The agent nails it. We're not to be boring and leave people cold. What the cloud isn't saying is 'I didn't give a damn.' So if it does its job, someone's going to hate it for the same reasons someone else loves it. It's the only aim that makes reading worthwhile. A book demands time, I don't want my own wasted so I'd better not waste other people's.
Susan Hill terrified me with one of her early novels,
'I'm The King Of The Castle.'
It terrified me because the child desperately needed help, his mother saw only what she needed to see, and I was reduced to being a helpless onlooker.
Years later, we have her, 'The Woman In Black.'
Far more famous, mega film and all that, but I can't see it as progress for her as a writer, just,
meh. I just feeeel

.