Invisible Trade II

by Gerrie Lim

Best-selling author Gerrie Lim is back with Invisible Trade II, the surprising sequel to his earlier book, Invisible Trade: High-Class Sex for Sale in Singapore. An incisive expose of the hidden upscale escort industry in Singapore, this fascinating read introduces the women who work in it, the men who pay for it and how an entire industry is able to successfully thrive behind closed doors.

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opener about the high class escort trade in Singapore. Strangely all the customers in the book are foreigners..z what happened to the Singaporean locals?

Each customer has a different reason to pay for sex. Some likes the no strings attached, business like exchange. Some just need sex with a lot of different women. Some have a saviour attitude. Some wants the company of a beautiful woman, and may or may not even have sex with them.

The escorts are of course all attractive and love the fact that they can make easy money. Some clients will even fly them to different places. And they are rich. However, being in this trade definitely affects their lives: the need for constant secrecy, the fear of being found out STDs, and feeling unable to have sex without being paid with their lovers.

The book is non-judgemental and fair in its portrayal. A good read.

[Jamaica Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very different and eye-opening kind of read set in the Singapore context.

I decided to pick up this book in the first place as I was intrigued by this seeming colorful yet dark and secretive industry.

Each chapter of the book features different characters with firsthand accounts right from the horses mouth - this includes the social escorts to the mamasans, and even the paying customers. The book rounded up with an overview of the entire industy, which I thought was a pretty nice little summary. However, I lament on the fact that the book does not have a lot of reflections, but rather every chapter was made up of quotes after quotes of what the interviewee shared. Somehow I felt that this has undermined the interviews resulting in a book that is lacking in depth.

Nevertheless, it is still a nice read that provided a glimpse into the world of our invisible trade.

[Goh Jiayin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Grabbed the book because the synopsis sounds interesting. However, the moment when I read the first few pages, it was not written well. Lots of grammatical error in the conversation part of the first story the rest was okay. That is the let down and after the first story, I kept asking when will this end? Apart from that, the overall content I would say it is somewhat interesting although some part is kind of draggy and not to mention confusing. So don't expect too much from this book.

[Isabella Rosselinni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reviews said that the first book was better, but I haven’t read the first book yet, so I can’t compare.

For me, this book is filled with insights I otherwise won’t get to hear. I love that the stories are personal; we don’t necessarily have to agree with the ways of life of the people in the book, but you know that there are people like them too. It sort of opens your mind. If you are interested in the unusual like I am, I’d recommend this book.

[Govinth Viswamohanan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Certainly very insightful, but I found that the delivery was rather bland.

[Wan Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a boring book. BOOOOO. What a letdown. His previous book was better.