The Secret Lives of OFWs

by Jet Tagasa

What does a  Mananangal (Viscera Sucker) in Riyadh, A Mambabarang (Witch) in Dubai and an Oryol (Water Nymph) in Hong Kong have in common? In this collection of short stories, they are all Filipino migrant workers struggling to survive  the challenges of  the OFW experience. 


These are stories of love and resilience. Of enduring against the monstrosity of abuse, assault, isolation and fractured family dynamics. A speculative exploration that answers the question; What would happen if mythic Philippine supernatural creatures were forced confront the horrors of the OFW life?

Genres: Horror

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 21, 2025

Reviews

[STEPH · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book spoke to me in a lonely kind of way. Being an OFW, away from home, comes with a persistent sense of longing.

Jet perfectly captured the realities and struggles of being an overseas worker—the long hours, the heavy workload, the lack of appreciation from employers, and the exhaustion we carry, all in the hope of building a better life. Oh, the injustice of it all.

What makes this book unique is how the author incorporated Philippine folklore and mythology into each story. The characters prevailed through their heritage and unexplained bloodlines—aswang, manananggal, bakunawa, and more. Through these transformations, they were able to overcome the horrors and cruelties of everyday life.

This was such a fun read. The chapters were easy to get through, the writing wasn’t pretentious, and I genuinely felt connected to the characters. Brilliant!

Mabuhay ang lahat ng OFWs! 🇵🇭

[Jethpage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 8 stories inspired by the lives of OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers), they’re the unsung heroes of the Philippine economy, exporting labor and bringing remittances. Providing service and care while leaving their families, to provide for them. Sadly, some of them fall into very unfortunate circumstances which inspired these stories,, they are also supernatural creatures from Philippine folklore and mythology who have that means to fight back.

The Domestic Helper - Estelita is exploited, SA’d by her employers, she endures it all for her father back home suffering from leukemia. What happens when she loses her anchor?
TW: SA, Infant death. None are graphic
4.5 stars, a satisfying revenge story

The Balikbayan - Jennie keeps on dreaming of her mom who recently passed away, who keeps asking to be brought home. A town where no one seems to know
TW: loss of body autonomy, Cannibalism. None are graphic
4.75 stars, reminds me of those homecoming gone wrong movies. I like how the juicy bits are from a flashback

The Nurse - Miguel and Genie are coming home. While in the UK, Genie got inexplicably sick, and with no medicine helping her, they decided to try a folk healer back in the Philippines.
TW: loss of body autonomy (non-graphic)
4 stars, Imagine getting sick not knowing why all because you have a stalker

The Waiter - Julius and Nikhil are secretly a gay couple in Dubai, during a super moon, a romantic night turns into a nightmare.
3.75 stars, A nice revenge story but it left me wanting more

The Seafarer - In the midst of the wreckage of a luxury yacht owned by a crime boss is Enya, a Filipino domestic worker. Interviewed by the police, she recounts what happened that led to the deaths of everyone on board.
3.75 stars, love, loneliness, yearning, and revenge.

Part-timer - Merle,agrees to take a side hustle so she can send more money to child back home. The night goes haywire, and she finds herself held against her will. If only she could remove her gag, they’ll know who the prey is.
TW: Human Trafficking
4.5 stars, love it when women turn the tables

The Beauty Therapist - Cheating? Stupid. Cheating on your albularyo or folk healer wife? Moronic. Loida crossed seas to punish her philandering husband and her mistress. They better be careful around insects
5 stars, satisfying. 💅🏼

The Cook - An old couple travel to Malta after their daughter and granddaughter fall victim to a serial killer, and they will not hesitate to use their power to find out who killed them.
3.75 - Left me wanting more!

4.5+4.75+4+3.75+3.75+4.5+5+3.75= 34/8 ‎ = 4.25
Star rating/number of stories

My favorite thing about this book if learning and gaining more knowledge on Philippine folklore and myths. There are creatures I’m already familiar with such as the Aswang & Bakunawa, but some of them I haven’t heard of before. There’s also a Glossary at the back for refence.

[Daniel De Guzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short Book Review: Jet Tagasa's The Secret Lives of OFWs

Jet Tagasa's debut book, The Secret Lives of OFW, was an additional to the growing collection of pinoy horror tales. And we should be glad that horror fiction is still alive and kicking which is a trear for horror junkie like me 😊.

