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cs5332's review against another edition
1.0
The author of this true story shares about the one and only time he visited his fiancé's family in the Philippines. I did not think the book was particularly well written. The author seems to be rather self-centered, immature, and critical. I had very difficult time finishing it.
princessleia4life's review against another edition
I really disliked it. It is poorly written, mostly complaining and discussing how dirty the Philippines are. The story is pretty boring, the characters are one-dimensional, and not interesting at all. The author goes on and on about how much he wants to sleep with his fiance's best friend (of which if I was the fiance I would be pretty angry). Just all around not a very good read.
jessiewinterspring's review against another edition
2.0
As a Filipina, married to a white man, Norwegian, this book piqued my interest when I receive a review request. I was eager to start reading it and know the experience of another foreigner in the Philippines.
2020, years later, I read this again, and you know what? I notice things I didn’t in the beginning at the stuff he did pissed me more than ever.
Before I get to the point, I want to mention that I want to applaud the author for his clever observation about the Philippines. Many foreigners go to the Philippines then go back home thinking they’ve been to paradise. This is all because many foreigners who went to the Philippines for vacation only experience the tourist places, the organized environment for tourist and for the rich and the famous, but that’s just a part of the Philippines. Jason (the protagonist) experienced the real Philippines with its good and bad.
I agree with him on many things. The crazy organized chaos traffic, the balut (ugh, I hate balut! I feel bad for that little bird being boiled alive!) and yes, the cockfighting too, my father brought me in one of those tournaments when I was a child and that has traumatized me for the rest of my life. Even now I feel like crying remembering those cruel days. Poor living is not an excuse to resort to using the roster that way. There are many ways to get money in the Philippines you just have to be creative (and no, I don’t mean that you should join the mafia) and if I want to feed myself (one way is cutting the neck of that chicken-quickly before he knows it. Then you get some nice adobo. Okay I admit, I’m ranting.)
Anyway here comes why I didn’t give this book a two stars.
1) Okay, many Filipinos might go and get defensive saying “it’s not that bad” but I’d say: “it is that bad” at less in the poor Philippine areas, but I’ll agree with one of the reviewers in Goodreads.
Jason did make it sound like no one takes showers there.
I want to emphasize (my husband who been in and out of the Philippines, with rich and poor, also said it)
Filipino are very conscious about appearance.
Doesn’t matter if the house looked like it’s about to fall apart, washing up and keeping themself clean is something many prioritize, especially if they work in a bit “normal job” (I especially noted it on the Flower man) and yes, some might mix up, he/she, him/her. But I find that really strange, anyone who has been in grade 4 should be able to use it perfectly. I have yet to meet someone who needs to be reminded so many times.
2) I would have liked this book better if Jason hadn’t annoyed the hell out of me. At the start of the book Jason was overly cautious (way over the top) and then there’s the incident with the cops. One shouldn’t need to travel the world to know a place like the Philippines is a place where rules are often ignored in exchange for a price. And sure he’s in a foreign country, but does he need to behave like a helpless kid when the beggar kids flocked around him?
3) Food. Okay, this isn’t the best the Philippines could offer (I personally think so too) but must he act as if everything given to him is a potential poison, with the exception of pizza and McDonald food? McDonald’s might be licensed from the US, but he should know that the food they serve there is cooked in the Philippines! So, tell me. What’s the difference between that and the meal served from a high-class restaurant which is not American license?
4) Hand sanitizer much? Why does he keep spraying himself for every Filipino he encountered? There’s was no COVID back then. I’ve met, talk and become friends with a lot of western people and seriously, they don’t carry around a sanitizer and squirt their hands for everything, that won’t keep you completely safe. Wash your hand regularly with soap and water.
5) And what annoyed me most with Jason was, I feel like he got a sexual desire for all of Hazel’s friends. Especially Joy. Others might say “it’s okay it’s part of being a man.” Shut up, for me he’s actually cheating on Hazel—mentally or physically makes no difference and especially irritating because it’s his fiancée’s best friend.
No, his fantasy over Joy is too much to ignore.
I wanted to stop reading the story at 20% the first time but out of respect for the author, and I promised a friend to finish it to the end, so I forced myself to finish reading this story. And so, with all that being said, I would like to say that this book made a lasting impression on me, the author writing was neat, I also like his writing style, the book was easy to read (though his personal thoughts really disturb me). This book could have been more entertaining if Jason has a more likeable attitude. The only thing I like about Jason is that he sympathizes for the animal and that we both have Back to the Future as a favorite movie, but throughout the story I did learn to respect him for his honesty and I feel really sorry for what he has gone through.
