Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SPOILER ALERT. Some good elements, some good dialogues, and some believable insights about a girl raised by a narcissistic and possessive father. On the negative side, the plot itself was hard to swallow. I had trouble believing that Martin would conveniently walk out of Turtle's life for 3 months and suddenly return with Cayenne; his justification for abandoning her just didn't make sense to me in the context of his possessiveness, especially knowing that Jacob was in the picture. Or that two 15-year-old boys today would share a dialogue such as (Brett) "How's it any different from objectifying her for her intelligence?" / (Jacob replies) "Her intelligence cannot be abstracted from her personality, whereas her blindness is incidental to who she is." From chapter 12 onward, my notes read "Argh." "Oh brother." "I hate this idiot girl. Why am I still reading this book?". "Ack." "Wtf, this is beyond sick." And (when Martin contemplates killing them both, in Chapter 20) "That would be a great ending. Both these unlikable characters GONE." I finished the novel to try to figure out why NPR and Stephen King would have praised it so much. And that, I really don't understand.