The Worst is Yet to Come

No… not the final act of 2020 lumbering towards us like the monster towards the the remaining survivors of the horror film but some thoughts on the uses of the bad review. This has been a hot topic on BookTwitter but has also given me food for thought on the uses of the review and when I decide to write a less than positive one

Reviews are not for authors they’re to help you (and also me) to understand my reaction to a book and help you Dear Reader to see if it’s up your street or not. I got into blogging to talk about books and to promote the books I enjoy. Even after four years the hardest reviews for me are the books I love because it is really hard to give you a few paragraphs when I really just want to gush heart gifs at you and push it in to your arms and say trust me. The perfect book is often personal and there are myriad reasons why it will work for me and telling you them all would be just weird but I hope when you read one you can tell this book GOT me.

A book with a good mix of pros and cons is for me often easier because I can try to explain those points and people can judge based on what they’re hearing if this sounds tempting. A great debut but one where the new author is still finding their voice; sometimes the pacing is lopsided or sometimes the content especially given my love of horror where there may be some content you may find disconcerting however well it is handled. A balanced review is important so that you don’t feel over-hyped because whenever someone says its the best thing ever in mere seconds someone will say no it is not. Managing expectations can be very useful and for me now helps me think is this book doing anything new or has a different take or is it just treading a well worn path but still worthy of attention or were better books out there doing this?

The concept of a bad review is therefore also important to readers. If you know a reviewer’s tastes match your own then knowing I disliked a book may be a good sign that it is not one I you’d enjoy either. I think a review that highlights that a book is poorly written or more often just plain offensive is a valuable resource on where you spend your money and time and a reminder that publishing still has a lot to learn. But here is the thing I don’t often enjoy writing them - I’ve already suffered the pain of reading the book why re-visit it. Many bloggers don’t review these because it’s a chore to say this book isn’t very good - we feel bad about it. I think my policy has evolved. For traditionally published works I think it’s something I should do as it’s an important part of the disclaimer about ARCs - that I exchanged this for a fair and honest review and its also important that I can show my independence from publishers - who all credit to them are usually very understanding that not every book works for everyone.

That last point is very important there are readers who will hate my most precious book; there are readers who will love my least favourite book - I know one reviewer that if I know they dislike a book is usually a sign I will need it in my life. Reviews are ultimately the reviewer telling you what they thought and so that view may vary. We are not ultimate arbiters of taste but sometimes enough adverse reactions may warn people that this book is at best disappointing but ultimately you may find something we can’t see.

For self-published going forward next year I won’t be writing any. I think I’m allowed to politely say this book and I aren’t a good fit and let that author continue to try to find a home for their story and I get some precious reading time back. There are many many many self published authors all trying to get a toe in the door and me going ignore this one feels wrong. I’d much rather find one you’ll like and push that instead.

Making reviews personal I think is important. Over time the more your write your reviews find a certain voice and personality enter the blogs. There are aspect of The Reviewer Known As The Womble that are a performance especially on twitter when I gleefully make people suffer as their TBRs grow. I like letting my booktempting side out. But I also like to explain why I may have a personal reaction to a book. I think you dear reader slowly get to know me and you should be able to tell if I loved, meh’d or hated a book. I don’t use stars on the blog I think they are an imprecise way of explaining how we react to a book (Good reads don’t count because that is my inner scoring system) but saying a romantic novella and a horror anthology has the same score doesn’t really reflect that I rate them on many many different things. Overall then the review positive or negative is really important for the process and I admit help me work out my own ever changing tastes too.

I have to admit though that the idea of worst of lists (which are by no means new to vlogs, blogs and probably PDF newsletters still being printed in darkened rooms) isn’t something I can see me doing. I love a best of list and end of this month I will be shortly shouting about the books I loved but the opposite…nah. The books I disliked the most are either hugely offensive or very poor and what’s the point of reminding you about them months after the event? I don’t mind a good takedown of a book as much as anyone and will happily listen to Mark Kermode deliver a skilfully worded rant but my worst reviews are not in that ballpark others though are deliciously well written and should be promoted as often. Mine though will either be sad or annoyed. I would much rather promote at the end the other books on the shelves that I think deserve again praise, attention and hopefully one more reader (or ten I am greedy). The worst book I’ve reviewed on this blog is well written; some people think it’s charming and lovely while I think it’s harmful dangerous mysognistic tosh and that’s on top of the racist supernatural detective novel I can recall reading. Who is right - perhaps we both are?

So in summary bad reviews are just as needed as good ones. Reviewing is personal and I want to you to always get the books I love - ignore the bad ones come closer wait until you hear about the next one I want to talk about…