Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was eager to read this having enjoyed Egan's other work but I was vastly disappointed. I cannot understand the overwhelming, unmitigated praise for what seems an almost ("almost" because I hate to say it) cliched novel with stock characters - the main character a plucky young woman who refuses to have her dreams contained by convention (how many times have we seen this before?), the stock attractive gangster trying to go straight, the missing father who turns out to be a hero, the floozie with a heart of gold, the disabled but angelic sister - they are all here contained in an outlandish plot that defies all credibility. Long on meaningless detail (let no research go unpublished) but short on character development. I could hardly make it to the end. I felt like one of the characters lost at sea for days on end without a credible character in sight.