Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Now You See Us by Balli Kaur Jaswal

8 reviews

jordynkw's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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sarah984's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This got a little didactic in places (felt like each character was created to address a specific issue), I didn't really care for the murder mystery side plot, and everything got a little too fantastical for me at the end, but overall I enjoyed this book about Filipino domestic workers in Singapore a lot. How do you live as a human in these circumstances is a question that each character is trying to answer in her own way.
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clothildev's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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crystalisreading's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful reflective
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-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? No

4.25

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sakisreads's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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 ✨ 
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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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

4.0

 Now You See Us explores the lives of women working as domestic workers or helpers in Singapore. The story follows three different Filipino women and a significant portion of the plot revolves around their belief that a fellow migrant worker charged with the murder of her employer has been falsely accused. Their investigation into this was a little improbable but I wasn’t unduly bothered. For me the real strength of the book was the way it highlighted the vulnerability of female foreign migrant worker to abuses by employers, agencies and Singaporean society in general. Even good employers overstepped boundaries and created difficulties for their helpers, albeit with kind intentions. I couldn’t help cheering when feisty Donita, who was subject to the worst abuse by her employer, seized an opportunity to have her say and get revenge in a wonderfully public way. This book has much in common with Christy Lefteri’s Songbirds. They’d make a good pairing. There are also a couple of LGBTQ storylines woven into the plot. They are minor but they are definitely more than tokenism, and add to the picture of Singaporean society and to one of the characters especially. 
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nini23's review against another edition

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tense

3.75

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