Negative Positive
Title: I threw it across the room when I was done with it
Review: What a disappointing book. It had real potential with a fascinating topic and I kept reading because I hoped that it would give me something to enjoy. It really failed. Not only was the writing just slightly better than what a high school senior would produce but it was also condescending and didactic in the worst way. Shaffner didn't trust his audience enough to give them complex characters or an original plot line. The list of cliched characters includes the bitter hopeless father, the angelic dying child, the greedy businessman, the no-nonsence narrator and her sassy best friend, and the mysterious stranger who comes into to town and redeems them all with his Eastern philosophical outlook disguised as midwestern wisdom. Reading it made me feel like I was in a Philosophy 101 class being taught by the professor who wrote the text book and charged you too much for it.
Is the review positive or negative? 