There's been considerable discussion online lately about reviews, about authors reviewing other authors' books, and about how reviews work for book readers. With Goodreads deleting reviews, then apologizing for deleting reviews, and people migrating to other book review communities, there's been a good amount of discussion about what reviews specifically do. 
You might imagine I have a lot to say about the topic of reviews, and how they work. I've written about the fact that nothing, most especially a book, is exempt from reviews in our written culture right now. EVERYTHING gets a review. I can go read reviews of every piece of clothing I'm wearing, the chair I'm sitting on, the computer I'm using, and I can probably get a review of the weather outside right now, too. (A++++ weather! Would have this humidity again!)
I also do workshops at RWA chapters about reviews, how to pitch for them and how to react when you receive one, and talk a lot about reviews when I meet authors at varying conferences. I think about this a good bit, too, like when I'm walking the dog. Why does one review upset a whole lot of people while another similar review does not? Why is there a varying reaction to a negative review? What makes a “good” review good?
Last week, Elyse reviewed Jennifer McQuiston's Summer Is For Lovers, giving it an A:
Summer is for Lovers by Jennifer McQuiston was just the sort of wonderful, summery read I was looking for. I was actually disappointed it was released in late September since it’s already cold here by then, and most of this book takes place by the ocean, and it has a wonderful beach-y feel to it. This is the sort of book I want to take on vacation to the Caribbean with me. I really enjoyed everything about this book, the characters, the setting, the conflict, the humor… I had one tiny issue with the hero, but more on that later.
She didn't like the previous book, What Happens in Scotland, and gave it a D:
If I had to describe What Happens in Scotland by Jennifer McQuiston in one sentence it would be this: the hero and heroine don't really meet until page 140. Also there's a lack of shoes, but more on that later.
I really wanted to like this book. The premise is similar toThe Hangover; a night of partying leads to confusion and regrets in the morning. The problem is, you can't have a romance novel where the hero and heroine are apart for 127 pages. The point of a romance novel is for them to grow and change together in order to find love. This was really just humorous historical fiction with some lovin' thrown in at the end, and that's not what I signed up for, folks.
I want to point out two things about Elyse's reviews.
1. She gave the first book a D. And then she read the second book in the series, despite not having liked the first one.
2. A negative review is not the end of the world. It means that book didn't work for that person. (This may seem like an obvious point, but I think it needs to be said. Repeatedly.)
I know a few readers whose taste aligns so perfectly with another reviewer's that their buying and borrowing decisions are heavily influenced by the reviews they read from that person. But that is a small number. Most readers in my experience read more than one review before they decide to buy or borrow a book.
So even if a book gets a D, it doesn't mean all hope is lost. That's one reader and one review. If that review is here, on Goodreads, on DearAuthor, on a brand new BlogSpot site with six total reviews in the archives (welcome to blogging! Woo!), whatever: it's one review. Most readers read more than one review before deciding whether they want to read a book. One of the smartest things Mandi at Smexybooks does (and she does a lot of smart things) is link to other reviews of a book when she reviews it. It gives a broader sense of what other romance readers online think of the same book. (And disparity in grading leads to more curiosity, but that's another topic). I don't know of any reviewer in any industry whose opinion is the final pronouncement of quality.
But more importantly, one book that wasn't enjoyed doesn't equal the end for that reader. Elyse went back and read the second McQuiston book, despite the fact that she really had some issues with the first one.
I asked Elyse about her decision to read the second book after disliking the first, and she said:
I think there's a misconception that a bad review of a book is a bad review of the author, and that's not the case at all. When I give a book a bad grade I'm not saying “This author is a bad writer and I'll never read anything by him/her again.” I'm saying that this book in particular didn't work for me.
I don't pick up books to read and review that have themes I hate or are in a genre I don't care for (paranormals for instance). I don't think it's fair to say “I usually hate vampire books–and guess what, I did!” I set out every time with the expectation of enjoyment, and sometimes I don't get there. That's almost always specific to a book, not an author.
