I actually split between reading and listening to the audiobook. It was long either way! I didn’t care for it as much as I thought I would. The first part took me a while to get into, I loved the second part, but after
I remember where I was driving when I listened to the first part, the narrator was excellent and made the whole tree section a surprisingly engrossing listen.
I agree about where the story started to falter, too. There was a lot of build-up to that point and it felt like it kinda meandered to the end afterwards.