Well not all content is meant to be read in order. A layout like this is good for content where you want to incentivise users to read in whichever order you like. So if the order is confusing you, chances are there wasn't meant to be any order at all. E.g. if you search google images google guesses some relevant order for you, but it is layed out in a dense way so you can scan with your eyes and decide which thing is most relevant for you. Whether you scan the screen left-right, top-down, randomly, bottom up, or ehatever is totally your choice.
Using such a layout for a novel or something like this would be really bad UX. But using it for an image gallery? Or a series of random articles that aren't priorized? Why not?