This is the second in a series of occasional posts about the process of writing reviews. Last time, I talked about writing really positive reviews and what issues come up when reviewing books that turned me into a babbling fangirl. This, naturally, leads to a discussion of the opposite side of the coin; reviewing books that, for all intents and purposes, made my eyes bleed.
Writing negative reviews is kind of a pink elephant in the room for a lot of people. I think as reviewers we all know that there are going to be books out there that we read and do not enjoy, but we're kind of stuck as to how to communicate that to other people. I completely admit, if a book is really hand-to-God awful, chances are I don't finish it. Depending on where I am in the book when I decide that it sucks on toast, I sometimes do push myself to finish it for the purposes of writing a review. I don't review books I haven't finished as I don't feel like it's cool to comment on something if I haven't at least finished it.
With that said, if I really disliked a book, I don't pull any punches. I share what I feel about the book in question and I don't apologize for my position. Everyone is different and everyone has their own opinions; if you don't like mine, that is totally within your rights. I don't go out of my way to be mean in my reviews but every once in awhile, something gets far enough under my skin to really incite some rioting on my part.
There are people out there who won't review books if they feel they have to write a negative review. That is certainly their prerogative and they can run their blogs/review outlets any way they want to, but personally I feel like that is doing a disservice to your blog audience and to you personally. If you invested time and/or money into acquiring and reading a book (I know most of the books I review are still books I bought at some point,) you are qualified to post whatever kind of review you deem appropriate. Bear in mind, the time you spent reading a book that wasn't, shall we say, up to par, is time that you could not spend reading a book that you did enjoy. Opportunity cost is very real.
The point of my story is this: be honest in your reviews. Be brutally honest if need be, if the situation calls for that. You don't have to be rude to individuals or call a specific person out on the carpet to get your point across that a book is terrible. You also don't have to sugar coat things; at the end of the day, I believe people value authenticity, and if your feelings are authentic they will shine through in your writing.
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8 comments:
GREAT POST - I just read one, or am TRYING to finish reading one...I dont like it AT ALL - ugh it's tough...
I hate writing negative reviews, hate it! I cringe when I hit publish that being said it is important for readers to know why you didn't care for the book.
Great post!!!
So agree but then we have to give honest reviews-- and I swear I have been bad-negatives it seems this past month on books. I also didn't want to give away to my readers because I didn't like it at all.
As long as the review is honest and not just done to be a jerk or because the reviewer wants to be different, then a review is a review. People who read the reviews should get the truth whether it is positive or negative.
usually, i hate to write negative reviews.i just pin out the good and bad f each book.if it is that good, then everything is positive.but i cant help if i think there's only crap in a book.be honest with myself.and what to do, i'm just a public reader.no one pays for my reviews.and if they dont like my review, then stop reading.as simple as that.
btw, great post. =)
I agree with this 100%! To be quite honest, I find it easy to write negative reviews because I can point out what I liked and didn't like with ease, much more so than a book I was lukewarm towards.
This is so true! As long as you don't critisize the author to an extreme extent, or make fun of the people who did enjoy the book, there's absolutely nothing wrong with posting a negative review. That's what book blogs are for - to post your feelings about a certain book, whether they're good or bad.
Emidy
from Une Parole
Thanks for the comments everyone!
@Book Crazy Jen- Ugh, sometimes getting through a bad book is worse than writing the bad review. At least writing is cathartic!
@Smokinhotbooks- For me, it depends on why I didn't like the book. If it just wasn't my thing sometimes it's hard, but if a book reeeeeallly rubbed me the wrong way (cough cough The Hose cough cough) then I can usually persevere.
@Julie- Yeah, I usually donate books I hated to the library. It seems kind of odd to be like "I hated this book come on over and win it!"
@Yesenia- True true. When I read other people's reviews I can usually tell if that person is holding back and I always want to comment "okay, now let it out, how bad was this thing?"
@dArLyN- Exactly! This is definitely a fun project for me so the little red x in the corner is always an option for folks that can't stand my sass.
@April- I always feel so much better after I write a really awful review. There have only been a few but I remember afterwards wanting to take a nap.
@Emidy- I definitely agree that there's a difference between panning a book and lashing out at an author or a fan group. I definitely believe that people can read whatever they want and should read whatever they want. The fact that we as a community don't always agree on what's good and what's bad is part of what makes the experience fun. I always seem to hate stuff that other people have raved about though.
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