Songbirds is the story of Nisha, a migrant maid in Cyprus who goes missing, told from the POV of her employer and her lover. The story shows us how the maids are overlooked and often invisible, some even abused and mistreated by their employers.
I found this read to be insightful and eye opening into the lives of these women and children and the people they are closest to. However I think it missed the mark. Given that we don’t hear from Nisha’s POV I found it extremely hard to connect to her character and I felt like the story was only about Yiannis and Petra. 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. 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.
Additionally, the story was extremely slow and only the final few chapters were enjoyable for me. I also found the often graphic descriptions of the bird poaching to be a bit much and completely unnecessary to the story itself. Having said that this isn’t the usual type of book I would go for so that might have affected my rating.
I found this read to be insightful and eye opening into the lives of these women and children and the people they are closest to. However I think it missed the mark. Given that we don’t hear from Nisha’s POV I found it extremely hard to connect to her character and I felt like the story was only about Yiannis and Petra. 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. 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.
Additionally, the story was extremely slow and only the final few chapters were enjoyable for me. I also found the often graphic descriptions of the bird poaching to be a bit much and completely unnecessary to the story itself. Having said that this isn’t the usual type of book I would go for so that might have affected my rating.