Its a beautifully written book with lots of poetic words built on surreal imagery. I love looking at surreal imagery but reading about it drains me and I'm not sure why. I thought I was going to love this book, I at least loved the idea it was built on, a sexually transmitted city (wow!) but too many flowery words just kept slowing me down and I had to take a break every couple of chapters.The actual story is dark and depressing the characters have desperate personalities and you don't really get to connect with them. The author drowns the reader in soo much vivid imagery and dream scenes that it's hard to stay concentrated on the actual story line, which by the way was not very strong. Almost all the chapters either start or end in a sexual encounter when the characters themselves figure out that this is how you are transported to the city even they do not seem to enthused about it. They start to treat it as something one has to do to get there and lets get this over with as quickly as possible. I can't say I totally disliked this book but I was glad when it was over with.