Thursday, August 23, 2018

The gentle art of reviewing

'Reviewing' is such a subjective business. After I wrote a glowing review of Linnea Sinclair's Hope's Folly I went back and read all the other reviews on the book's Amazon page. Most are 4 or 5 stars, but a few – aren't. One person thought the book was far too long. Another objected to all the time spent on 'feelings'. Somebody else thought the pace was slow, another thought the romance moved too fast. Some were disappointed that previous characters didn't appear. And, of course, none of those opinions are right or wrong. Obi-wan Kenobi's comment to Luke on Dagobah comes to mind. "So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view."

All of this had me mulling on my own reviewing style. I always rate books at 4 or 5. Now, some people will think that's – oh I'm not sure what. Something negative. Something suspicious. But it isn't. You see, I don't often finish a book. I think life's too short (especially at my age) to waste time on reading something that doesn't grab me. In that case, I don't write a review. It wasn't to my taste. Neither is liver, or tripe. So if I finish a book properly (as opposed to skim reading from where I lost interest to see if my judgement was correct - Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code for instance) that's an automatic 3 out of 5. If I was critiquing a story, I would list the points where I thought improvements might be made. If I know the author, I might do that anyway, via email. But I won't write a review. If I enjoyed the story with only a few reservations, the book will score a 4 and I will offer my opinion. If I loved it, the book scores 5.

Mind you, I've sometimes changed my perception. Jack McDevitt's SF novel, Slow Lightning, comes to mind. I tried to read it a few times and gave up quickly. But then – and don't ask me why – I persevered, and the novel has become a favourite. Here's my review. Another example is Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. I LOVE Pratchett. But this book didn't press my buttons the first time through (although I did finish it). When I read it again at another time, it was a better read than I remembered.

I guess I should add that by now I've acquired the necessary thick skin about my own writing. Somebody doesn't like my work, that's okay. No one can please everybody. Other people have a different philosophy about 'reviewing', and simply see it as a way of recording their reaction to however much they read. Loved it, great, okay, ordinary, diabolical. Which is perfectly valid. However, if I followed that approach, I'd be writing a pile of reviews that said 'failed to capture my interest, never got past chapter 3'. The sad thing is, I'd have to give it a score out of 5 - and that doesn't work for me.

Pity they don't have DNF (did not finish) as a category. I wonder how many of those negative review on Fifty Shades of Grey were really DNFs?

What do you do about reviewing? I'd really like to know.

4 comments:

  1. My philosophy is similar to yours, Greta. I don't review books I can't finish, and unfortunately quite a few fall into that category. To my way of thinking, if I didn't finish the story, I'm not qualified to leave a review. If I do finish the book, it's because I enjoyed the story enough that they definitely rate a 4 or 5 star review.

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  2. I absolutely agree with both you, Greta and Laurie. I don't review that much,as I'm trying to finish my current POV along with promo and all that entails for my books, including my newly-released-in audio-books! I won't offer to review a book I'm not sure I'll enjoy, and any book I review ends up being four or five stars for the same reasons as yourselves. If I don't finish it (which is rare, because, as I said above, I only start reading books I think I'll enjoy) then I don't think it fair to review it, even if I do think it's as dull as ditchwater - someone else may love it. I often wonder if this devalues my reviews because I give consistently good reviews, but if I don't like it, I just don't review it.

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  3. I'm with you. I don't give 3 star reviews because I don't read three star books. It has to grab me and hold my interest. Life is too short, and there are too many books waiting to be read.

    It's so subjective, anyway. I just DNFed a book that another SFR author, whose opinion I really respect, had loved. The book started off great, but then sagged, and it just kept going and going, and then I started to not care, and I just wanted it to be over. So I stopped reading. I'm not going to review it.

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  4. I review only to share the books I like with others. So 4 and 5 stars are the rule. I concentrate on why I liked it, so others that like the same type of things that I do will know if the book is for them. I am pretty picky about what I agree to review in order to avoid the DNF category. If I agreed to review a book I didn't like (DNF), I tell the author or publisher and see if they still want me to post a review. If I downloaded something from NetGalley that I did not like, I do post a short review there, but no where else. Posting a negative review would not give me any joy, so why do it?

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