Slade House: Narrative structure

Slade House follows five different characters' encounters with the eponymous House, each chapter following a different character, and taking place nine years after the previous chapter. What did you think of this structure? Was it an effective technique?

I sort of already mentioned this in my "first impressions" post, but I thought this narrative structure made for very easy reading. The "every 9 years" mystery kept me reading to find out why this was the case, but the chapters were divided into very easily digestible pieces, so you could stop where you wanted (if you could, in fact, stop yourself :) ). Mitchell left me hanging at every chapter break, so I obviously kept reading. I love his writing style.

I think the structure added to the mood...every nine years, something new was going to happen.

I do like the way the book was structured. With each 9-year section, a little more about Slade House was revealed. And I agree with >2 kristilabrie: that it made it very easy to read.