Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Reflections on Reviews

Reading is such a subjective experience. I may absolutely love a book while my best friend is bored stupid with it.
Example 1: Mockingjay (the last of The Hunger Games series). Ugh. I loathed it! And many people did too. But just as many people loved it.
Example 2: Audiobook for my award-winning book Torn Canvas. The guy who did this was my dream narrator. When he reads the story, it sounds just like it did in my head as I wrote it.
  • One reviewer panned his performance because it was "melodramatic."
  • Another reviewer dissed it because they said he was "monotone."
Melodramatic.
Monotone.
The same book but an opposite reader experience. Neither is invalid. Readers experience what they experience.
But, because I understand this, if I cannot give a book at least three stars, I won't review it.
I recognize that I may have had a "melodramatic" or "monotone" experience with a particular book, but that doesn't mean the next person who reads or listens to it won't have a 5-star experience. But if I trash it, they may pass it up and miss out.
This happens to be my personal philosophy. I read 165 books last year (mostly listened to), and I've already done 25 this year. I haven't rated all of them.
Author Beth Revis wrote a humorous blog post that puts it in perspective and helps wounded authors recover from hurtful reviews. And there are always bad reviews no matter who the author is as, as Beth cites in her post.

8 comments:

  1. What appeals to one doesn't appeal to another. But I'm with you - I won't review it unless I can give it three stars. Besides, anything less and I didn't finish the book and shouldn't review it anyway.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah. There are plenty of people more than happy to trash artistic work. I won't be one of them.

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  2. I do the same as you, if I can't say something nice about it, I just won't say anything at all. And you're also right about the personal bias. I have read plenty of books that are national best sellers and I'll not "get it". For example, The YaYa Sisterhood- it was recommended to me by some very savvy readers. I read it and hated it. That was back in the days before I was a writer. After I started writing, I could see the book's positives. The characters are unique and the story is superbly written, but as a reader only- I called it a glorified story of child abuse and as an active social worker, at the time, I was disgusted with the book. The heroine is not a good mom. As a reader, it hit a personal nerve and I hated the book.

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  3. wounded authors LOL :) Not that it isn't true, it's just funny

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    Replies
    1. Some people say all kinds of terrible things behind the anonymity of their computers.

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  4. The moment you try to please everyone, you already have failed. So pffft and keep on a going. I had one that said the book was too short, another said the same book was too long. All comes back to each person.

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  5. Lol, good point:) I hear people say well it's good taste even if I don't like it...blah, if it's no good to you then it's no good to you :)

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