There will be people that fall in the middle, but I have a feeling that the opinions of this book will fall to one extreme or another. You're either going to absolutely love this book, or you're going to hate it. Which side you end up on will depend on two things: how you feel about Rob Zombie films and how you feel about movie novelizations. 
 Quality-wise, it's really hard to judge this against books that haven't been based off of movie scripts or screenplays. This was co-written by the guy who wrote the movie itself, true, but the thing about movie novels is that its subject matter was meant to be seen rather than read. There are some exceptions, but generally speaking movie novelizations will always be a little cheesy in comparison to its movie companion. It's always going to run the risk of being a potentially inferior product when compared to the visual medium. Now if you're a fan of movie novelizations then you'll know that this difference can often be what makes these books so much fun. They're cheesy, but in a good way. I just wanted to give a brief disclaimer about this, as some of my comments might be taken to be negative when they're really not meant to be as such. 
 With that in mind, I generally liked this book. As far as movie novels go, this was pretty well written. You get a good feeling for the setting and the action, especially when you get to the scenes that you just know will really pop on screen. There are some pretty eerie scenes, especially one concerning a bathtub. Maybe it was because I myself was in a tub while I was reading it, but it made my eyes dart a little towards the door to ensure that no creepy beastie was waiting for me. What's great about this book is how much isn't actually seen by the lead character of Heidi, but we the reader get to see. 
 I also greatly enjoyed the 70s vibe to this and it couldn't help but remind me of some of those great schlocky horror films of the era. You know the type, the ones where someone's dressed in a leisure suit or something of that nature (a role filled by Herman, who is described as dressing like Huggy Bear). This story was sleazy, creepy, and generally the type of film that probably won't (and shouldn't be) taken seriously by anyone. 
 There were only two gripes I had with this story, one of which is more of a personal quirk than an actual criticism of the book itself. The first is that at times the story seemed a little all over the place and could have used with a bit more streamlining. If not for the knowledge that this was based off of an unused script for the film, I'd worry about how this would translate on the screen. Some readers might be upset that there really aren't any likable characters in the book, which can impede the enjoyment for some readers when you have a "character in peril" type story line. This didn't really bug me that much, though. 
 The other big gripe I had was that this was released in hardback rather than in paperback. It didn't ruin the story, not really, but it kind of killed some of the story's ambiance. It's like getting a greasy spoon burger in a fancy restaurant. The burger is still tasty and you'll enjoy how fancy the environment is, but it just doesn't match up. This might not make sense to a lot of reviewers and I didn't really factor this into my review, but people who have read movie novelizations in the past might understand where I'm coming from, as many novelizations were almost always in paperback with cheesy covers. Part of me just really longed for this in a mass market size with one of the more 70s-esque posters on the cover. Hopefully when this hits MM size they'll do just that. I'm not faulting Zombie for this, as this was probably a publisher decision. 
 My general consensus is this: if you're a fan of Zombie's work and remember those great movie novels that used to come out for every movie ever released, then you'll probably love this book and should rush down to the bookstore to get it. If you're unfamiliar with his work or if you're unsure about how you feel about books based on movie scripts, I'd probably recommend getting this at the library first. I waffled between giving this a 3 or 4 stars, as my overall enjoyment kind of ping ponged between the two. Ultimately I'm giving it three stars. This is a decent book, but the book could have used a bit more streamlining to keep the book a little more linear at times. This is probably because it was originally meant to be seen visually rather than read, but it did make for a somewhat uneven reading experience.