This book did an excellent job at shining a light on the varied experiencies of Filipina women working as domestic servants in Singapore. The three main characters allowed for a wide range of examples. I particularly liked the nuances of Ma'am Elizabeth and Cora's relationship, such as the scene in the Italian restaurant.

I was very gripped by this book in the first half. The second half I started to lose interest somewhat, partially due to some bad triggers (I wish there was an option on StoryGraph for voyeurism/sexual surveillance, which is an important part of this novel and is hard to cover by the existing content warning list). I found some of Donita's actions a little hard to believe when it came to snooping around the Hongs' house. The ending was a little anticlimactic too when it came to the murder case - I wish we'd seen some more of how that all went in the end.

I first learned about Singapore's underclass of migrant workers at an ethnomusicology conference that discussed how important Sunday music-making was to those communities since it was a rare opportunity for freedom. This book really gave a strong sense of that, showing the multilayered community the women were part of in Singapore. A far cry from the undergraduate I once knew, fresh from Singapore, who confidently told me there are no poor people in Singapore!! I appreciated the investigation into queer angles in this book as well.

The book had so many heavy themes that I didn't find the second half enjoyable at all - I just wanted to see what happened. That's why my rating isn't as high as it could be. However, I recommend this book for its searing insights into an often-overlooked and mistreated population that has many rich stories to tell.

It’s hard to rate this book, I really enjoyed Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by this author and in many ways, this book follows a similar plot and structure.

I’d put it in the cosy mysteries section but I did find it really slow in some places.

Although the author interviewed domestic workers from the Philippines, since she is not of that community I found it hard to get into the story as much as I would have liked to.

I totally believe the stories shared are true instances of how these workers are treated but I wish they’d been able to tell their own stories.

The plot is enjoyable and moves along but not as quick as I would have liked.

If you enjoyed Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jessie Sutanto, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

When I saw this in the Kuala Lumpur Kinokuniya, I KNEW I had to read it! I bought it on Kindle only because my luggage wouldn’t allow me to fit yet another book in 😅
But Kindle or not, what an INCREDIBLE insight. Based around 3 Filipina domestic workers’ lives in Singapore, which is infamous for the ‘crazy rich Asians’ scene, this ties in so many interesting themes. Classism and racism are rife and it was fascinating to see how this all arose in Angel, Cora and Donita’s lives. 
I’ll put the content warnings for this one down below too 😳

I LOVED Angel’s narrative too. A queer woman fending for herself and coming out to her loved ones even when she was fearful was amazing. I got very teary! 🥹 I also really appreciated Cora and Elizabeth’s dynamic. The lines between employer and friend are sure to get blurred in domestic workers’ lives and not always for the best reasons, but their friendship was something I felt a big love for ✨ I was also delighted to see how Flordeliza got some sense of justice back, and how Donita never doubted that she was innocent even when the world was telling her different. BIG FAN OF THE FRIENDS IN THIS BOOK 🥰

One to DEFINITELY get into. Thank you to Balli Kaur Jaswal for this ✨