I didn't particularly like What Happens in Scotland. There were serious pacing issues for me–the hero and heroine didn't meet up until late in the book and so the first part dragged, and the second part (where they fell in love) felt rushed. I did like the humor in the book, and I could tell that McQuiston had a distinct voice that I enjoyed. I knew even as I was giving What Happens in Scotland a D, that I would be reading the sequel. As it happened, I loved Summer is for Lovers.
There were plenty of people who responded to my review saying that even though I didn't like it, they thought What Happens in Scotland sounded perfect for them, and that they were going to buy it.
I also gave The Last Kiss Goodbye by Karen Robards a F+ because the heroine is in love with the ghost of a serial killer. It didn't make sense to me, but I'll probably read the sequel to that too just because I want to see how it all plays out. She may well explain the serial killer thing in a way that makes sense to me, and I might give that book an A, too.
Even authors I love sometimes have a book that I just can't get into. Eloisa James is one of my auto-buys. Her books are like a big, warm quilt for me–total comfort reading. Her book An Affair Before Christmas was a big disappointment for me. I just couldn't get into it, and I didn't feel much for the hero or heroine. That hasn't stopped me from buying her books though, and I've enjoyed all of her subsequent titles.
The only time a book will stop me from ever reading an author again is if I find the content upsetting or offensive or if the writing/editing is so poor that it's work for me to get through the book. I've experienced the latter a few times with self-published authors.
I think Elyse is right, that there is a misconception that a negative review of a book is equated with a negative review of the author. That is not always the case. I think it's rarely the case, honestly.
At an RT awhile back, Jane and I hosted a reader roundtable, and one of the questions she asked was how many books it takes for an author to land on a reader's autobuy list. Most readers in the room said one book. She then asked how many books it takes for an author to fall off the autobuy list. Most readers said two or three. It's harder to break off reading an author than it is to start a glom. Starting a glom can be very easy. And expensive.
I mean, come on. How many people complain about the directions that longstanding popular series go and STILL buy the next one when it comes out? It's a big deal to break up with a series. It's not easy to do. One book not enjoyed does not mean a breakup.
My point is, one negative review of a book is not the end of the world. It's one negative review. It doesn't mean the book is doomed, it doesn't mean readers won't try it. It doesn't even mean that particular reader won't try that author's work again.
I'm going to try to make this a series of articles on reivews and what they do, partly to try to dispel some of the panic and fear of a negative review, and partly to open the conversation to how you use reviews.
I'm curious, especially as the number of things reviewed only increases. How many books does it take to fall off your autobuy list? If you didn't like one book by an author, have you tried another? What makes you stop reading an author altogether, and you're never, ever, ever getting back together?
I am not going to buy the November 2013 bundle from Baen. This is a big deal for me, it’s the first time since I started buying the bundles in 2000 that I have missed a month. Why? There is only one book there that is on my Autobuy list – Trade Secret – and I got the eARC. There’s a “maybe” – Spheres of Influence – I like Ryk Spoor’s books, though the first in the series was rather meh to me. And there’s the Kratman book. That was the dealbreaker for this bundle – I have actually managed to read a couple of his books, and I absolutely hated them. They were absolutely disgusting, and so bad, if fact, that having this book in the bundle just tarnished it too badly.
It is sad when a series or an author goes stale. I used to love Anne McCaffrey’s books, but many of her later books seemed to be older books that were just given a new coat of paint, as it were.
For me, “breaking up” with an author is a mixed bag. It really does depend on why I didn’t like the book. If I liked the writing style but the plot wasn’t for me, I’m a lot more likely to read another book by that author than if the plot was fun but the writing style was choppy and badly edited. That said, if I can see potential in an author despite some bad writing or editing mistakes (Natasha Anders’s fantastic melodrama-filled “An Unwanted Wife” is the first thing that comes to mind because I adored the angsty sap-fest but many of the editing errors jarred me out of the story – I’m under the impression it has undergone some revisions since I read it though), I will give the author another chance. After the second book, if the errors are still there, I’m not as likely to pick up another book. And it usually takes 3 or more books before a beloved writer will fall off my auto-buy list. (Christina Dodd, sadly, is coming to mind on this one. *Sniff!*) It also depends on how much I loved the author during their hey-day (it actually took Dodd about five or six lackluster books before I finally had to admit that her tastes and mine were no longer are in sync).
