It took me a little while to acclimate to this book. At first I found the time jumps jarring and the dialogue over stylized. However once I got into the rhythm of the story I thought it was pretty awesome. This is set in a fascinating historical time period (San Francisco 1876) and in addition to the main plot we get great information about a heat wave, a small pox outbreak, race riots, baby farms, corrupt juvenile "reformatories," legal prosecution of cross dressing, etc. The characters are dazzling and complicated and enthralling and the backdrop is great. 
 This book is a bit messy narratively for sure but it is so cool and unique and engrossing I would highly recommend it.