Tuesday, March 6, 2012

How much should we believe in Book Reviews?

Two days back, while googling myself (No, I am not a self absorbed writer. I have been told by my mentor that writers should often run their names through the search engines to see what the internet coughs up in their names) I came across a book review of an anthology of  sports short stories brought out by Penguin India last year, in which I had contributed a short story. The review was on GoodReads.

I was quite amused to see the lone review. The generous reviewer had given the anthology a rating of  2 stars and a single sentence review. "Almost every single story should have been sent back for a rewrite.” The single sentence review made me burst out into laughter. For a change I was neither offended, hurt or insulted. It was nothing personal. 

The reviewer was disdainful towards the entire collection and not just one single short story. The reviewer’s message “ I'd prefer not to engage in a discussion with an author of something I critique,” made me laugh some more. I feel she or he was scared of  a backleash from the 10 contributors. As many of us (Indians) are not on Goodreads, I am sure the book review and the 2 star rating may not have been seen by the 10 writers. I came across that review quite by accident.

I wonder why people say such silly things. What are they trying to prove? A good review would have mentioned each story by name and then passed a judgement on each story and not made a general derogatory comment. Or the reviewer could have named the stories that merited  a rewrite in her opinion, instead of running down the entire collection. I am sure that anyone who would have read that review would have shuddered at the prospect of buying a book that merited just a single line review.

We writers know well that our stories and books may not find a universal appeal and we are well prepared for it. We personally may not have liked all the stories we have read. So it’s no big deal if we have our fair share of detractors.

What do you feel about such reviews? Shouldn’t the reviewer have mentioned  the stories that deserved to be rewritten instead of writing off the entire collection? What would you have done in my place? I would love to know all your opinions.
                                   

19 comments:

  1. Honestly, book review by whom or what authority( I mean Time/ Newsweek/ India Today etc) is more important as personal bias is less likely.

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  2. I don't think you can control how people wish to make their views known (especially on the internet). what would be more helpful (and achievable) is to get as many resonses as possible so there's a balance. That's where publishers used to be very good at their job (marketing and distribution) but they seemed to have given up with advnet of all things digital.

    mood
    Moody Writing
    @mooderino
    The Funnily Enough

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  3. Wish I had a good answer for that one, but I don't. At this point in my life, I'd rather have a bad review than none at all. At least, I'd feel that at least one person read it, or tried.

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  4. That's funny! One or two line reviews don't hold much merit because they're often blanket statements that could be said about any book. (And they don't demonstrate the the reviewer has actually read the book either.)

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  5. That review sounded like someone who wanted to feel important by criticizing. There are people like that who find it easier to say something isn't good than to say why they don't like it or how it could be improved. I think a review is only meaningful when the reviewer actually discusses the book or story they are criticizing. You're right to shrug it off.

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  6. Ouch. I probably would have stayed away from goodreads for awhile.

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  7. It all depends where feedback comes from. If it's from an author I give it a lot of credit, but if it's form a "critic" who doesn't write, well then I'm more skeptical.

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  8. if we put ourselves out there then we are going to receive good and bad reviews and from people who are qualified to comment and those who are not...

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  9. Reading other people's reviews is always interesting. I don't put too much stock in it--after all, people are entitled to their own opinion and there's just no way we can control what they choose to say or not say. :) I do, however, dislike reviews that are personal and aim to attack the author, not the work. That's just crossing the line.

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  10. I do not like reviews like this, Rachna. It seems to me that these folks have a bad day and want to pass that all around through their reviews. I always skip over them.

    P.S. I'm going to be published. Yay! It's a short story in an anthology. But a publishing credit nonetheless. So thrilled.

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  11. Soon I'm going to have to learn to let reviews like this just roll of my back. I'm glad you have a such a good perspective, Rachna. That was just a spiteful review.

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  12. I write reviews quite regularly in the hope that it will help another reader make a decision about whether to read a book or not. Of course at the end of the day I could sum up what I want to say in one line; however, I don't think that would help readers at all. I think that once a writer has something out there, while it's interesting to know what people think, to a certain extent you have to let that piece of work go and live it's life and you can be the proud mother if you get good reviews and shrug off the bad.

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  13. Hi friends...reviews by critics who are well-known authors or reviews from well established publications hold more clout than random one line reviews where all that the reviewer wants to prove is that they are superior than everyone else, should be given the cold shoulder treatment it richly deserves. Spiteful reviews deserve to be ignored.

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  14. books are so personal and so same with the reviews. More often than not the reviews are written by non-writers. I don't take much stock in them. I'll read the sample chapters and judge for myself.

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  15. People will say what they want whether they should or not. Sometimes they say things which are not well thought out or helpful in any way. It's the nature of the beast.

    I find it best to ignore stuff like that. If someone doesn't like my book then it's their prerogative. For every one who doesn't there's bound to be another who does and that's what I try to focus on.

    Jai

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  16. I think if a reviewer is super negative, they are just kind of a negative person. If you want to note honest feedback, that's one thing, but bashing something with no constructive offering is uncool.

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  17. Oh my, I probably would have laughed as well. I agree, we need to be prepared since our work may not be everyone's cup of tea. I think, having reviewed numerous books, that a reviewer can highlight the positive, and be gentle and kind about the parts they did not care for or agree with. There are many ways to say negative things without being brutal, rude, and unkind. There's much value in writing reviews with good taste and class.

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  18. Glad it didn't upset you. Such lack of courtesy can knock a writer when they are feeling low.

    I think often reviews can reflect the person's mood and state of mind at the time and isn't always a reflection on what they are reviewing. I have written reviews for things on Amazon and some people have said they were unhelpful with no qualifying reason I believe it's because they disagreed with my points rather than it was unhelpful, but I'll never know.

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  19. I like your attitude Rachna. I am post reviews,but just don't say anything about the ones I dislike. I know how much work and passion goes into creating.

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