This book reminded me of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue in terms of its beautiful prose. It reads like an anthology of stories that are loosely connected until all of it all comes together as you keep reading. The pacing is slow and I feel that this book is best enjoyed if it read slowly and patiently to really take in each part of the story like a piece of poetry.  I read the book in chunks and found that helpful to stay focused on the overarching events as well as really enjoy the purple prose. Plot points eventually come together to form a more cohesive story, but the atmosphere is clearly the main focus. 

This book seems like it would do well consumed as an audio book because there is such attention to detail to how the prose sounds. If plot focused stories with a lot of action tend to be your preference, I would not recommend this. However, if you want a break from plot or adventure heavy books and want to maybe try a portal fantasy that is different from what you usually read, this may be for you. I would say that if you enjoy books in the vein of Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman this is probably a good option. (If you have not read that one and enjoyed this one, I would recommend Einstein's Dreams because I think you will probably enjoy it.)