Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

What a world we live in. Disturbing, haunting you with glimmers of hope in the stories of the maids and their employers. Recommended.

I think that the students in our school library need to hear lots of diverse voices and read stories and lives of many different kinds of people and experiences. When I inherited the library it was an incredibly sanitised space with only 'school readers' and project books on 'the railways' etc. Buying in books that will appeal to the whole range of our readers with diverse voices, eclectic and fascinating subject matter, and topics that will intrigue and fascinate them was incredibly important to me.
This is a book that I think our senior readers will enjoy very much indeed - not just because it's well written with an arresting voice that will really keep them reading and about a fascinating topic - but it's also a book that doesn't feel worthy or improving, it doesn't scream 'school library and treats them like young reading adults who have the right to explore a range of modern diverse reads that will grip and intrigue them and ensure that reading isn't something that they are just forced to do for their English project - this was a solid ten out of ten for me and I'm hoping that our students are as gripped and caught up in it as I was. It was one that I stayed up far too late reading and one that I'll be recommending to the staff as well as our senior students - thank you so much for the chance to read and review; I really loved it and can't wait to discuss it with some of our seniors once they've read it too!

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. The pacing was a little off and the structure of the narrative was a bit confusing. I would have also preferred to read this book from an own-voices author, but I appreciate that Tabatha Stirling is trying to raise awareness for human trafficking and the inhumane treatment of international workers in the Singaporean maid culture.

A really involving story’s great location Singapore.a novel that pulls back the curtain On the lives of maids and the women who employthem.The location the characters a book I really en

There is a storm coming and Lucilla misses the mountains. I instantly had a hard time being interested in the descriptions and characters. The pacing was slow

Tabatha Stirling holds nothing back in Bitter Leaves - a fascinating account of the maid culture in Singapore.

Told from the viewpoints of four very different characters (two maids and two Madams), this story incorporated a whole range of issues including physical, mental and emotional abuse, rape, human trafficking, and suicide, and laid bare some very real differences between Eastern and Western cultures. With its dark narrative, the story held my attention from the very beginning. The vivid characters were clearly distinguishable, their voices and personalities so distinct from one another with no confusion, so kudos is given to Tabatha Stirling for that. With the emotional and evocative writing, I felt as though I had landed in Singapore. This book was tragic, sad and anger-inducing as well as being full of hope and love, all in equal measures; it was certainly a soul-stirring tale. Would I recommend this roller-coaster of a read? Yes!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Unbound via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I did not particularly enjoy Bitter leaves. The character development is strong, and particularly triggering. Usually, when a book does this I can read until the book moves on but it is the narrator that I found difficult to connect with. The language screams ESL in a way that made it hard to read.

Review
What an interesting book, it’s about the maids in Singapore, and their employers. And how they are treated, the majority of the time not very nicely.

One poor girl, Shammi, was treated so appallingly, beaten and starved. And yet another, Joyce, turned the tables right round and treated her employer as badly.

For me there was a personal connection as my mother is from Singapore and I remember the Filipina maids looking after us when we visited family. This added to my praise for this book because it’s so true to life.

Although this was a fictional story, so much seemed as though it was factual, except for the pseudonym district, Sabre Green. I really hope that Shammi took over from Lucilla working for Ebony Ma’am.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The glossary at the end was a great help with the language translations.

A definite 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thanks
Thank you to the author Tabitha Stirling and publishing website Unbound for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an independent review.

An interesting read. This is a fascinating read about the lives of four women in Singapore. It is thought provoking.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is a look at the dark side of the workers who come from abroad to do housework and childcare for the affluent of Singapore. They may be from Bangladesh or the Philippines. They may have employers who treat them humanely or employers who treat them like slaves.

So, this book focuses more on the worst of the worst. I was a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the horrible employer was Chinese, and the book edged a bit toward racism and stereotyping Chinese Singaporeans.

The book really works at trying to develop the reader's empathy for the plight of these maids. It's not an easy read if you've been reading a lot of books with similar themes lately, which I was. I left the book in the middle. It's not badly written, if somewhat melodramatic, just a headspace I needed to get out of.

This read was incredible! 5 stars ⭐️. I’ve already posted on various social media accounts that this may be one of my favorite reads over the past few months! Well done!

An amazing novel! The characters are well-drawn and truly pull at your heart strings. I couldn't put the book down till I reached the final chapter. Highly recommended.

This is a novel about maids and their employers in wealthy Singapore. It shows us how many maids are essentially slaves and not treated well. It was very eye opening to tbe treatment of people in another part of the world.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Bitter Leaves pulls back the curtain on the maid industry in Singapore. The story is told by a cast of both maids and employers, each highlighting a different aspect of the culture. There is both a good ma'am who treats her maid well as well as an abusive ma'am who sees her maid as an object to be used. There are also a variety of maids portrayed, both well-treated and abused.

I was intrigued by this story because I had no idea that there are so many domestic workers who are being used as household slaves. A quick Google search seems to suggest that as many as 6 out of 10 maids in Singapore are being exploited. I appreciated the author tackling this issue through telling the (fictional) stories of the maids and employers in their own voices.

Overall, it's decently written. The story dragged at different points and the editing was occasionally sloppy, but I did get attached to the characters and genuinely cared about how their stories ended. I appreciated how this book tackled an extremely difficult issue without ever coming across as being preachy. Definitely worth a read!

Thank you to Tabatha Stirling, Unbound, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I enjoyed this book and it’s setting as I learned about a part of the world I knew nothing about. The characters were believable and well drawn.
Overall a good read
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

The carefully observed characters in this novel bring a unique view to the world of maids and their employers amidst the wealth of Singapore. These relationships didn't make for the most comfortable to read narrative and their interweaving stories give plenty of food for thought after the ending.
A fresh approach and well written story.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I had no idea what to expect from this ARC when I read in the front matter how it was published: “Unbound website, authors share the ideas for the books they want to write directly with readers. If enough of you support the book by pledging for it in advance, we produce (it)”. I ended up loving this story about the abuses perpetuated by wealthy householders against their maids. There was much depth and believability in these characters.