 Naylor believes that there is much " gray area between right and wrong " . Instead of following the straightforward correct path , Marty is forced to select between two unpalatable choices . Reviewer Matt Berman of The Times @-@ Picayune believed that the book 's main moral is that " nothing is as simple as it seems " . Entertainment Weekly 's Michele Landsberg praised the novel , writing that Shiloh is a " strongly persuasive story of moral growth , told without a hint of moralizing and with acute insight into a preadolescent 's inner life " . 