The Secret Lives of OFWs, for me, has the the most interesting concept that I wish I thought about before. Fusing the drama of OFW tales and the sinister to at times bloody tales of our folk monsters from the classic Aswang, mystifying engkantos, and even the likes of the Oryol from Bicol mythos. Who would have thought our folkloric beasts can cross borders and sprinkle foreign lands with nasty, native terror? That's what makes this collection of tales a worthy part of every pinoy horror story lovers.

Personally, I love the story "The Cook" which features a deeper mythos of the Anduduno from Bicol folklore. I love to read a sequel of this story and witness how the corpse-eating father and mother exact their vengeance for their daughter. "The Part-Timer" was also another story that examined the age-old debate of who is the real monster: man on its peak inhuman state or a literal monster who is willing to disregard her humanity for her love ones.

Go get Jet Tagasa's book right here and right now. Revisit our folkloric tales with a brand new lens from our modern day, overseas heroes.

[Highnyzbibliofiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a collection of stories focusing on the extraordinary lives of OFWs. Struggling to sustain the needs of their families, they take their chances working abroad, only to end up in situations far worse than what they experienced in their hometowns.

The title intrigued me during the 2025 MIBF because I initially thought it was some sort of nonfiction novel that emphasized the realities faced by migrant workers. When I learned that it was a horror novel, I hesitated to pick it up. However, after reading reviews from the book community, I knew it had to be on my reading list this year. Luckily, I was able to purchase a copy from our city’s local bookstore.

This is not your usual horror novel, as it goes beyond societal horror by using the supernatural—the aswang. It is a narrative device that drives the stories. It blends the real-life struggles of our kababayans who tried their luck abroad but ended up facing the worst possible situations. The symbolism of the aswang may represent their desire to fight back against exploitation, suffering, and the hardships they endure.

There are stories that are truly heartbreaking, especially The Domestic Helper and The Part-Timer. I almost got teary-eyed because the descriptions felt so vivid and painfully real. Personally, The Domestic Helper resonated with me the most because I once heard almost the exact same story from two domestic helpers from the Middle East whom I met during a solo trip to Gensan. These issues are real, and Filipinos are not the only nationality that experiences such brutality in the Middle East.

After finishing the book, it left me with the thought of sana walang anak at magulang na aalis ng bansa at uuwi nang walang buhay o puno ng galos ang puso. It is my hope that every Filipino could have access to decent and well-paying jobs here in the Philippines so they would no longer feel forced to leave the country and their families.

However, with all the current drama in the government, who would not consider leaving the country?

BTW, this book is one of my best reads of the year.

[Bana AZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estelita knew that that deciding to leave home and work in a strange foreign country was like pointing a loaded gun at yourself, pulling the trigger, and hoping that there was no bullet in the barrel.

Synopsis:
This book is an exploration of two kinds of horror: the horrors that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) face when working abroad such as having an abusive employer and feeling displaced, and the horrors from supernatural beings. Which one is worse? The eight short stories in this collection will explore that.

Thoughts:
This is not non-fiction like I initially thought just by basing it on the title. It's fiction, horror, paranormal, yet it shows real fears that millions of OFWs and their families' experience.

As usual with collections, there are some hits and misses. My favorite was "The Seafarer" set in Qatar and Albania. Enya or Eugenia Mayor is the only survivor in a shipwreck. It had love, revenge, and news excerpts.

The other stories that I kind of enjoyed (3 stars) were "The Domestic Helper", "The Balikbayan", "The Nurse", and "The Beauty Therapist".

A lot of the stories are about revenge, and a lot of them also involve gore and gruesome scenes. Aswangs or manananggals are notorious for eating fetuses so let that be a content warning. Some of the scenes were honestly too gory for me so that may have affected my overall rating.

What I appreciated the most was learning more about Philippine creatures, like the different types of aswang (aswang na layog vs aswang na lakaw), anduduno, balyana, and oryol. I haven't really heard about them. I also like the details mentioned in the book like how a manananggal splits into two.

So overall, even though this didn't become a new favorite book, I still really appreciated learning from it and would recommend it to readers who don't mind gory scenes so much.

