Dapul’s novel during the #StrangeLit launch party, describing the story as “What would happen if Philippine mythological heroes became politicians?”. I was sold. I had to read Bayani if not for that very same reason. I was intrigued at the premise of Philippines in the year 2050 when the likes of “supers” dabbling in politics, specifically Patrick “Paquino” Aquino, or Lastikid in his former life. There were also familiar names like Bernardo Carpio, Adarna, and Lakampati—all familiar mythological personalities with interesting roles to play in the story. Paquino was depicted as the son of a business tycoon, a privileged individual in his own right, but also a man torn by guilt and remorse about his past. He was the president who, in today’s times, did the right thing as expected of his office. But this is the Philippines, the land where the adage “damn if you do, damn if you don’t” is something that happens in the literal sense. I loved Paquino as a flawed character, and I think his actions were justified by the motivations and personal cross he carried.