This book started as a three for me. I found myself pushing forward despite being a bit meh about it because I do that. Some of it may have been an artifact of medium - perfectly reasonable pacing in text form can feel slower in an audiobook.
And then we got to Cyrah and I was hooked. The story became brilliant and beautiful and it's as though every slow moment and "ugh, what is it with these whiny dudes" part of it fell away and it was fantastic and I had to know what happened to her. I loved it.
So, totally worth reading, probably goes even faster if you read instead of listen. And, as part of Das's commitment to treating shape shifters seriously as creatures, as animals, as whatever they ares (read the book for more details), you do get a certain excess of effluvia, at least compared the the average book. It worked, but I think I need to read a book with less piss in it next.