My other issue in “breaking up” with a book is the type of series. I’m okay with a series featuring a different set of characters (I adore Suzanne Brockmann’s “Troubleshooters” series, for example because even though we get long arcs that last for several books, they all have a limited span of time, and we’re not dealing with the same main characters every time), but if it is a series featuring the same character in every book, no matter how much like the characters, I’m not going to stick with the series (Jeaniene Frost’s Cat and Bones series comes to mind – I honestly have no idea why I put that one down, because I still liked the characters, but after the third book, I needed a change). I think my record so far for a single-person POV series has been six books into the series. My character ADD will only let me put up with it for so long before I’m ready for a new set of characters and a new set of circumstances. And really, why can’t we have more limited series, where the author says, “I’m going to write five books and that’s it.” Why do we have to keep having all of these books where its an endless cycle of, “Hm, who is Stephanie going to end up with – Joe or Ranger?” Or “How many dead people does Eve Dallas have to help before she can have a life?” Or “Who will Anita Blake end up with? Jean Claude? Richard? Asher? Micah? Nathaniel? Or the 1989 Denver Broncos?” (Seriously, I’m not into slut-shaming, but… girl’s got issues… and probably the clap by now.) (Oh, and please don’t get me started on love triangles. If I find out a book or a series has a love triangle, I won’t even pick it up at this point, no matter how much I love the author.)
Sorry, that was a lot of words and a couple of off-topic tangents to basically say that there are a lot of reasons I’ll put down an author. Usually an author I loved that has fallen off of my auto-buy list will still be considered at the library, or, if the blurb looks really fantastic, I’ll sometimes buy a new book. But I’ve never had an author make it back on my auto-buy list if they’ve fallen off. Getting on the list is easy if the book is well-written or makes me laugh. Falling off is definitely a lot harder.
So, I never say “break up” with a series. I just hold off on reading further books until the series is over, or I pick up the last book when it’s out just to get some closure. (See also: the last Sookie Stackhouse novel) My inability to actually break up with a series is why I am afraid to start reading fantasy or sci-fi novels.
As for authors, the only authors I have ever broken up with are authors whose focus has shifted to a genre I don’t want to read. Only Julie Garwood (already mentioned by others) and Jude Deveraux come to mind. When Jude Deveraux started doing fully contemporary paranormal stuff, I was just out.
And it’s nigh impossible for me to break up with an author just because of one book that I hated—most of the time, it’s the storyline or the trope that I just can’t stand, and I understand it is not a reflection of the author herself or even the quality of the actual book. My best example is Kristan Higgins. When her books click with me, it is like, ON LIKE DONKEY KONG and I’m madly incredibly happy (see: Too Good To Be True, All I Ever Wanted) and when they are bad, they are horribly throw-against-the-wall bad (see: The Next Best Thing, Fools Rush In). There is no in-between for me, with her books. AND YET, they are an autobuy or an auto-library checkout no matter what.
Sometimes, when I am finished reading a book and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet, I actually seek out negative and positive reviews, and I gauge my reaction to the reviews and see where I fall in the spectrum. Negative reviews also make me feel better when I read a book that everybody and their mother loves, and I just don’t like it.
@Kristin:
I totally agree! But I refuse to actually break up. I’m just waiting for the book series to end before I wade back in. Did you hear, though? There will be a Starz TV adaptation this spring? I can’t help it; I am super excited for this.
Sorry, one more thing I forgot to mention. I do pay attention to reviews, but I pay less attention to the star of the review and more to what the reviewer had a problem with. If the reviewer’s problem was bad writing (and there are several reviewers who corroborate), I’m less likely to read it than if there was too much sex or there was a lot of swearing or the hero was a giant douchenozzle, as I have a fair tolerance for hero douchenozzlery as long as he gets a decent amount of comeuppance before his HEA (well, unless I read specific examples of his douchenozzlery that turn me off wanting to even read about him, such as the review I read on this site for Stephanie Evanovich’s “Big Girl Panties”. The examples of douchenozzlery in that book were enough to make me avoid it).
Holy crap that was a lot of sentence there.