I’ll recommend this book to foreigners who planned to visit the Philippines, it’s a great manual written in the semi-autobiographical form. And no, I’m not going to sit here and say that hospitals in the Philippines are better than that, my own personal experience forbids me to do so. However, I would say that if you want a better and more comfortable experience, I suggest going to private hospitals.
I’m not eager to recommend this book, because I’m more pissed about it after reading it again.
2020, years later, I read this again, and you know what? I notice things I didn’t in the beginning at the stuff he did pissed me more than ever.
Before I get to the point, I want to mention that I want to applaud the author for his clever observation about the Philippines. Many foreigners go to the Philippines then go back home thinking they’ve been to paradise. This is all because many foreigners who went to the Philippines for vacation only experience the tourist places, the organized environment for tourist and for the rich and the famous, but that’s just a part of the Philippines. Jason (the protagonist) experienced the real Philippines with its good and bad.
I agree with him on many things. The crazy organized chaos traffic, the balut (ugh, I hate balut! I feel bad for that little bird being boiled alive!) and yes, the cockfighting too, my father brought me in one of those tournaments when I was a child and that has traumatized me for the rest of my life. Even now I feel like crying remembering those cruel days. Poor living is not an excuse to resort to using the roster that way. There are many ways to get money in the Philippines you just have to be creative (and no, I don’t mean that you should join the mafia) and if I want to feed myself (one way is cutting the neck of that chicken-quickly before he knows it. Then you get some nice adobo. Okay I admit, I’m ranting.)
Anyway here comes why I didn’t give this book a two stars.
1) Okay, many Filipinos might go and get defensive saying “it’s not that bad” but I’d say: “it is that bad” at less in the poor Philippine areas, but I’ll agree with one of the reviewers in Goodreads.
Jason did make it sound like no one takes showers there.
I want to emphasize (my husband who been in and out of the Philippines, with rich and poor, also said it)
Filipino are very conscious about appearance.
Doesn’t matter if the house looked like it’s about to fall apart, washing up and keeping themself clean is something many prioritize, especially if they work in a bit “normal job” (I especially noted it on the Flower man) and yes, some might mix up, he/she, him/her. But I find that really strange, anyone who has been in grade 4 should be able to use it perfectly. I have yet to meet someone who needs to be reminded so many times.
2) I would have liked this book better if Jason hadn’t annoyed the hell out of me. At the start of the book Jason was overly cautious (way over the top) and then there’s the incident with the cops. One shouldn’t need to travel the world to know a place like the Philippines is a place where rules are often ignored in exchange for a price. And sure he’s in a foreign country, but does he need to behave like a helpless kid when the beggar kids flocked around him?
3) Food. Okay, this isn’t the best the Philippines could offer (I personally think so too) but must he act as if everything given to him is a potential poison, with the exception of pizza and McDonald food? McDonald’s might be licensed from the US, but he should know that the food they serve there is cooked in the Philippines! So, tell me. What’s the difference between that and the meal served from a high-class restaurant which is not American license?
4) Hand sanitizer much? Why does he keep spraying himself for every Filipino he encountered? There’s was no COVID back then. I’ve met, talk and become friends with a lot of western people and seriously, they don’t carry around a sanitizer and squirt their hands for everything, that won’t keep you completely safe. Wash your hand regularly with soap and water.
5) And what annoyed me most with Jason was, I feel like he got a sexual desire for all of Hazel’s friends. Especially Joy. Others might say “it’s okay it’s part of being a man.” Shut up, for me he’s actually cheating on Hazel—mentally or physically makes no difference and especially irritating because it’s his fiancée’s best friend.
No, his fantasy over Joy is too much to ignore.
I wanted to stop reading the story at 20% the first time but out of respect for the author, and I promised a friend to finish it to the end, so I forced myself to finish reading this story. And so, with all that being said, I would like to say that this book made a lasting impression on me, the author writing was neat, I also like his writing style, the book was easy to read (though his personal thoughts really disturb me). This book could have been more entertaining if Jason has a more likeable attitude. The only thing I like about Jason is that he sympathizes for the animal and that we both have Back to the Future as a favorite movie, but throughout the story I did learn to respect him for his honesty and I feel really sorry for what he has gone through.
