Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Sångfåglar

Songbirds is the story of Nisha, a migrant maid in Cyprus who goes missing, told from the POV of her employer and her lover. This book was an exploration of the treatment of female domestic migrant workers who are largely ignored and invisible, some even abused and mistreated by their employers. Based on a real-life disappearance, it was truly a beautifully written story, however it’s not a book that can be enjoyed. It is cruel and sad in equal measures.

I found this read to be insightful and eye opening, however, considering the story is about the lives of the maids I found it completely lacking in feeling with no POV from the actual women affected. While we do get insights into Nisha’s life from Petra and Yiannis, by not hearing from Nisha we have no idea on her thoughts and emotions. Additionally, the story was extremely slow and only the final few chapters were enjoyable for me. I also found the level of detail around the poaching and animal cruelty to be a bit much and very difficult to stomach.

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sadiaa's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The ending is realistic and heartbreaking,

it doesn't sugarcoat that the world is a cruel place. I liked the way the mystery of Nisha's disappearance was misdirected, we initially are led to believe it was one of the men in her life and we find out that it was actually a soldier. We are reminded of the atrocities that soldiers commit when overseas, a fact that is often skipped over in historical fiction.

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yananhai's review against another edition

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I really did try to get past the animal cruelty, hoping in the end he will regret it all.. but at some point I couldn't handle it anymore

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g_hammersmith's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

From the first page, this book was playing in my head as if I were watching a movie. I could see this book, I could smell the food in this book, and I too felt the pain in this book.

This was a great book, but it did start a bit slow which to me it didn’t matter. What kept me drawn in was how descriptive everything was, and of course the story.

The story is told in 2 different point of views. This book is about a missing maid in short. But it’s so much more than that.

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jg34's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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isobel_laura's review against another edition

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dark informative sad 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? No

3.0

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