Waiiit, one more thing:
As for these 2 specific Jennifer McQuiston books, I read Elyse’s review of What Happens In Scotland and then immediately sought it out from my library. It sounded like an awesome book, and I didn’t really care that the hero and heroine didn’t meet for large portions of the book.
THEN, reading Elyse’s review of Summer is for Lovers made me go out and buy the book this weekend so I could read it in two sittings. I mean. Basically, all book reviews just get me to buy book, I guess.
@Nali: Sing it sister! Negative reviews are the primary way I decide whether to buy or not to buy. I just don’t read the positive reviews. If people didn’t like it, I want to know why and then I decide whether I agree or disagree. Often what is pointed out as a negative is the reason I end up buying it.
As for breaking up with an author, it takes at least 2 books unless it’s a series. I can’t bring myself to break-up with a series. I am one of the few that still read LKH and MJD even though Anita and Betsy are just painful at this point. I guess it’s an OCD thing.
On second thought, I do read some positive reviews – but only those at SBTB and DA and then mainly for the entertainment value.
I use reviews in different ways. I only read a couple review sites (here and DA) – a good review of a book that sounds like something I’ll enjoy will get me to put it on my wishlist. If it’s a reviewer that I’ve had good luck with, I may buy the book right away. But I never buy a book based on a review without reading the sample first.
If I’m thinking about trying a new to me author, I may look at the one star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, to see if there any deal breakers. One star reviews are remarkably reliable for mentioning things like rape, abuse, asshole heroes, non-hea endings, etc, even though they’re not reliable for much else.
I’ll also use Goodreads to get a sense of the next book in a series, especially if the last one was a bit iffy for me and I’m trying to decide between purchasing or library-ing. Or if I’m trying to decide if I’m in the mood to read something – frex, I just looked up the latest in Amy Lane’s Johnnie’s series to get a feel for the angst level.
It does take me a couple 2 or 3 books to break up with a once autobuy author or series – usually I’ll shift from autobuy to read from the library before giving up altogether. Except I did break up with Harry Potter after the 3rd book because that book made me mad (the whole time travel device thingie just infuriated me) – but I later forgave JKR and graciously read the rest of the series.
I read a scathing review of a book here a few months back and was so fascinated by what Sarah said, I had to buy the book and read it. I read the whole thing and while I didn’t hate it as much as Sarah, I agreed with all the comments and couldn’t figure out why the editors hadn’t seen the obvious flaws in the story.
@Sue
i do that too – I’ll look up reviews of books if I can’t decide if I like them or not, and I’ll look up reviews of books that make me hulk-smash angry to see if others felt the same way.
If it’s an author I’ve known and loved for years, I’ll give it at least 3 or 4 clunkers before I stop buying.
Regarding series in general, I suspect that the author has a great story s/he wants to tell in a first book, so it’s great, and then there are one or two other ideas with those characters to explore that wouldn’t fit in the first book, so the next few are good too. However, after a while, I think that often it’s really the publishers/sales success that are the reason for the subsequent books rather than any real desire on the author’s part to keep telling stories based on the same character.
@Aarann – I am so with you on the “love triangle” item! [rant] I was really enjoying a cozy mystery series by Joanna Fluke about a bakery owner in small town in Minnesota but there are 17, count ‘em, 17 books and the heroine still has not decided between a hunky police officer and a soulmate dentist. By this time, it is *way* past the point of being even remotely believable that they’d still be waiting for her to make up her mind – not that it was believable in the first place that they’d put up with her indecision for even half that time, or that all three of them would have dinners/coffee together as they sometimes do *sigh* [/rant]
However, regarding the Eve Dallas books, I think Roberts has such well-developed secondary characters that some of the books are interesting not because of the “we’re lost souls who saved each other/great sex” repeated themes between the main characters but the changes in relationships or growth of the other characters, which is a hard thing to pull off.
@Kristin: I have many, many friends who are big fans of the Outlander series and I believe them but even the very first book never worked for me. I found the heroine too complacent
about her sudden jarring displacement from 1945 England to 1743 Scotland, and the clannish close-knit people seemed to accept her and provide clothing and a role for her way too easily. The heroine also kept putting herself into known dangerous situations with barely lip service paid (“although she knew it was probably foolhardy…”) And that’s even without the infamous rape/violence aspect.
