Practical stuff out of the way first: This book is written as a series of journal entries. It's reasonably short (not a heavy tome like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). I read it in bits and pieces over the course of a couple of days.

The book is like a dream that slowly becomes more lucid over time. It's weird, but in a dream-like way. Or, you could say that it starts out like a dream and then slowly turns into a mystery. The author manages to build a very vivid (if somewhat empty) world over the short number of pages. It's one of those books (or movies) that changes your thinking a bit during the time you're reading it and makes everything feel a bit surreal.

I am struggling to come up with a fair comparison to another book. It's like a cross between a surreal dream-like movie (think David Lynch), a man alone on a deserted island narrative, and an urban fantasy novel.

It does get a bit violent toward the end but not in a particularly gruesome way.

The main reason I'm giving it 4 stars rather than 5 is because it started to feel a bit rushed toward the end, like some stuff was skipped over for the sake of not going on too long or feeling too repetitive. The other reason is that the secondary villain in the book is gay and that feels stereotypical and old fashioned, like a random element inserted from a book written 40+ years ago.