A review by theanggegames
The House That Lou Built by Mae Respicio

2.0

First of all, while the Philippines really does have lots of dialects, I'm pretty sure that what the author meant was "languages". It's true that "manang" means older sister/female relative but that word is Ilokano, while the word "ate" (which has the same meaning) is Tagalog. A different language, not dialect. She even mentioned "ading" in the same paragraph, which is another Ilokano word!!! I can't fully blame the author because even in the Philippines, we are taught that Ilokano and the other languages here are dialects of Tagalog. BUT we know now that is wrong and that the author could've researched more. That was the first strike that probably started my dislike for this book lol.

I didn't vibe with this book. I don't know. The writing is kinda off for me. Scenes that were meant to evoke ~feelings~ didn't really do much for me. Maybe it's just me though.

I do appreciate the sense of community in this book, though I don't think my relatives would be able to do the same for us given the situation here in the Philippines lol

Edited the formatting cuz I am new to this lol