Negative Reviews

This topic has been discussed endlessly, and I do know that. However, I felt compelled by recent circumstance, which were not huge deals or particularly scandalous and which I will not relate, to write this post. Since it's my blog, I will. If no one reads it, that's fine, but I think saying these things will make me feel better, so I'm going to do it.

Up until now, my blog and my GR followings have been small enough that no one really cared what I said. I have not ever really been trolled (except for this one ridiculous time on Amazon), and authors and other reviewers have always been nice. Lately, my blog and my GR account have been enjoying a bit more attention, and I do love this, but that does mean that I'm under more scrutiny, because my opinion "matters more."

Where I used to write my reviews, publish them, and then continue going about my day without any worries, I now find myself nervous any time I have to post a review below 3.5 or so stars. For really low reviews, I've even found myself stalking author Twitter accounts to find out whether they're out there hating me. Yes, I know this is unhealthy, but I'd rather know about such things than be unaware.

Thus I really want to state for the record in a public forum some facts about myself as a reviewer.

1: I AM CRITICAL 
Yes, I am a very critical reviewer, though I do know harsher critics than myself. My opinions for most books tend to be lower than the average, and, even in an otherwise glowing review, I might put out a rather large flaw. Some of my three star reviews do turn out to be rather ranty, even though I would have no problem recommending that book to someone I felt would enjoy it.

Basically, I'm trying to help people. I find that I have a much better relationship with books when I go into them with lowered expectations. For example, I suspect I would have enjoyed Veronica Roth's Divergent much more had it not been pitched to me by friend after friend as the best young adult dystopia, which, enjoyable though it certainly is for some readers, it's not by a long shot. If you go into a book expecting perfection, odds are that you will end up utterly disappointed, even if the book was very well done, as was the case for me with Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars. If I could, I would go into every book a blank slate of expectations, with no idea of what the novel would be about or who the author was.

Conversely, when I embark upon a read for which I have very low expectations, I often find myself enjoying it much more than other readers, as was the case with Katherine Applegate & Michael Grant's Eve & Adam, which many of my friends hated because they expected to love the book as much as some other series by one or the other authors. From my point of view, low expectations leave room for me to be pleasantly surprised, whereas my high expectations are pretty much impossible to meet, which is why I try to avoid blurbs as much as possible and to keep my hopes low.

By presenting my findings regarding a novel's strengths and weaknesses, I hope to prepare those around me. In some cases, a book will only be enjoyable if you've prepared yourself mentally for what's to come. A prime example would be a book like Elsie Chapman's Dualed, which I personally really enjoyed and recommend to people, but which does not have stellar world building. I want people to know that ahead of time, so that they can prepare themselves for it, such that they will not spend the whole book ranting about that and miss all the good things inside.

2: I NEVER WANT TO DISLIKE A BOOK
There seems to be this cult of opinion on the internet right now, primarily by authors, that reviewers get off on ripping their books to shreds. While there are reviewers who love to do that, most of us really do not. Yes, I very occasionally indulge in a snarky review for fun, but, generally, I stick to the facts and endeavor to keep the tone casual but analytical.

If I could control the world, I would love every single book that I read. Each one would be a five star read and I would eat nothing but pizza and chocolate while never gaining a pound. I would also be possessed of bottomless money-filled pockets, so that I never had to do anything but read, watch kdrama, and tell my cat how adorable he is. Oh, and also make out with my really hot, nerdy boyfriend who was perfectly happy to be neglected in favor of books much of the time. Unfortunately, I do not live in this magical paradise, so I just cannot love all books.

Sometimes negative reviews are, admittedly, fun to write, but that does not mean that I EVER pick up a book hoping I will hate its contents. Of course, sometimes I expect that result, but I never HOPE for it, an important distinction.

3: I NEVER WANT TO DISCOURAGE READING
The main goal of book blogging is linking people up with books to enjoy. Most book blog readers will gravitate towards bloggers who have relatively similar opinions to their own. Thus, a bad review I write for a book might, yes, dissuade some from reading your book, but they would likely have loathed it just as much. Even on my most negative reviews, some readers will comment about how they still want to read the book, and I love this. I actually just shipped one of my negative review books off to someone else, and I hope she has a better experience.

Never do I intend with a negative review to say that no one should ever read that book, but I might say that certain types of readers (namely those like me) might be better off reading something else. I trust my readers to gauge whether they might enjoy a book, taking my review into account but not going solely off of that.

