Regarding Writing: I see a distinction between the words and the story - or as Milne put it, "the art". When you first start a novel all you have is the writing, there is nothing more (unless you are reading a graphic novel). It is up to the writing to take you beyond the words and into the story. The writing either compels, engages or intrigues you into involvement in the story ... or it leaves you out, cold and lost with just the words. And words are never perfect. If all you have left are the words then all you have left are the faults - and this, I believe, is what leads to categorical statements like "the writing was awful".
Lack of perfection does not (or should not) equate to bad. People (myself included) have this tendency to think of their favourite books as well written and their worst books as badly written, but it doesn't take long on this forum to see just how much people's tastes do vary. A little more humility wouldn't go astray sometimes.
