In which I rant about bad reviews
Okay, so I’ve been planning on writing a rant on bad reviews for a while now. I wanted to take the time and make sure I did it tactfully, throwing in enough humor to make sure everyone laughed while they learned something (even the authors who are about to get a bad review from moi). Then, Julie Halpern decided to rant about how much she hated bad reviews for her books. (Picture of her response to all the responses her first blog post got, thanks to BooksandWine.)
Um. Yeah. She went there. You don’t have to read her blog posts to understand this rant. I’m sure tons of reviewers have already responded and blogged about it, and you probably already know more than I do. I barely know half of what’s going on, and quite frankly, I don’t want to know. Though I can tell you, I’ve never heard of her before this, and now I don’t plan on ever reading any of her books. No one tells me how to write my reviews. Except, maybe Jackie, but only tells me how to improve on my ideas/opinions. She never ever tells me what they should be. My reviews are my HONEST opinions. If you disagree with them, that is a GOOD THING. Because no one should have the same opinion as someone else about a book. Life would become utterly boring. No more Battle of the Books. or Battle of the Characters.
Getting back to the point, today I’m ranting about a thing that gives authors nightmares. It makes them toss and turn at night, unable to sleep, unable to find solace. It makes them quake in fear as they peruse the Internet in case they stumble upon one. It makes them drink an entire bottle of wine in one sitting because how else can you battle a bad review? Yes, we’re talking about bad reviews.
Before I really, truly start ranting, here’s a little, teeny, tiny secret that I’ve never told anyone before. Not a single soul – or even a soulless person. This big doozy of a secret is that I, Casey, reviewer extraordinaire, prefer writing bad reviews.
As you gasp in horror, recoiling from your computer screen, wondering if there is any good left in the world at all, let me explain. It’s not that I like saying bad things about books. Or that I want to make an author cry. No, the simple truth of the matter is that when I sit down to write a review for a book, I usually don’t know what to say. When I’m writing a review for a book I love, all I want to write is: “I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK! YOU MUST READ IT BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH AND YOU WILL TOO!!!”
If you saw that review, would you be intrigued? Would you sit there and think to yourself, “Hmm, this sounds like an epic book. I must read it.” Yeah, okay, maybe if I did that once you would have that kind of response. But what if I did it for every single review I wrote? Would you be saying, “What the heck is up with this crazy chick? She loves every book and I don’t want to read every book in the world because I actually have a life!” After awhile, positive reviews can all end up saying the same thing and it can be hard to find something new to rave about. It’s the negative reviews that can start discussions and get people intrigued. I recently wrote my 100th review for Literary Escapism and even after all this time, I still find it easier to write bad reviews.
However, when I sit down to write a review for a book I didn’t like, I sit there and write “I didn’t like this book because of this, this and that.” This, this and that are usually just the hero, heroine and/or plot. I use examples and/or quotes from the book to back up my claim and that’s that. I didn’t like it and that’s why. Is that so wrong? Does that make me evil? Am I spewing hate and keeping people from reading?
About a year ago, I read a book that I personally thought was absolutely horrible. I don’t think I managed to get past page 50 or so. I never would have mentioned the book to anyone if it wasn’t for the fact that it was an ARC that I had to review. My review was basically, “Horrible characters killed what could have been a good book.” Guess who read the review. The author, that’s who, and you know what he did? He asked me to explain why I felt that way and if I had any suggestions as to how he could improve the next book in the series. He even said please and thank you! So I explained to him exactly how those characters annoyed me (and gave examples of scenes that were the worst), even though I liked the premise behind the story.
That is how every bad review should work. The reviewer should be able to state their honest opinion (while explaining exactly why they feel that way), and the author, instead of taking it personally, should take it as a way to improve their writing. Of course, I doubt that’s going to happen every time there is a bad review, ’cause let’s face it, we’re all human. We’re emotional creatures. We let our emotions rule our actions, usually at the worst possible times.
You guys want to know something even more shocking? Yeah, I figured you did. Okay, so one time, I was on Amazon (not at all uncommon for me, believe it or not) when I saw a one-star review for His Darkest Embrace by Juliana Stone. Usually, I avoid reviews altogether if I haven’t already read the book [odd quirk of mine that will be explained in a later rant] but I hadn’t planned on reading His Darkest Embrace and the first sentence of the review stood out to me. Basically, it said, “I loved the first book but this one was horrible. It was nothing at all like the first book.” Well, now. I hadn’t planned on reading His Darkest Embrace because I didn’t like His Darkest Hunger.
Juliana Stone created a great new world that I was absolutely enraptured by, but Libby, the heroine, annoyed the crap out of me. And I only like Jaxon, the hero, when he wasn’t around or thinking about Libby. To me, Libby acted really weak and clingy in the beginning only because she couldn’t remember anything and wanted others to protect her/tell her what to do. Then, once she got her memories back, she started acting like a total bitch. Two totally polar opposites in the extreme. Jaxon wasn’t quite as polar in his emotions, but he had a lot of ups and downs and back-and-forths and I was honestly befuddled as to why he stuck around with Libby. But that was probably because I didn’t like her so much.
After I saw that one-star review of His Darkest Embrace, I bought it. I mean, how could I not? It not only had that same great world but a totally different hero/heroine who weren’t as emotionally crazy! I loved it.