4: HONESTY IS CRUCIAL
Do I feel bad when I have to list all of the things I hated about an author's book? YES. Do I feel especially guilty when it's for a debut author's book? Sure do. Would I ever intentionally up my rating or tamp down my criticism to spare their feelings? No.

As an individual, I have always hated being lied to. On a basic level, I think we all think we feel this way, but, when the chips are down, some of us would prefer to live in ignorance. There's nothing wrong with that, but I was lied to and maligned behind my back a lot when I was younger, and it always hurts doubly hard when the truth comes out. As such, honesty has been my policy.

This does not mean that I will go out of my way to make someone feel bad, though. If I think an author might see my review, I try to avoid snarkiness, but my points will all be essentially the same. Reviewing debut author X's novel, I might calmly list all the things that did not sit right with me; Reviewing a similar novel by James Patterson, I might break out the GIFs and funny about the problems I had. James Patterson does not care what I think about his books, because he has all that money to keep him company. However, in both, I will be stating the same opinions and evaluations. All that really changes is how I say what I'm saying.

If I intentionally refrained from mentioning the issues on my mind as I read the book or upped my rating to make the author feel better, then my reviews would not be untrustworthy. Also, I think that would be a rude thing to do to an author, assuming that they're not mature enough to handle an honest evaluation of their work.

5: I LIKE MORE BOOKS THAN I DON'T
When I first started blogging, I never put ratings on my reviews. I figured people could read the review and make their own evaluation of my opinion. Later, I added them in for two reasons: 1) I do not usually read reviews for books I plan to read, but do like to check out ratings. 2) Sometimes my reviews come off rather negative when I really I liked the book, so now my 3 star rating can say "but I liked it guys!"

True, my ratings might trend lower than those of some other bloggers, but regular readers are smart enough to figure out that something I rate a four might be higher for them. As long as my scale is consistent within itself, people can gauge for themselves how those ratings might correlate to their own opinions. Everyone's rating scales differ a little bit, which is why my ratings on GR, Amazon and my blog all differ; they all convey the same opinion, but the sites all have different meanings attached to the ratings.

On my blog, three stars means "I liked it." This is quite broad and comes in a lot of different flavors, but should be understood to mean that on a basic level. My 2.5 lever rating generally indicates "meh" or a really uneven novel, where perhaps parts were amazing and others really bad. From my point of view, I do not think of any rating 2.5 or above as negative, though I know lots of others do.

By my own rating scale, even if you think of 2.5 as negative, I like much more than I don't. For your edification, here's the breakdown of my reviews over this past year by star rating:

.5: - 3
1: 5
1.5: 7
2: 20
2.5: 47
3: 65
3.5: 71
4: 82
4.5: 44
5: 15

While I would definitely change some of my ratings now (this happens since I write my reviews immediately upon finishing the book; hindsight alters some opinions), but is probably about right so far as numbers go, though the books would do some swapping of ratings.

Now you might be wondering why, if I'm so honest, I have so many HIGH ratings. Well, I like to think I'm getting much better than I used to be at picking books that I will enjoy, especially for older titles, since I can avoid books that might make me rage-y, because of the immensely helpful negative reviews of my friends. To that point, you should also know that I will not write off a book because of one person's negative opinion, because no one has precisely the same taste as I do. However, if the book gets negative reviews from three or four people on my friends list on GR, I am much more likely to move on, because the odds of me enjoying the book are greatly reduced, though I still will read through the reviews first to see if their issues would annoy me as well.

For those who are curious, my Goodreads average is a 3.13, obviously much lower, since their scale skews downwards. A lot of people put the same ratings on GR that they have on their blogs (roughly), but I like to rate according to the scale of the site I am using. Since GR defines 2 stars as "okay," everything 2 stars and below generally becomes 1 star, and 2.5 becomes 2 star. Sometimes 3 stars convert to 2 on GR as well.

IN CONCLUSION
To sum up, I am not a monster bitch out to destroy your writing career. I'm just a person with opinions who puts the ones about books on the internet, nor do I have any hatred towards any of the authors whose books I've read, even those who wrote the .5s. My intention is not to hurt anyone's feelings and, if my review did that, I'm sorry, though I do not take the opinions back. Please go have some booze or ice cream or booze-y shake, and know that I wish you success in all of your future writing endeavors.