As a doctoral student new to human trafficking, Molland's work is an excellent primer for those who are interested in deconstructing what is meant by "trafficking" in anti-trafficking interventions and policy. I really enjoyed this book from start to finish, party because I have not come across as critical a text as this in the trafficking literature to date. The author interrogates simplistic definitions of the term (which, in propagating the idea of clear-cut identities of traffickers and their victims, allows anti-trafficking campaigners to act and execute programs aimed at helping the latter) and calls for more nuanced understandings of the term, as well as perhaps more imaginative research that considers the network of social relationships within which trafficking is embedded. Only then can we try to design an appropriate intervention. Coming from a public policy/health perspective, I am guilty of occasional reductionism in attempts to define and understand problems so they can be acted on. Here I am grateful for an anthropologist's insight into the messy empirical reality of trafficking. Some commonly dispelled myths about trafficking from the book:Recruitment is mostly informal and consensual, often with no or limited physical coercion or restriction of movement. It is commonly accepted that trafficking involves some combination of deception>coercion>exploitation. Some are deceived, but others know they will do sex work. When migrants arrive they almost always have to compensate their employers for the "commissions" paid to procure them - brokers may be external or even another sex worker. In the Thai-Laos border context, sex workers returning to villages who are visibly materially better off are often asked by other girls/families about bringing them to the town/city to earn similar amounts to the visiting migrant. This presents us with the conundrum that trafficking victims become traffickers themselves, in the process of bringing new girls/women to the brothel/bar. This flys in the face of several anti-trafficking campaigns that do not acknowledge this messy reality. Second, once they have arrived many girls will not have the knowledge/funds/social network (they are isolated) to get back home - leaving them little option but to stay. Even if the person is not physically coerced into selling sex, it is difficult to be the least paid person working at the bar/lounge when others around you are making lots more selling sex. So what we see is a subtle process of deception>socialization>normalization>acceptance of sex work (Molland's insight).What I found most fascinating was Molland's depiction that neither party, trafficker and trafficked person, necessarily see relationship as exploitative, but one of "helping" - due to patron-client relationships whereby debt bondage is not seen as a moral problem. Gamblers used to pledge their family as collateral, and migrating into a debt bondage arrangement can actually be seen as reducing the risks of migration from perspective of potential migrant. The author asks whether both parties, traffickers and anti-traffickers are acting in bad faith. Both distance themselves from trafficking; anti-traffickers, via by thinking and acting through ideal forms of knowledge, and traffickers, by denying their complicity through assertions of helping.Another discourse that needs to be questioned is how "organized" trafficking is. We are painted an image of traffickers as "undetectable yet omnipresent" (p.54) but there is limited empirical work on trafficking networks - theory and the media paints image of organized crime, professional, transnational, calculating, hierarchical and profitable networks. But are they? Probably not - more likely, traffickers represent temporary and shifting alliances of ordinary individuals looking to make a buck.In sum, we need to be digging deeper into the nuances of sex trafficking, accept that there are no easy victim/perpetrator, trafficked/non-trafficked binaries, and delve more into the network of social relationships within which trafficking is embedded. One of my favourite quotes from the book: "What is astonishing is that despite the considerable efforts being put toward the fight against trafficking, the social world in which anti-traffickers are trying to intervene is in many respects untouched" (p.233). Sadly, I suspect the author is right. A welcome wake up call for anyone working in this field. I am very glad I read this before diving into the design of my own study because of its unique insights, which is why I'd rate this book at 5 stars. The only thing that could have been added were some appendices detailing number of interviews carried out, and perhaps the questions asked of participants. Highly recommended for postgraduate students and practitioners working on human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.