Now, this is how you write a book set in the Singapore that I know and love.

I felt myself being transported to the eclectic shophouses in Chinatown and Jalan Besar, envisioned strolling past the private landed estates of Marine Parade, and could vividly picture the swanky Marina Bay Sands skyscrapers in front of me. But it's not just the geography and culture that the author has nailed.

It's also the social and class divide, the classism and elitism and casual racism, the nation's reliance on a foreign workforce, our treatment and perception of these migrant workers, and a whole plethora of issues that tend to get swept beneath Singapore's glitz and glamour.

I love how this book is told through the alternating POVs of three migrant women in Singapore and enjoyed getting to know them, as it gave me a greater understanding of what workers like them are actually going through in reality.

Cora's grief and how she has been impacted by the Philippine Drug War, Donita's blossoming romance and the savage remarks that she delivers when standing up for herself, Angel trying to better herself... their experiences have all touched me deeply.

There were parts that made me laugh and scenes that filled me with indignance on behalf of the characters. But most of all, I felt quite ashamed after reading this book... in a good way.

Thank you to William Morrow for the Netgalley ARC.

Favorite quotes:

✨ "She knows it's all the little things added up that makes you really want to hurt a person.

✨ "He told her that a domestic worker needed to swallow her pride... but how? If Donita sets aside her pride now, she loses something precious, and look... look at her life scattered across this room. How many precious things does she have to lose?

✨ "...where they have to fight for space with all the other foreign workers in the few tiny public spaces and the even fewer private spaces they are allowed to inhabit."