I’ll recommend this book to foreigners who planned to visit the Philippines, it’s a great manual written in the semi-autobiographical form. And no, I’m not going to sit here and say that hospitals in the Philippines are better than that, my own personal experience forbids me to do so. However, I would say that if you want a better and more comfortable experience, I suggest going to private hospitals.
I’m not eager to recommend this book, because I’m more pissed about it after reading it again.
sparklesandnargles's review against another edition
2.0
I got a free copy of this book for review and I must say that I have mixed feelings about this. Well, first up, I am from the Philippines and yes, although it's kinda funny that some of the stuff written here are true, others I think were just too...exaggerated and magnified. Here's what I have to say: The Philippines, though it's not America or any other place in the world, though there are things that happen here that would make you feel queasy or whatever, IT IS NOT A BAD PLACE. Not a god-dammed place that you can't visit again.
I know, I know, the author had a really traumatic experience and yes, I'm taking that into consideration but the thing is...you shouldn't really put the Philippines in THAT light because hello, some people here actually earn, some people actually have nice homes, and not everyone is poor or smelly or whatever. What irritated me is that almost every description of a person in the book had some "he looked like he hasn't showered in days" lalala and it was like, enough already, okay? It's so not that way.
And while I appreciate the fact that he loves his wife and that he was good to the family, everything else was just...ugh. I'm sorry. Plus, yeah, I agree with Hazel that the protagonist Jason is kind of a mama's boy, sorry about that.
I know, I know, the author had a really traumatic experience and yes, I'm taking that into consideration but the thing is...you shouldn't really put the Philippines in THAT light because hello, some people here actually earn, some people actually have nice homes, and not everyone is poor or smelly or whatever. What irritated me is that almost every description of a person in the book had some "he looked like he hasn't showered in days" lalala and it was like, enough already, okay? It's so not that way.
And while I appreciate the fact that he loves his wife and that he was good to the family, everything else was just...ugh. I'm sorry. Plus, yeah, I agree with Hazel that the protagonist Jason is kind of a mama's boy, sorry about that.
ceruleanjen's review
2.0
I won a copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway program. Many thanks to the publisher/author for giving me the chance to read and review this book from the Goodreads First Reads program.
This was a really hard book for me to get into. It ended up being a slow, kind of painful read. Maybe the writing style just doesn't appeal to me. I liked that the story was so in-depth, but it also tended to drag at times.
I'm never been to the Philippines, nor do I know much about it, but the author did a good job with the details and descriptions. It almost made me feel like I was there. However, even though I believe it's great to be saved, the constant checking of the hand sanitizer got a little annoying.
This is marketed as a romance as well as a true story, but I didn't really get the romance vibe. At least not until near the end, and somewhat in the beginning. The rest of the book has the main character thinking about other women, and that made me like the book even less. I'm not a man, but it didn't seem right for the main character to come to the Philippines with his fiancee' and then think about her female family and friends--or buying them "secret" presents.
It ended much differently than I expected, but I didn't really care enough about anyone to feel too sad, though I am sorry for the real tragedy that the author experienced.I was expecting that the main character would have more trouble getting back home, but he didn't.
This book just wasn't for me. Not bad, but I'd never pick this one up again. Maybe I can find someone to give it to who will appreciate it more than I currently do.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for this review. These opinions are my own; I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated for this review.
This was a really hard book for me to get into. It ended up being a slow, kind of painful read. Maybe the writing style just doesn't appeal to me. I liked that the story was so in-depth, but it also tended to drag at times.
I'm never been to the Philippines, nor do I know much about it, but the author did a good job with the details and descriptions. It almost made me feel like I was there. However, even though I believe it's great to be saved, the constant checking of the hand sanitizer got a little annoying.
This is marketed as a romance as well as a true story, but I didn't really get the romance vibe. At least not until near the end, and somewhat in the beginning. The rest of the book has the main character thinking about other women, and that made me like the book even less. I'm not a man, but it didn't seem right for the main character to come to the Philippines with his fiancee' and then think about her female family and friends--or buying them "secret" presents.
It ended much differently than I expected, but I didn't really care enough about anyone to feel too sad, though I am sorry for the real tragedy that the author experienced.
This book just wasn't for me. Not bad, but I'd never pick this one up again. Maybe I can find someone to give it to who will appreciate it more than I currently do.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for this review. These opinions are my own; I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated for this review.
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