Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start out by saying that I'm a Reacher fan. I've read all the Reacher books, and my preorder is already in for the next novel ... ... but this novella was really bad. There were two main problems with it, in my opinion: 1) While the novella says Reacher is 16, that's the only thing about the writing that makes him seem young. He acts exactly like the mature 40+ Reacher from the novels. He outsmarts the villains, gets the girl with a comical lack of effort (despite the author going on about how inexperienced he is), and beats up hardened criminals with as much effort as it takes the rest of us to brush our teeth. That kind of thing is why we read Reacher books, but it goes far beyond suspension of disbelief when a 16-year-old kid does this kind of stuff. 2) I won't give away any spoilers, but I'll say that this novella has Reacher intersect with American history in a way that is utterly ludicrous. Not just the encounter, but Reacher's response (which is, again, hard to believe coming from a 16-yearl-old kid). The first time the historical reference was mentioned I thought, "Surely that won't come back into play ... it's far to obvious and unbelievable, right?" Then it did. All the way. Anyway, let me say again: I'm a Reacher fan. They're great entertainment, because they do the thriller genre as well as it can be done. I'm not a reviewer who's here to take down the entire genre or attack them because they're not high literature. But this felt like a serious misfire.