Scan barcode
axlndra's review
4.0
Direct, brave and honest collection of poems and short stories about women by women. The parallels of some of the stories were striking like “Hens in the cull” and “To E. S.”.
lavenderbooks_'s review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Police brutality
Minor: Drug use
pamgaea's review
5.0
This is a great collection of short stories and poetry that is centred around women, tackles class struggle, and addresses issues in Philippine society and politics today.
Special shout out to Return by Karla Quimsing, a short poem that interweaves 2 moments that happened simultaneously: one of Imelda Marcos stepping foot in the Philippines after her exile, and another of a mother who is grieving for her daughter, an activist who "disappeared" during the Marcos dictatorship. I already read this from Karla's Pansit Poetry collection--where each poem is written in 2 languages, and she makes use of a total of 4 languages. It hit hard then and it still hit hard now.
Another story that stood out to me was Scourge on the Flesh (title in the original Tagalog: Latay sa Laman), about a lesbian migrant worker who used to be physically beaten by her father for being a lesbian, then later on she ended up having to go back home to take care of him when he suffered a serious illness. The writer talks about her experience in such a matter-of-fact way, you know that purposeful lack of sentiment can only stem from a great personal suffering. :(
I would list my other favourites too but there's a lot of them and I don't want to accidentally exclude something. Let's just say I really liked the ones that describe the struggles of working class women, as well as the ones that tackle the Philippine government's atrocities and how they affect women in particular.
Special shout out to Return by Karla Quimsing, a short poem that interweaves 2 moments that happened simultaneously: one of Imelda Marcos stepping foot in the Philippines after her exile, and another of a mother who is grieving for her daughter, an activist who "disappeared" during the Marcos dictatorship. I already read this from Karla's Pansit Poetry collection--where each poem is written in 2 languages, and she makes use of a total of 4 languages. It hit hard then and it still hit hard now.
Another story that stood out to me was Scourge on the Flesh (title in the original Tagalog: Latay sa Laman), about a lesbian migrant worker who used to be physically beaten by her father for being a lesbian, then later on she ended up having to go back home to take care of him when he suffered a serious illness. The writer talks about her experience in such a matter-of-fact way, you know that purposeful lack of sentiment can only stem from a great personal suffering. :(
I would list my other favourites too but there's a lot of them and I don't want to accidentally exclude something. Let's just say I really liked the ones that describe the struggles of working class women, as well as the ones that tackle the Philippine government's atrocities and how they affect women in particular.
More...