[AnAmericanMother]

That's the key -- it's a successful work (though you exaggerate substantially when you say 'one of the most successful works in modern publishing'). It's not a novel.

As Mark Twain said, the rules of novel-writing require (inter alia) "that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the ["Atlas"] tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together."

[OldNavyVet]

“though you exaggerate substantially when you say ‘one of the most successful works in modern publishing”

Might I suggest you check that statement?