This was a solid read but I felt that if I had not been to Singapore and if I had not participated in very detailed and honest private tours explaining the good, the bad, and the horrendously vicious reality of that wonderfully messed up city state utopian dictatorship, I would have had a harder time to connect to this novel's characters, as I am unimpressed by "oh woe is me" class drama and actually looking for realism and depth. Luckily, all of the aforementioned scenario happened in real life and this sad urban story made sense to me, even though some aspects were boringly insisted upon (the church vs lgbt bla bla as always) and other, more interesting themes (like the actual horror of the Philipino war on drugs) were not prevalent enough.
Generally speaking, a good, real read.