I'll begin by saying that this book was beautifully and imaginatively written---the language is just lovely and so creative. For example:

pg. 134: "Although there were no books in Grialet's house, the house itself was a book. The building, I found out later, had belonged to an editor named Fussel, who had the door and windows built to look like book covers. The spiral staircases crossed through the building like arabesques, unexpected rooms appeared here and there like footnotes, the hallways extended like careless margin notes."

The imagery alone is a good enough reason to read this book.

As for the story, it was predictable---but good. The back cover sensationalizes to make it sound like a riveting, fast-paced thriller when it is, instead, a meandering stream of a "mystery". It's really a combination of lots of little stories that come together in the end for a gentle but satisfying conclusion.

Don't be led on by the marketing attempts at making this out to be all about the World's Fair or the building of the Eiffel Tower. These events are mentioned as the backdrop of the story...but that's about it. There is VERY little history of either event and any time they come up it's mainly in relation to how many days until the Fair, etc.

I don't regret reading this, but it definitely took longer than I expected to finish it as I wasn't really engaged in the story line. It didn't really get super interesting or "mysterious" until the last 40 pages or so.