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The Maid's Room // Book review


Hodder very kindly contacted me a while back asking if I would like to be part of the blog tour for the paperback release of Fiona Mitchell's The Maid's Room and I was absolutely ecstatic to jump at the chance! Now,I must apologize for the delay of the post due to some unexpected postal delays etc etc, but here we are!





Rating: 3.5/5



Plot:
Set in the blistering heat of Singapore, The Maid's Room follows the lives of two Filipina maids - sisters Dolly and Tala who are working hard to send money back home, and British ex-pat Jules who has left her job as a midwife to move to Singapore with husband David.

Told with humour, heart-breaking detail about daily life as a maid, and with an exhilarating spirit that is ultimately uplifting, this book will resonate with anyone who has struggled to have their voice heard.

Perfect for fans of The Help and The Invention of Wings.




My thoughts:
So, for full disclosure,I shall start by letting you know that I did have some doubts going into this book because it very obviously has two women of colour at the center of it while the author herself is white.Those doubts did intensify a little when I found it quite hard to come across own voices reviews and wasn't quite sure what attitude to have while going into the book since I,myself,wouldn't be able to tell just how authentic the representation is.
ALAS.
In the end, I was impressed by how close to the subject Fiona Mitchell was after reading her explanation of what sparked her desire to tell this story and how it was inspired by real life events she witnessed/took part in.From what I could tell (tough you should obviously take my two cents on it with a grain of salt since I am in no place to be the voice of a community that I am not part of) the representation came across as heartfelt and respectful.
The phrase 'perfect for fans of The Help' does add on some extra weariness (though it made it very easy for me to recommend the book today in the shop when a lady was looking for recs based on that one!) because there is a certain level of white saviour-ness that I would expect when that comparison is made and the addition of a white protagonist did add to my worries.
BOY WAS I ECSTATIC TO BE WRONG! Fiona Mitchell makes it so that these wome -both Tala and Dolly,our protagonists,but also all the other maids that they are friends with- are complex,human characters as opposed to stereotypes and bland cardboard characters that lack dimension. Moreover, the book in itself presents these women taking agency and being the ones in charge of their own destinies despite their detrimental living conditions.
Which brings me to my main point, which is that I thoroughly appreciate Fiona Mitchell shining light on the real problem: though it is easy to lose yourself in Tala and Dolly's stories and to treat the whole thing like fiction, just like the women in this story commenting on the world The Help features so like their own, it is important to point out that to many women stories like this are a reality and not fiction.This makes me truly appreciate The maid's room and the intent behind the book.
The writing style is fastpaced,engaging and very heartfelt, which made it very easy to fly through the book in a couple of seatings.
That being said, there was still a little je ne sais quoi missing, which is why the book was more of a 3.5-3.75 for me.

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