In One Word: Frightening
A Beautiful Sentence: “She wished she were using one of those landline phones from her parents’ generation, so that she could physically slam the receiver down the phone.”
The Plot: The 2013 Little India riot in Singapore sets the stage for this story, which follows three women’s lives. One woman fears she triggered the chaos, another struggles with revealing a hidden truth, and the third views the incident as a political opportunity.
This book left me quite conflicted. At first, I tried to read it as dark humour, but it felt more like an apocalypse read. The idea of a woman exploiting public sympathy by refusing to deny the assumption she has been wraped to build her social influencer profile. Absurd? Unbelievable? Maybe you think it is great fiction…but is it really fiction?
That is where the story gets tricky. The story dives deep into the lives of foreign workers and reveals the daily prejudices they face. It reminded me of Catskull which delivers a similar message. When an incident involves a foreign worker, people quickly rush to blame them. These parallels show how deeply rooted such biases are.
However, the caricatured representation of the LGBTQ+ community frustrated me. The author portrays them either as individuals marrying to maintain appearances or as flamboyant figures running around like headless chickens. A more balanced portrayal would have been refreshing. The lack of relatable characters did make it harder to connect with the story. Adding someone with some humanity could have balanced the overall cynicism.
The ending also disappointed me. The croupier gained access to critical information, but failed to fully utilise it. Couldn’t she have done more with it? Also, the book lacked even a small spark of hope or optimise to suggest the world isn’t entirely doomed. Then again, maybe that hopelessness is what gives the story its unsettling power.
Takeaway:
Prepare to feel revolted, angry, or simply inspired by the lengths people will go for likes on social media.