I tend to break up with series more so than authors. I find now that if a book in a series makes me go “hmmm” and question what’s going on with the character/s then the next book needs to redeem itself or I’m no longer reading the series.
A current example of this is the Sierra Dean’s Secret series. The last book, to me, felt like Much Ado About Nothing without the comedy. Secret ended up worse off for a lot of useless running around. There is also another romantic triangle that I’m dubious about. The next book is due for release soon. I will read it, but if I don’t like Secret in this book then I’ll be saying farewell.
I’ve done this in the past with Stephanie Plum. There is only so much craziness you can repeatedly read about before the eye rolling does serious damage. I also broke up with Sookie Stackhouse prior to the last couple of books. I read reviews of the last books and am glad it wasn’t my money and time wasted.
I do find that I sometimes need to take a break from a series. Mercy Thompson is a current example. I really enjoy the series. However, I read the first six books in quick succession and need a break. I find that when I do return to the series I rediscover the fun of it all over again.
Sometimes something in a book can just rub me the wrong way and I hesitate about if I want to keep reading. An example of this was a character (the heroine) whose nickname was Oops / Oopsy. She was a sheltered 20 year old and this babyishness just crept me out. She was meant to be making a stand for herself and her maturity but tolerated this name. I put the book down. I will likely get back to it as I liked the male lead but I haven’t got there yet.
If a book/author is new to me and the blurb catches my interest then I’ll read some reviews. I tend towards the negative to find out if there is anything that would deter me. I’ve also taken great reviews from SBTB to purchase books that might be out of my usual budget range – Enemy Within was the one that was the most expensive risk and that was well worth it. I also note positive comments on sale books (eg. Natural Law today) and buy something if it is a bargain.
I’ve found that in the last few years I’ve gotten less tolerant of books. By that I mean I’ll read just about anything (genre/SPA/indie/etc) but if I’m not enjoying it, I stop. For me life is too short to read a book I’m not enjoying.
I review the books I read on Goodreads for my personal tracking. I try to address specifics if I didn’t like a book – the why. I also try to do the same if I like a book as I personally find the “I loved it. It was amazing” type of review completely useless if I’m trying to make a buy/not buy decision.
I’d also like to thank the SBTB reviewers for doing a great job. You are likely responsible for me buying a whole lot of books and I don’t believe I’ve regretted it yet (let’s not mention blown book budgets). Thank you.
This exactly. I don’t need a recap but I also don’t care about your opinion until you tell me what you loved or loathed and why (if you even know). I find it harder to write good reviews – but it gets easier with practice.
I will write a bad review if there’s something that really puts me off a book and I think others should be prepared. If that issue doesn’t bother them, they won’t care and vice versa. If I know the author’s work, I will make sure I’ve also given other books good reviews to balance the bad (more motivation to write the bad one, sadly), and list books I’d suggest reading instead for newer readers.
If there’s something foundational that goes wrong for me, I’ll give up on an author after I give them a chance to see if it’s a one off or a new thing they do that makes me crazy. One very popular author and all around nice lady will set up rules, claim them to be absolute then break them 3 pghs or 3 pages later. Drives me up a wall. Turns out she has a different definition of impossible than I do, so when she says impossible, she means crazy hard but I read not possible and I cannot reconcile this. I even went back to the series after a 5 year hiatus (sucker for a beautiful cover, great concept, and nice lady). The first 2/3 reminded me why I loved her books. The last third reminded me why I gave them up. I had to force myself to finish something I had enjoyed for most of the book! That series is sadly no longer for me. But I wish her well with fans who think impossible means “try harder”.
I usually give an author one or two books that I dislike before I break up with the series entirely. I got that way with Charlene Harris after the 5th book, though my daughter keeps trying to get me to read all of the rest. I got bored with Sookie pretty quickly.
I also agree with another commenter above that Mary Janice Davisson’s Queen Betsy wore out her welcome with me after the 5th or 6th book…I don’t remember. But since she was staying with her original man, there wasn’t much left to wonder about after they got married. I loved her snark in the first couple of books, but honestly, when you’re regularly “getting some” from an incredibly hot man who buys you all of the shoes you desire, how can you continue to be bitchy and whine all of the time?
