I've never had strong opinions on an author before, but this guy sucks. His writing is just abysmal trash, that passes off a firehose of tired, cringeworthy, exhausting pop culture references as the creamy filling of his meager Twinkie of a story.

Spielberg's movie adaptation shaves off most of those rough edges, however, and makes the whole affair more palatable.

It's not a bad story, at it's core. It just needed an actual author to get it under control, and the film largely does that.

It's still got issues, though. The main character is a creep in both versions.