It was that bad.
Allow me to shed some light on the subject.
Problem #1:
Coming from a purely authorly standpoint, the style is hackneyed and sporadic, being poetic at first then dissolving into repetitive phrases simply for emphasis and viewpoints that jump between characters from sentence to sentence with no real organization whatsoever.
Problem #2:
The secretive character who spilled her backstory to the protagonist within one day of meeting him (and that day had absolutely no bonding experiences either. Except for falling down the same garbage chute.)
Problem #3:
KATHERINE VALENTINE YOU SIMPLETON! YOU FOOL! YOU OVERDRAMATIC PRISS! YOU TRIS PRIOR OF STEAMPUNK! (and that is not a compliment)
HONESTLY I had so much hope for her and then she went and confronted the villain ALONE without a weapon or backup and told him "I know everything! and here are the names and positions of everyone who helped me learn this!" then ran away like a sniveling child.
Problem #4:
SPOILERS!
.............................. they killed the dog.
Problem #5:
Bevis Pod under-appreciation.
The boy is honestly the most intelligent, kind, and witty person in the whole book so far and this is what he gets:
"She (Katherine) had come to think of Bevis Pod as a sweet, clumsy,
rather useless person, someone who needed her to look after him, and
she suspected that that was how the Historias all thought of him as well."
- Chapter thirty-two
Katherine, you were planning to take down the 400+/- foot doomsday machine with a hammer. He was the one who suggested a bomb. And you only grow to respect him as you watch him make a bomb.
Problem #6:
The savvy, epic sky pirate who gets killed because she let the villain monologue instead of cutting to business.
Problem #7:
The hero learns....nothing about how his civilization's lifestyle could be wrong? Or at least he doesn't start questioning it at all? Even when he sees innocent people forced into slavery because of it?
Problem #8:
I'd like a little more info on these monstrous half-man-half-machine creatures, please. They're interesting, but sort of blurry on the details.
Problem #9:
It would have been 464364x more gripping if there had been a threat of the main characters being turned into said monsters for their 'crimes'.
Problem #10:
All motives were one-dimensional.
Problem #11:
The only two characters who were (a) intelligent and (b) cared for something besides themselves or dumb revenge missions DIED.
Problem #12:
(Okay, I hated it so much I don't care if I spoil it. You're welcome.)
The whole ending of "Everyone you once knew and loved is dead via nuclear explosion but at least *kiss * we're together."
Problem #13:
The doomsday device was destroyed by accident.
Problem #14:
The main villain was flat and boring and when he went completely insane, it was so absurd that it wasn't scary.
Problem #15:
Plot points were random and had no depth (other than perhaps some subtle message with the doomsday weapon being housed in St. Paul's Cathedral).
So in short:
Yeah. Save your eyes the reading and hope that Peter Jackson does a 180o of what he did to the Hobbit.
