It seems every day there is a new story about authors becoming upset with getting a bad review and they don’t think its warranted. I read a news item where an author claimed it was a personal attack against him. The reviewer replied that she had never met the author, had read several of his books and this one was the only one she didn’t like. She explained why she didn’t like it (and quite frankly I had read the book and thought her comments were spot on) and it was all in the review. Just because you get one bad review doesn’t mean your whole volume of work is being attacked, it just means one person did not care for one story. Easy Peasy.
Now, I’ve been lucky in that most books that I have read for review, I have really enjoyed. One of my recent favorites, from a debut author is
The Trouble With Half a Moon by Danette Vigilante
I loved this book. I choose to review it because it was in one of my favorite genre, Young Adult, and was by a debut author. I love reading work by a new author. And I did love this book. I’m a big fan of YA fiction so I review quite a lot of it. Now if I wasn’t a fan of YA, I wouldn’t agree to read and review a YA novel. I believe that is where some of the bad reviews by people come from. They pick out a book that they wouldn’t normally read, and they don’t like it. I still haven’t figured out why you would pick a book in a genre you don’t care for to review, but lots of people do it.
Of course, that is certainly not the only reason a bad review is written. I have been a big fan of Tom Clancy‘s work for years. I usually love his novels. They are well researched, the story picks up pace as it moves to the big bang ending, the characters are always a colorful lot, with a good amount of bad guys in them. When I picked up
Against All Enemies (Max Moore #1) by Tom Clancy, Peter Telep
I thought I would love it. And boy was I wrong! I was so disappointed with this book. I wrote my review and it was bad, but the next time Tom Clancy has a new novel out, I’ll be one of the first in line to get it. I didn’t like one of his books, but I’ve loved all the rest of them like Clear and Present Danger, Executive Orders, The Sum of All Fears and more. Now if there is an author whose work I don’t care for, I would never offer to review it. I don’t care for Suzanne Collins work, I haven’t read any of the Hunger Games trilogy and can’t picture reading any of them in the foreseeable future. I have read 4 or 5 of her novels before, and have not cared for any of them. Now that doesn’t mean that I think she’s a bad author, far from it, I just don’t care for her work. And because of that I would never offer to review one of her books.
The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins
And one last thing, I don’t think bad reviews are bad. They help people as much as good reviews do. If you are looking for a book to read, I always check out a range of reviews, from 5 stars down to 1, just to see what the reviewer has to say. And I’ve got to admit, I have picked out books to read because of a bad review, I wanted to see if it was as bad as people said (some were).
Bad reviews aren’t, or shouldn’t be, a bad reflection on the author. Everyone is different and we all have different likes and dislikes. I think its best to always keep an open mind.
Susan
susanreviews 
Reblogged this on fuonlyknew and commented:
I always look for a rage of star ratings when buying a book.
Loved your post. Reblogged this and liked it and tweeted it. Very well said, congrats!!!
Thank you so much.
I think that if you are an author and you are going to put your work out there then you need to get ready for what people are going to say about your work. Not every person who reads a book is going to love it. That happens even with the best books and authors. I have done some reviews that are not good. But I do explain why I didn’t like a book. I never say “this book is horrible.” I talk about the things I don’t like about the book and if there are some decent parts to it then I’ll talk about the not so bad parts of the book. There was also a time when I read something from an author I love and I thought the book was horrible. For example, I’m a big Richelle Mead fan. I’ve read every single one of her books. At the end of last year I was waiting on December for the last book of the Dark Swan series to come out. It was one of my favorite series and I pre-order the book. I read the thing in a day and I hated the ending of that book. I didn’t have my blog at the time, but I did a review on Goodreads. Yes, I did say a lot of bad things about this book. I still love Richelle Mead and I couldn’t wait for the next book of the Bloodlines series to come out.
I so agree with all you said. I think its so important to be honest when you review a book, whether it be good or bad, and to give the reasons why.
It’s not a pleasant experience receiving a bad review (we’re all human, after all) but they are certainly more useful than a whole bunch of 5* reviews. Of course it’s nice to know when someone has enjoyed what you have written, but the danger is that you only hear from people who either really liked your work, or are saying nice things because they feel they should.
What I find particularly irritating is authors who tell their critics that their book is like a baby, and unless you have written a book you can’t possibly know what it is like and how much work is involved. Well, nobody asked you to write it, presumably you wrote because you enjoyed doing it. You have a right to write, but you don’t have any right to demand that people should be in awe of your achievement.
I agree no one likes to hear anything bad about their work, and that’s true of any job you do. You just have to try and look at what’s being said objectively. I dislike giving bad reviews but if that ‘s what I feel that’s what I write. For me its about that piece of work that I’m criticizing not everything a person has written and not the person themselves. I truly appreciate authors putting their work forward for all to see and yes sometimes criticize. I love reading other people’s stories and whether I like it or not I appreciate it.
I’ve heard some reviewers say if they didn’t like a book, they just wouldn’t write a review to avoid any backlash he/she might receive for a negative review. I just don’t understand that. If you are being honest, how can that be a bad thing? Reviews are nothing more than opinion. Not everyone is going to like the same book. Negative reviews are just as important as positive reviews for potential readers.
I think that as long as the review is an honest reflection of what you think about the book its a good thing to write a review.