I'm not a English Major...but I'd be surprised they thought that even if they hadn't made it to freaking college. If you read a lot [and if your plan is to become a writer you *should* be reading tons - and not just "classics"], you'd have to have noticed that stinkers become popular fairly regularly - and even books that are decent that become super popular generally aren't really the best books written in their time out there.
Re: I have no opinion on this writer, BUT