It was a whole new world opening up, a pretty wierd world at that, and not an appealing one, but very authentic. I felt she was really talking; it doesn't read like a novel, yet it does have a good plot. However, I only give it four stars for I felt the plot fell apart at the end. A good story should balance out at the end, and as a reader i like the people to get their just deserts in a book, since in real life they don't - at least, not as far as we can see. in this case everything was lopsided at the end, smugness and deceit getting rewarded, those who were truly good just vanishing without a second thought. I don't want to give anything away so I won't go into the details!