Recuerdo is an epistolary novel consisted of messages sent through email. The messages all came from Amanda, a middle-aged widow, to her daughter Marisa, a university student. Amanda is in Bangkok while Marisa is in Manila. Writing letters is Amanda's way of sorting out her life and helping Marisa understand their family' past. Amanda use her own mother's (Isabel) stories in many of these letters.
This way of storytelling resulted to a "Dynasty in Cyberspace" against a backdrop that juxtaposes two entirely different cultures: the first being superstitious while the other sophisticated. Such stories leave the readers a fascinating effect ---- for it would have been our own ancestors' story if we have the courage to dig them all up.
Hidalo has been very firm abut her stand on this particular novel, it isn't realistic nor does it have any attempt on realism ---- it is a romantic novel. Fellow writer Ophelia Dimalanta supports Hidalgo as she says in her review of Recuerdo, that readers might have the tendency of commenting on the contravening of some degree of verisimilitude in the narrating o the stories rendered through letters which come regularly and with such contrived continuity and incessantness. Clearly, Dimalanta's response is a way of reinforcing Hidalgo's claim of Recuerdo being a romantic novel.