For many, this book's genre/type will put them off from the start. If you're not the immediate target audience, you probably won't give it a chance. It's just one of those things. Either way, I don't care for covers with people on them, but these types of books usually have the author on them like this anyway. That being said, the content started off kind of weak for me. Considering I don't like this genre/type of book, I wasn't hooked any differently, despite the fact that I believe the author used this type of story to hook the reader at the beginning. As I don't know the rest of the book's contents, I will say that from the start, this hasn't done much to overcome my own preferences/preconceived notions about what puts me off from reading these types of books. That being said, it maybe a good read for the intended audiences.