FOR READERS
Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon:
Have you ever read a book that has great reviews, especially reviews that get you to buy it, and you find that book to be not very good? Or the reverse – a book whose reviews were bad but which turned out to be really good? Please do not share links or titles for this one.
Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks!
I read a review once that complained about the book having too much sex… I didn’t finish the review cause I was off to nab a copy of the book. LOL
Reviews help identify who the audience for this book is and who isn’t. Clearly a yaoified over the top romance is my jam and I’m all over it… while a meaningful bittersweet filled with really profound character death(s) I run! I’m simply not the target audience for that book (no matter how awesome someone thought it was) and the reviews save me from a bad decision.
Hugs, Z.
More often than not, in my case, it’s been great reviews for books I didn’t like–almost as if the reviews were posted by groupies or personal friends. In fact, there’s so much dreck out there that it’s actually hard to find a good book because it gets lost in all the noise. But now and then, I read a book that the online reviewers hated yet I loved it. Anecdotally, I have personal experience with the owner of one small indie publisher who routinely posts negative reviews of any book published in the same genres, sub-genres and categories in which he writes/publishes/promotes, more obviously around the time that the Lambda Literary Award selections are being made.