Tag Archives: Goodreads









(Photo courtesy of hawkexpress.)

Getting Your Review On

book-reviewI’ve always wondered about how people review books. From The Guardian and The New York Times to Amazon and Goodreads (which is owned by Amazon but has separate reviews from it) reviews of novels are prevalent.

How do people go about rating a book or writing a review of it? I’ve seen reviews that are thorough and go through both the positives and negatives of novels, reviews that are no more than giant rants or superfluous praise, and reviews that are either so skeletal that they provide nothing constructive or have nothing to do with the novel.

When I review books, I find that I have two parts of myself: the writer half and the reader half. The writer half is a harsh critic. It nitpicks, deconstructing the novel and examining it on a more academic level. Is the writing good? Are there plot holes? Are the characters flat, stereotypical, believable, etc.? Is there sentence variety, correct punctuation and spelling, metaphors?

The writer half of me will rant about books that are poorly written and go off on tangents about how books like such and such should have never been published because they are everything agents and editors say they don’t want.

However, the reader half of me will look at those same books and love them. Because although they may be stereotypical, have poor world building, have characters you want to smack for either their (1) lack of intelligent decision making skills, (2) jerk behavior, or (3) some combination of (1) and (2), and are overall horribly written, I still get pulled into the story. I find myself laughing or rooting for the characters. I want to know what happens next.

pile-of-booksIf I didn’t have these two parts of myself, my reviews would be quite different. If only the writer half existed, I would have a lot more one and two star reviews (one being absolutely atrocious and five being one of the best books I’ve ever read). If only the reader half was there, I’d have a ton of five star reviews. The writer and reader parts of myself balance each other out. I have very few five star reviews and even fewer one star reviews. The vast majority of my reviews are either three or four stars, and then I get into the meat of why I’ve rated a book what I’ve rated it.

How do you go about reviewing books? You don’t have to place your reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, blogs, or other review sites to appraise a book. Every novel you read you form an opinion about. How do you mold the opinion you have?

(Photo courtesy of inkspand and pinterest.)

Authors Behaving Badly: How Negative Reviews Send Them Off the Rails

iStock_000010017317XLargeIt’s not uncommon to see or hear about movie stars, singers, or politicians responding badly to news broadcasted about themselves. You can’t stand in a grocery store line without noticing all the headlines splashed across the magazines at the end of the aisle, or you’re watching the news or listening to the radio and you hear about how someone went completely off the rails.

This happens to authors too. They read a bad review about their book or see a negative comment on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, etc. They get angry and lash out. Now, most of them regret their actions, at least they make a public apology. However, their actions linger. People remember.

In 2014, when the New York Times published their “100 Notable Books of 2014,” author Ayelet Waldman didn’t make the list. She fired off several Twitter messages, including one that stated “Fuck the fucking NY Times.” She later mentioned that “social media and impulse control issues” aren’t the best combination and expressed her regret, but her Twitter messages still remain.

It’s understandable to be angry and disappointed when you don’t get something you desperately want. It’s not a good idea to express that anger rashly. There’s a reason we all have that spouse, best friend, sibling, or pet to complain to.

Kiera Cass, author of “The Selection” trilogy got slammed when she and her agent called Goodreads reviewer Wendy Darling a “bitch” for writing a one star review and, in public messages, conspired to boost rankings of Cass’ books. You can see the review here and Cass and her agent’s response here.

Yes, negative reviews hurt. Authors spend a lot of time and effort on their novel. They put it out there for the public, all that hard work, and then they get a negative review. It stings. It sucks. They get angry because they’re hurt. However, name calling and conspiring isn’t the way to respond. The best response is no response, especially in an age where nothing is truly deleted from the internet.

Probably one of the most famous cases of authors behaving badly is Cassandra Clare. Before she published “The Mortal Instruments” series she was a fanfiction writer most known for her Draco Trilogy, a fanfic of the Harry Potter series. During that time, Clare (then Claire) was accused of plagiarism and consequently cyberbullying. She even dropped the “I” in her last name to distance herself from these accusations, such as threatening those who discussed her plagiarism and allegedly trying to get a girl expelled from her university. Here’s a great link showing a loose timeline of Cassandra Clare’s history of incidents.

So far, I’ve only shown examples of female authors. That’s partly due to there being more female authors out there, but male authors behave badly too. Two examples are M.R. Mathias, self-published author and owner of a small press and Stephen Leather, author of “The Basement,” and who seems to feel the need to respond to every negative review. Some of his responses aren’t bad, others are, as when he tells one reviewer “And while you might be the sort of person to be corrupted by a work of fiction, I think most readers are made of sterner stuff!” That’s probably not the best thing to say to someone.

Similar to Leather, some other authors believe they should respond to every negative review, not in an angry, rash manner, but to open a dialogue between reviewer and author. Here’s a link showing author Elle Lothlorien as an example. My thought on authors contacting reviewers, who’ve given their novel a negative review, to help them better understand the author’s intention is this: instead of having to explain your message after the fact, make it clear in your writing. That’s what reviewers are reading. If an author needs to go hold each reviewer’s hand and guide them to the intended message, then their novel wasn’t ready to be published.

Authors put their work out there to be read. Not everyone is going to like their work because there are all sorts of people in the world. When you put your work out there, you’ll get both good and bad reviews. Take both types of reviews in stride. Even better? Don’t make it personal. Though bad reviews may seem like an attack on the author, they usually aren’t. A review is an individual’s opinion. Going off the rail about a negative review, especially doing so in the public’s eye, only reflects badly on the author.

Rant and rave in private. Show a professional face to the public. It’ll save you a headache later on.

How do you feel negative reviews should be handled? Do you know of any authors who’ve behaved badly?

(Photo courtesy of Megan Bostic)

The Mary Sue: The “Perfect” Character












Bella Swan – Twilight (Stephanie Meyer)

  • Painfully obvious author surrogate.
  • Perfectly ordinary (yet somehow “special”).
  • Pale-skinned brunette, “plain” yet beautiful.
  • Bland, no real personality.
  • Cutesy “clumsy” (informed flaw).
  • Her lover, Edward, is himself a Gary Stu.


An example from Natalie Monroe’s Goodreads review:

Celanena (Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas)





Don’t even get me started on the love interests.

The review goes on, but I’ll stop it there.



What characters do you think are Mary Sues?

(Photo courtesy of pinkmochi.deviantart.com)

5 Ideas to Support an Author’s New Novel



Any ideas to add?