[Chris Reads Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a collection! Being an OFW myself – an Overseas Filipino Worker who has lived abroad for over a decade now – I’ve often wondered whether the mythical creatures I dread back home – manananggals, bakunawas, engkantos – can move transnationally as well. Imagine a manananggal flying over Big Ben or a bakunawa haunting the Nile!

This is the brilliant premise of Jet Tagasa’s collection. Across eight short stories, she embeds inescapable Philippine folklore within the already stifling conditions faced by her OFW characters. Filipino cultural mystique travels with them, crosses borders, and takes on new meanings, making the ways power, identity and place play out even more complex.

There’s much to love in the diversity of these stories, although I did find the collection quite uneven. The first and final stories are, for me, the strongest and most boundary-pushing, and I wish this boldness had been peppered throughout the others as well.

Still, overall, a really strong book and such a fascinating way of thinking about what else travels with us when we leave home.

[Khris · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLY I love this book!

Confronting horror with horror indeed.

The chapters are standalone so it’s pretty easy to read through. It’s that type of book where you know what it’s about, but you’re not sure how it’ll play out. Alam mong may supernatural elements pero di ka sure pano siya magfi-fit sa story. Kaya I was always at the edge of my seat every chapter. Kaya rin siguro ang bilis ko natapos HAHA

Also, hindi siya yung horror na puro takot lang mararamdaman mo. You still get to feel a plethora of emotions when you read it, and yes even get a few chuckles out of other chapters.

10/10 would recommend!!

Sharing a few of my favorite quotes here:
“She had felt terrified of fully embracing this aspect of her craft before because she had known it would ask too much of her, more than she had been prepared to give.”

“To fall apart now would feel like surrendering some more and he’d already surrendered enough.”

“He had begun to feel like a rat on a wheel that was going nowhere. A hopeless vermin furiously working to power the very machine that would eventually kill him.”

[Czarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! One of my best reads for this year. I had this growing obsession for Philippine folklore and mythology ever since I encountered a post about aswangs on reddit. I feel it was destiny that made me go into that bookstore and purchase a copy. I wasn’t planning to buy a book that day but this caught my attention.

The stories blend well with modern times while still keeping the plot loyal to Philippine myth and folklore. The author weaved stories that I heard as a kid, I grew up in the province, and having first hand experience with “engkantos” (a story for a different time) made me realize how universal these beliefs and stories have basis! I’m happy that a Filipino author was able to let the audience know the horrors OFWs face while making a living abroad but to mix it with myth and lore, it was a literary experience just going through every page.

Highly recommended!!!

[Gabriela Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE SECRET LIVES OF OFWs has an irresistible premise. What if the Filipino migrant worker is actually a mythological creature, with enough supernatural power to take revenge against abusive foreigners?

In Jet Tagasa's book, one detects ... a strong desire for retribution, a kababayan crying out against the injustice done to her countrymen. It could have been me, she seems to say, then writes a narrative where the foreign oppressor suddenly finds the tables turned when the would-be-victim turns out to be not so helpless, after all.

Read the rest of the review here! https://exlibrisphilippines.com/2025/...

[Ranne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Secret Lives of OFWs is a powerful collection that blends Filipino folklore with the harsh realities of migrant labor. By infusing supernatural creatures like the Manananggal, Mambabarang, and Aswang into the OFW experience, Jet Tagasa creates a unique and imaginative exploration of the emotional and physical toll of working abroad.

What sets this book apart is the use of folklore as metaphors for the struggles of OFWs. These mythical creatures, traditionally symbols of destruction and isolation, mirror the real-life challenges of abuse, exploitation, and fractured family dynamics. Despite their supernatural powers, the characters are still vulnerable to loneliness, guilt, and fear; human emotions that no magic can shield them from. Tagasa does a remarkable job of humanizing these figures, making their struggles relatable and deeply moving.

Two standout stories for me were The Domestic Helper and The Balikbayan.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror is cathartic indeed. Given the often violent exploitation OFWs have to suffer to support their families back in the Philippines, these stories provide comfort in that their abusers get theirs, or at least get found out by the people they’ve wronged. And since the latter aren’t actually human, the reckoning they will deal out will most likely be brutal.

My top three favorites are The Domestic Helper, The Seafarer, and The Balikbayan.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories were sooo good I wish it was a full-blown novel!

[Kat Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.5

[Hanaphinee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars. Best Filipiniana read so far.

[Jan Mariel Bautista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philippine folklore!!!