My interest in writing book reviews spanned from reading other bloggers and people on Goodreads reviewing the books they’d read. I was hooked by their passion for the books they’d read and how much they really wanted to share the love for the brilliant book they’d just finished. Book blogs became my go-to place for finding book recommendations and discovering new authors (because believe it or not, I barely read a thing until about three years ago). I tested the water a bit by writing some reviews on Goodreads. I was a member of a couple of read-to-review groups which sent me ebooks that I would leave a short, honest review for. I enjoyed it and so Reviewed the Book was born.
Over the last couple of years, my love of books has grown massively. I didn’t just take an interest in books, they practically took over my life. I was always thinking about the book I was reading, the book I wanted to read next or the book that might be in the post on its way to me. Addicted to books? I think there’s many worse things. After reviewing for a little while, I quickly discovered that I wasn’t going to like every single book. There would be books with characters I couldn’t click with, books with writing I couldn’t get to grips with and books that honestly bored me rigid. Which leads me on to writing an honest, negative review…
Just as it is okay to not like a book, it's also okay to write a negative review. It’s seriously fine.
Some book bloggers only choose to write and share positive reviews on their blogs. Some people never finish a book they’re not enjoying and so writing a negative review is never an issue. (I also don’t believe a review is more honest simply because it’s negative. 5*s can be just as honest). It’s the reader’s prerogative to choose what they do once they’ve read a book and similar to a lot of bloggers, I also love that feeling in a morning when I’ve tweeted my positive review of a book and the author sends back a happy, grateful tweet. Making someone’s day simply with a few words you’ve written about their book? It’s a great feeling.
But getting on to the actual point of my post: why does sparing an author’s feelings overrule an honest review?
Think of it this way. An author has sent you a considered review request. It ticks all the boxes. The book sounds like one you’d love. You can’t face seeing it sat unread in your TBR pile any longer so you start to read it. And then you reach the end feeling under-awed and disappointed. The characters were annoying and unrealistic. The story dragged on for too long. The ending was disjointed. This book just didn’t work out for you and so you’re now faced with writing the review.
Everytime I finish a book I really didn’t enjoy, the same three thoughts enter my mind.
1) The author’s really going to hate me when they read this review.
2) The publisher will wish they’d never let me get my hands on this novel.
3) I wonder if anybody else felt the same way as me…
And so I head to Amazon, Goodreads or Twitter. I look for reviews of the same book. Gah. All I see are 4* and 5* reviews. I feel like the cruellest person in the world. But I write and post my negative review and you know, I don’t write them that often. Mostly, I do like the books I choose to read. But I think every single time I’ve published a negative review, I’ve had the same response. People message me, through DMs, through a comment on my review, through Goodreads. They tell me they agree with my review. They didn’t like the book either. Yay! I’m not alone, I feel. I search for their reviews waiting for them to echo my thoughts exactly. Only, they don’t.
Now, the beauty of blogs unlike Amazon and Goodreads is that you don’t have to have a star rating. It’s a nice thought, because I hate star ratings so much. Book bloggers also have that wonderful experience of becoming friends with these talented authors who actually, want to talk to us and all that stuff you didn’t think possible. In fact, this author you’ve befriended could be the very person who has sent you this book that you’ve just told me you didn’t like. Yet when I read your review, you compliment everything. The writing was strong. The characters were likeable. You can’t wait to read more from the author.
My question is, why is it okay to mislead a reader into thinking you liked a book, just to spare the author’s feelings?
Things to remember about reviews are:
1) Reviews (positive or negative) help the reader decide whether they’d like to buy the book. The author, of course, does not need to buy the book. They wrote it.
2) Reviews should be constructive. You're not being mean, you're not just saying you hated it. You're explaining why this aspect didn't work for you. You're being fair.
3) It’s far more important that the reader can read through honest opinions of a book before buying rather than the author being lied to and told you love their book. Think of it this way, you’ve told the reader how great this book you actually didn’t like is. You’ve built their expectations high. They read the book but don’t like it but it’s so annoying because this reader convinced them they’d love it and now, they’re really not going to be too eager to pick up anything from this author in the foreseeable.
4) Authors don’t need all their readers to love all their books. It’s very likely they’re going to carry on writing either way.
5) Everybody takes books differently. It’s expected (and fine) that you might not like the same book other people are raving about.
6) Reviews aren’t everything(...?)
I know, reviews aren’t everything is the most contradictory thing I’ve said in this blog post. Believe me when I say that I believe that reviews are important, vital and make for interesting reading at the very least. But would I rather be a happy, always positive reviewer or an honest person? That question entered my mind the very first time I was faced with writing a negative review. It’s never entered my mind since. Honesty wins every time.