Laurell Hamilton used to be an author my husband bought for me in hardcover, knowing I’d want to read her Anita Black and Merry Gentry books as soon as they were out. Until he paid over $25 for a book that had absolutely NOTHING happening in it except for Marry having some random sex with disgusting creatures. And Anita has to have so many men in her bed all of the time she runs out of orifices. The “ick” factor has turned me off, especially when she has Anita having immensely clinical discussions about sex with her many men.
Anne Rice used to be an autobuy for him to give me also, until her religion got so heavy-handed I had to stop. I always hated that her vamps couldn’t have sex, and I’d read just to see how she’d get around that…usually with memories/flashbacks. But I never bothered to finish reading the Taltos series, and I own all of them. Maybe someday…or maybe not.
As a writer, I’ve stopped one series at 6 books, another two series’ had run their course after 2 books. I’m working on a 3rd in another series now, but not sure how many will come after this. I think sci-fi books lend themselves better to extended series, but even then they can get repetitious. I loved Anne McCafffrey’s Pern stories for a while, but once again 6-7 was the most I could read before I lost interest.
Maybe the fault is with me? Or is a half-dozen books sufficient to explore any series?
First off, I want to start off by saying as a reader I love three star reviews. These reviews usually tell me something that they liked and something that they didn’t. Oftentimes, the thing the particular reviewer found lacking, is something that I know doesn’t bother me or rather interests me. Purely positive or purely negative reviews don’t help me too much. I need to see why in both cases to see how they would work for me, because unfortunately I have yet to meet my review sister from another mister.
It takes quite a bit to get me to take an author off my autobuy list. The one that comes to mind most readily is Sherrilyn Kenyon and her endless Dark Hunter series. I think I started to become disenchanted around book 13 but kept buying them until book 18 or so, though I haven’t read the last one I bought yet. And what did it for me with that series was sameness. Endless repetition of the same book different characters… which I thought was a shame. I was (am?) really invested in some of the overarching stories.
It took her a bit to get on the autobuy list. I’d say it would take one good series experience for me to put you on my autobuy list. Either that or two or three killer standalones.
For new to me authors, if I didn’t like the first book I read, it is not enough to completely write them off unless I found something in the book distasteful. But even then, if I am really intrigued by a concept, Ill probably read it. Maybe not straightaway, but it’ll be on the list. If it fails to interest me again though that would probably be it. I have an endless TBR so I am not going to try authors forever. Unless, of course, at some point I become immortal, then all bets are off.
There have been MANY times I have seen one-star reviews on goodreads filled with hateful comments about how terrible the book is and just horrible ranting and raving. These negative reviews written with such personal vendetta cause me to want to read the book just to prove the reviews wrong. Most often, I have enjoyed the book and sometimes even loved it. I wholeheartedly agree with your post and appreciate your blog (it rocks)!
I now drop an author after one bad book because never, in my experience, has the downward trend reversed once in motion.
Of course, one reader’s “downward trend” is many other readers’ “exciting new direction of growth!”
It’s just that when an author’s “growth” starts to tear the roof off my reading enjoyment, I chop it off rather than waiting to see how much damage it will do to my bank account and blood pressure given time to run its course.
I’ll occasionally check reviews of subsequent books of authors I’ve dropped, and my reaction has been, “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I expected,” so no regrets, no looking back, and nobody gets a free ride on loyalty anymore.
Autobuy = License to phone it in, which I am unable to issue at this time due to patience cutbacks.
If a review mentions things in a book that I like, I go check out the author’s website. Often they have a sample chapter from that or another book. If I like the actual writing and storytelling, I keep an eye out for the book. If not, no harm done.
My standards are much lower for free books. And often I’ll switch an author from an auto-buy to I’ll-read-it-if-it’s-free before I drop them altogether.
Reviews matter to me if I trust the review source. But ultimately, it’s up to the author to make me want to come back for more.