When I read Juliana Stone’s His Darkest Hunger, I was impressed by the world she had created but not with Jaxon or Libby, the hero/heroine. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to read the second book, His Darkest Embrace until I saw a one star review on Amazon saying that it was a horrible book simply because Jaggar and Skye were nothing at all like Jaxon and Libby. I bought His Darkest Embrace immediately but put off reading it until now. I regret putting it off for so long because His Darkest Embrace really is way better than it’s predecessor.
You can read my whole, wonderful, “I love this book!” review here.
The point of that story is – yeah, the review was mean but it made me go out and buy the book. It was because of the reason that person didn’t like it that made me buy it. Someone else’s opinion of a story should never determine if you do or don’t read a book. Who knows, maybe what is the worst story since the alphabet was invented for them turns out to be the best story you ever read. That was the case for me. It was that one point of why she didn’t like it that completely changed my mind on reading His Darkest Embrace. Her worst story became one of my favorites.
So, the morals of this rant are: if you do write a bad review of a book, be tactful about it and NEVER EVER attack the author (the book may be the author’s baby, but they are, in fact, two separate things); and lastly, HAVE AN OPINION ABOUT A BOOK AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY IT!
I have always found the bad reviews easier to write than the good ones, at least purely from a writing standpoint. It’s far easier for me to pick out what I didn’t like and why I didn’t like it than it is for me to pick out something I did like and why. This is probably because when a book is done well, I fall into the story so much that I don’t end up noticing things like style, word-choice, strong characters, etc. But I sure as hell notice them when they’re not there!
One thing that I think authors very often forget when they’re dealing with reviewers is that the reviewers aren’t doing what they do for the author’s sake. They’re doing it for the sake of other readers, and because they enjoy writing about reading. If we do what we do solely for the sake of the author’s ego, then every review would consist of little but, “OMG, buy this book, guys!” If we did reviews solely for the author but decided not to stroke their egos, then we’d be far closer to editors than reviewers. No, I maintain that reviewers represent the reader, and so as readers ourselves, we have every right not to like a book and to say so.
From the standpoint of a writer, I can see how bad reviews can get you down. In essence, it’s someone ripping apart something you worked hard on, spent a good portion of your life preparing, and to find out that people don’t like what you may well have slaved over can be a real kick in the pants and can lower self-esteem. But them’s the breaks. What we say as reviewers, other readers may well be thinking too. What we say has merit. It’s a reflection of public opinion, and if the author’s wise, they can use the costructive criticism found in reviews to improve and not make the same mistakes next time.
I’ve seen authors try to insist that people not post reviews and ratings to Amazon if they’re less than 4 stars, on the grounds that it hurts the author’s sales and serves no other purpose. I think that’s arrogant, and worse, ignorant. You don’t want to know why people might not like your book? You honestly don’t think the naysayers may have any point? You think the only purpose in saying your books was only average is to directly hurt you? Sorry to disappoint, Author, but the reason I’m saying your characters have no depth and your plot has holes isn’t because I’m out to get you. I’m not that petty.
I understand Bibliotropic’s point of view. I certainly find the bad ones easier to write because I have more to say on the subject.
However, (in response to Bibliotropic) I also take notes on books that I intend to review, so that even if I fall into the story because it’s so good I know why it’s so good based on the stuff I highlighted (in my e-copy, not on the real book).
However, (in response to Casey) even if I hate the book I try to find at least one thing about it that I can say that I liked. Even if it’s something really small, a single line I can quote or a particular scene, for example. I also try to find something negative about even my favorite books because I know not everyone will like them, so I try to think about Why someone wouldn’t like that particular book.
I agree with everything you say.
And I understand what you mean about loving most of the books you read, I do the same, especially when its a good one. Even worse, after the last page I have an feeeling of utter satisfaction that I’ve finished it and left the characters more grown and, ideally, happier. This is tinged with regret at reading the book so fast and not drawing it out as long as possible and there’s even a minute when I think, ‘I will never read a book that good again’ lol. (Ilona Andrews springs first to mind at this!) ;-)
Also, ditto with the amazon reviews. Sometimes I see a review (here or Amazon) and it might persuade me to buy the book because everything they hate I may like, and vice versa. I may not read a book that someone else likes because I don’t feel it. So good reviews aren’t always good things either.
Keep on having your opinions because LE has directed me towards some absoloutely BRILLIANT books and will continue to do so. :-D
Thanks for this post. It helps to confirm my belief that:
a) I should carry on not reading reviews
b) I should not take time to write them
If a review is good, or bad, or balanced and yet I don’t know the reviewer and have no idea about their likes and dislikes, or what they expect from a book, that review is useless to me.
Reviews are peoples’ opinions, and are not facts about the book. What is much more useful to me is to dip into a new book and start reading. That gives me an idea of whether I like the writing style and tells me a lot about the story and author. Five minutes will do, ten if I have time to spare. If my eyes are closing by the end of that time, or if I’m much more interested in the dust on the books shelves, it’s time to put the book down and try another. Amazon makes it easy with their ‘read inside’ – and I don’t even have to leave the comfort of my own home. Yay for technology.
I see a lot of films. I used to read film reviews. I still went to see the films and enjoyed some which got slated. I disliked some films which got rave reviews.
So I am bemused by the need people feel to write reviews and to read them. Is it just hot air? If it is, should it be banned as it could well be contributing to global warming?
On the other hand, blurb is useful. It tells me a bit about the story although recently someone I know had her first book accepted for publication and the publishing house put stuff in the blurb which was incorrect. Perhaps I’d better save time and stop reading blurb too! :D