The problem with post-partum reviews is I honestly have no idea whether this book was a slow build or if I'm sleep-deprived and have a focus problem. (Both. The word you are looking for is both.)
I tore through Mexican Gothic in a day, but this was a different read and it took me until about 2/3s of the way through before I had to finish it right then and there.
Some of that may have been the episodic nature of the narrative, that it takes a while before the individual moments build to the ending and come together. But what Moreno-Garcia achieves is really gorgeous and she does it with this narrative voice that is both somehow distant and also deeply present for the characters. The way she talks and makes observations reminds me of a pared down and dry Victorian narrator. But also not quite.
I'm glad I read this one and I'm really enjoying the history she evokes alongside the fantasy.