Professors of English Doane and Hodges note that the book was widely condemned for its use of checklists to determine if the reader was abused, describing the complaints made against the book as being as formulaic as the stories it engenders (in part due to things like the "notorious") and only criticizing parts of the book. Doane and Hodges also state that the use of "you" throughout the book blinds Davis and Bass to their shaping of the identity of the reader and their story.