We didn't play this quite right so I don't know whether that makes this report more or less useful:)
I printed out the two books, didn't read either ahead of time and gave the MC book to my daughter, Ruth. We're going for a second session tonight and I don't want to know too much so I still haven't looked at much of the MC book yet so please bear that in mind. Ruth's had a tiny bit of rpg experience - a couple of sessions of old school D&D and she ran a short game for me using The Pool.
I found the game play quite smooth - the player instructions were clear, my answers gave her things to incorporate and I found the game really rather spooky. Part of that might have come from not knowing just how much of what we were doing was coming from the book and how much from Ruth's imagination. We were, however, missing one vital thing.
After about and hour or so I asked Ruth if she'd read anything that told her to draw more cards. She said she didn't think so, so we carried on a bit longer before deciding that we'd call it a day and I'd have a look at what we were doing wrong.
It turned out she'd missed the bit in 5 that says that any move by the player is, by default, a move towards escape. She'd seen the bit about a move towards triggering a draw but without taking in that paragraph didn't know what a move towards escape was and so never drew. If the MC is directed back to 5 regularly then I guess she skipped the bits she thought she'd understood.
A couple of thoughts: as the player I felt at times like I was exploring a dungeon and there were a handful of times when I asked D&D questions (can I hear anything at the door, how far can I see with this torch.) This didn't feel right because, based on the Player Book, I was pretty sure the MC book wouldn't be set up for that kind of thing. Ruth could (and did) make up answers but I was worried I might de-rail things for her but, going with the fiction, they were the right things to ask. I also worried about taking too long with what I wanted to do - how much could I get done in my turn and what was it that would trigger the end of my turn.
Ruth's comments after the game was that the instructions were clear but sometimes she wanted more guidance. She said the entries were written like they were notes for a longer version of the rules.
Of course, there could have been other things going wrong in the game - I hope we'll spot those when we swap books.