I do love the feeling of disorientation I got from the first book. The whole thing felt like I was in a fever dream and I was never sure if I was losing my mind or it was the book.
Of course a big chunk of that could be the sleep deprivation that came with having 2 kids under two at the same time as reading the book.
The movie is very loosely based on the first book. The screenwriter read it, had a dream about it, then wrote the movie based off the dream they had, intentionally never referencing the book while writing it. Which... Idk. Kinda fits the vibe of the story, but I'd love an authentic adaptation of the book, because it's incredible.
The second book was a hard read for me, but it's worth it to get to third, and honestly the third kind of retroactively makes the second one better. There's supposed to be a 4th in the works I believe, but don't quote me on that.