I read this book as part of a read for a book club I now belong to. And I have never read anything by Isabel Allende (don't throw things at me - I promise I am going to read something that my friends in the book club assure me is her genre.) So... having said that, I appreciate the fact that unlike other authors, Allende chose to try a different genre. Really I do. But this was, in my opinion, not very good. There were so many stereotypes, the Asian female who was into "submissive sex", the precocious child/youth - who I found (as a parent - very annoying/and WTF!!! giving a 17 year old details about open crimes??? REALLY???? so her and her friends can play their online game - Oh I don't think so!/and where were her parents (hello!!)), the main character Indiana - who lives in SF and is into alternate healing (I grew up in the SF Bay area -and now live in Boulder Colorado -and I don't appreciate the stereotypes). And honestly, Indiana was a lead character that I could not respect or sympathize with (which does not mean that I wanted what happened to her to happen). I'm just saying that I was not impressed, and that for me the things that happened, I could see coming from a mile away. Very disappointing.