Since starting to write this blog post, I’ve chatted to a few reviewers who I noticed are kind of guilty at this type of reviewing. The must-spare-authors-feelings-at-any-cost kind of reviewing. The nice reviewers. I was really interested (and a bit nosey) to discuss this with them and of course, tried not to hurt their feelings when bringing it up. None of them blocked me on Twitter or un-friended me on Facebook so clearly all is good… ;-)
They said:
1) They didn’t want to offend the author who sent them the review request but if it was the publisher who’d sent them the copy, and they’d had no contact with the author, their review would have looked a bit different.
2) The book wasn’t what they expected but that was probably their fault and so they reviewed it from the perspective of readers who knew what they were getting.
3) They didn’t want the publisher to stop sending them books.
4) It was for a blog tour and they read the book too late to tell the publisher they didn’t enjoy it so they had to leave a positive review.
I find it a bit worrying the number of people I see who are simply afraid to be negative in their reviews. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen a reviewer discussing a book in a Facebook group, how they didn’t like it and then I read their review and get the complete opposite impression. You should never be scared to be honest. Authors need to be thick-skinned if they’re going to read reviews. It’s bad enough receiving their editor’s notes back on their first draft. They’re used to these scary negative comments. But sometimes these scary negative comments can actually be helpful. Who knows, if you point out that flaw you’ve noticed in their book that nobody else has picked up on or mentioned, the author might even understand where you’re coming from and agree with your opinion. They may not actually want to slaughter you because you didn’t give them a five star review. They might just appreciate your time and your opinion. And if they don’t, if they’re expecting positive reviews, if they’re demanding and insistent and rude about their negative reviews (who doesn’t cringe at the author who quotes and picks at every single negative comment they receive?), well then, maybe sparing their feelings should be much lower down on your list of priorities…
Regardless of whether anybody else likes it, a review should be your honest opinion. Having the ability to twist a few words to make them nicer, or having a bit of integrity? I know which I prefer…
What are your opinions on writing negative reviews? Do you write them? How do you let the author know? I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts :)
I think honesty is vitally important in a review, and an experienced author will know that not everything they write will be to everyone's taste. If we all liked the same books, there wouldn't be any need for so many to be published! Reading is very subjective, and a poor review wouldn't put me off reading a book. But I'd be interested to compare my opinion with that of the reviewer. It's the differences between us and our tastes that make life interesting! By all means couch your negative opinions among good ones - it's very rare that there is nothing at all good to say about a book - but don't spare us the bad!
ReplyDeleteHowever in the odd cases where a book is technically badly written - full of spelling or grammar mistakes, or (my personal bugbear) a character's appearance changing dramatically - one minute she is flashing her brown eyes and the next minute the hero is gazing into her blue ones - it is even more important to give a negative review, because the author needs to be prompted to take more care over proof reading in future.
I agree entirely! Proofing mistakes (from a finished copy) should be pointed out. They're probably the most helpful comments to make. I know that most of the books I read are ARCs so I don't notice as much but when I do read a finished copy, I'm surprised at how quite a few of them do have little mistakes like that.
DeleteWe all read a book differently. And I've definitely bought books based off a negative review, because I want to see what they're like for myself. Some I've actually enjoyed. It would be weird if we did all like everything the same.
I am guilty of this. I have told bloggers that I don't want to review a book. I think it stems from a negative review I wrote for someone and they said they prefer aore positive aspect. I worried then as a guest blogger that perhaps I had it wrong.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of people don't write negative reviews which I think is perfectly fine but I would just always try to stick to that rather than attempting to write a positive review about a book you didn't really enjoy. I guess if the person you were reviewing for only posts positive reviews then it would be a different story? But I'd never let anyone put you off from being honest in your reviews. It's difficult but you can't love everything. And I'd value your honest opinions :)
DeleteIf I don't want to review a book because It is not a five star for positive reviewers I will ask if it is ok to review for others. I try not to star my reviews and always try to write a negative with a positive but that may be the teacher in me. I enjoy reviewing 5 star books for positive book reviewers and often some others are also 5 star. I think you can tell when I like the book by my review as I rave about it. I will start trying to review books I don't enjoy but as a guest reviewer I never really feel the need.
DeleteI can definitely tell when you enjoyed a book, especially in the great reviews you've written on my blog. Only review what you feel comfortable doing but if you want to write more negative reviews, I find them just as interesting to read. (And they can always have a home here!) I agree though, if I didn't have to for Amazon, I'd never use a star rating...
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