Overall an excellent read! Easy to follow scripts presented in the point of view as a hacker (including subtle remarks toward those that use these techniques for ill-fated purposes). Cameron presents an idea, shows the python script and corresponding source contents for which this script works against, then describes the scripts steps, and then goes on to describe additional related things about this script. You could say that each script could build upon each other, but that's not totally true. The author makes sure they are really cut and paste recipes. He gives you the recipe and often a way to include it into a bigger, more comprehensive script - that builds upon each step as the book progresses. Being a cookbook, there is plenty of code examples for you to try out. This is not a book about theory, but rather implementation - so all the fluff is cut out and it gets right to the point.
The book also focuses most of the direct web page vulnerability testing (2-3 chapters) at php script as the web pages' source. This would have been nice to have a corresponding discussion related to aspx, jsp, etc. There is some discussion of other technology other than php, and I get that the book would have probably doubled in size if more common page source was discussed, but it is something to think about when reading. Create the same page in aspx or jsp and attempt if there is a similar vulnerability.
Don't worry though, there's plenty of scripts related to SQL injection, header processing, encryption, encoding, payloads, shells, and even how to report your findings. These items are not necessarily exclusive to a single technology, so you are not pigeon-holed into testing only a certain type of website/server.
This book is not about learning python so if you're new to it, and you really want to understand how to manipulate each recipe, then I suggest searching for a beginner python book. However, that being said, most average level programmers can understand the scripts presented without needing to reach out for a python book/video.
Being in the industry for over 15 years, I've seen a lot of tools you can buy off the shelf that tout the ability to do this same thing just by running a program. I think knowing what it actually does is key to really understanding your vulnerabilities rather than trusting someone else's process because after all, attack vectors change all the time and with this information you can easily change your scripts.
In conclusion, this book is perfect for a web application developer wanting to test her application or an IT person ready to see just how vulnerable their application is - all with the ability to report the findings to those who need to know where to plug the holes. This is a book I will be referring to during and after each project I work on.
