Sometimes I get an ARC and I just don’t like the book. I know that I’m not going to like every book, and luckily, most of the books I read are pretty decent. But occasionally I have to leave a negative review.
Writing a negative review is more difficult than writing a positive one. I really try to stay polite (although once I read most of a book that fetishized the S.A. of a child. I noped that one all the way home, wrote a scathing review, and reported that sucker to Amazon. Girlfriend don’t deal with that shit.) and I try to say something positive about every book if I can. Sometimes it’s hard to find something positive.
One book had very little to recommend it and I wrote that the best thing about it was that it was a safe, nonaddictive sleep aid that worked better than Ambien. I’m not proud. Since then, I try to keep it brief.
I appreciate that authors work hard on each book (except for those frauds who use AI. I have no respect for that and it devalues the hard work of everyone else.) But sometimes, that work is sloppy, or the editing is lazy, or it’s just not good quality. As a reader, I would want to know that so I can avoid the book. As a reviewer, I feel a certain amount of responsibility to share my thoughts.
I’m not saying that reviewing books is a vital job, but it is a skill and I know that I’m good at it. And I don’t want leaving a negative review to be too easy because for an author, it’s a serious thing. Although some authors ignore negative reviews, and some attack the reviewer (I’m looking at you, Laurell K.). I hope that I straddle that line between blunt and polite well and that I don’t insult too many authors.
I'm not going to feature books on this blog that I give less than a four star review unless I’m warning folks about something offensive. I don’t want to dwell on the negative because I want anyone who reads this blog to have a positive experience.
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