BEHIND THE MASK - EMIKAT JUN
This is my first time to read a novel in the Philippine setting and was written outside PH. It is an eventful narrative, thrilling and controversial. I have some questions in mind that were remained unanswered until the end of the story.
The title is really catchy and interesting for me.
The story started in Scotland where Maya is preparing to go back to the Philippines because her cousin's daughter, Nina, was kidnapped. The next scenarios were flashbacks of Maya as a journalist who was assigned to stay in Puerto Galla to uncover a dark secret in the island.
This part of the book is the most thrilling part for me and I was hooked into reading further. I can say that Maya's time in Puerto Galla is the best part of the book.
As the story moved into a different plot, I started to lose interest and I got a bit disoriented. The book cannot deny the inkling of it to the current PH government. I had a feeling that there is an implied propaganda behind this book which bogged me down a little bit.
I struggled to dissociate fact from fiction while reading because the controversies are undeniably, politically similar.
It would've been a good novel had it focused on the first plot than indulge into politics.
All in all, it's still a good 3.5 out of 5 for me because I love Maya's time in Puerto Galla. The book itself is a mask and definitely there's something behind it. Find it out for yourself.