I think my sixth-grade class was assigned this book, and within days, every single girl in the class was whining about how much we hated it. Every single one of us. The teacher relented and let us read something else (I don't remember what), but all the boys loved it.

I've just started watching Black Sails, which is a prequel of sorts to this book, so I decided to give it another shot. So far, so good. (I'm on p. 32 of 161.)