This is a timely subject right now especially with the flack over authors buying good reviews. I really think I see evidence of this especially the Amazon reviews. I’ve purchased many a crappy book with glowing reviews that could only be from family/friends or bought outright. I depend on alternative websites for more honest reviews. This helps me check out a new author and then I attack the backlist if I like their first. If its an established author on my autobuy I’ll give them a break on a mediocre book for sure. Usually even two or so before I become disenchanted. The exception is hardback books. If an author has gone more expensive to read and I find their books hit or miss I will always wait for the paperback or go to the library. This happened with the Fever series for me but the flip side of this is that I read her hardback (from the library) book “Iced” and will most definitely be buying the hardback sequel.
Chalk me up as another person who reads negative reviews first on Amazon—I look for ones that are succinct and aware of exactly what didn’t work for them, because either it will be something I can’t stand (hate speech, rape, etc) or something I actually want (“This erotica book had too much sex in it!” OK!).
From places where I have a lot more trust in the reviewers than some-random-person-on-Amazon, I read all the reviews and definitely appreciate them all, and plenty convince me to buy from authors I’ve never heard of.
I used to write my own reviews on Amazon, but any time I’d write a one-star review because the writing was severely racist/homophobic/misogynistic etc, I’d get all sorts of comments attacking me as a person because how dare I suggest there was racism, it’s FICTION, calling out words as racist is WAY WORSE than actually being racist, blah blah blah.
I also wrote a five-star review for Summers at Castle Auburn I eventually took down because it was such a sweet story that did not revolve around winning the boy/being saved by the boy/really the boy was just there and not intrinsic to the story. That’s so friggin rare in a YA book I had to talk about how much I enjoyed it. It wound up with dozens of comments from people telling me they’d rape me to death because I didn’t think every story should be about a boy hero, and despite reporting them to Amazon nothing happened, and then they were commenting the same on all my other reviews by following my profile, so I… gave up, deleted all my reviews, and haven’t left one since.
That’s not counting the authors who would comment on my reviews and carefully explain why I just didn’t understand the marvel of their book, and maybe if I should return to picture books and leave the hard sci-fi to the big boys. Those I could laugh off. The death threats left over 5-star YA book reviews? I couldn’t.
On a much lighter note, I’ll occasionally lose interest in a series, but usually go back later, and that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve broken up with the author. Like Jessica above I love Mercedes Lackey and grew up with her, and her Valdemar books are just a little too young for me these days (although I re-read the older ones all the time as severe comfort reads) for me to get invested in new characters. I’ll still keep reading other things she writes (although it’s also hard that her new releases are all over $10).
Oh, I also broke up with TSR/Wizards of the Coast for several years because they arbitrarily killed off EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the 100+ books in the world, fast-forwarded a hundred years to make sure everyone stayed dead, fired all their authors who had written the various series, then expected me to read all-new authors in a completely different setting and with new characters. Except for their big money-maker. Because Drizzt.
Fortunately (?!), sales bottomed out, and they’ve since brought back most of their big names and are trying to repair the damage they did, and I am tentatively optimistic about the new stuff. They really didn’t get that readers are loyal to authors, not necessarily their publishers.
I agree with so many of you who say you read the one star reviews first. For one thing, speaking for myself here, it’s rare that a book would get an A or a 5 star review from me. It’s a rare thing for me to be completely over the moon giddypants over a book. I also read a lot of books, so most fall into the 3-star range.
So a 5 star review that’s nothing but squee and “I loved this book” and “the characters were true to life” (sound of teeth clenching goes here) does nothing for me. They don’t help me make a buying decision.
But the 1 star reviews almost always help me decide whether to buy, either because the reviewer had strong feelings about something I like, or they had strong feelings about something I really dislike.
If most books are a three star for me, it’s the 1 stars that speak the loudest to me as a reader because anything that moves a reader to anger or rage is the most informative.
Hype is easy to fake. Angry reader rage is a lot harder to fake in a review. So I learn the most from the angry reviews.
If I really truly dislike a book, there’s very little chance I’ll read anything by that author again. I just have SO many books to try (I like a lot of different genres) that it simply feels like wasting time.
But if, say, I was just pretty meh over a book and then read great reviews of another of that author’s books (from people whose opinions mean a lot) I might give it a try.
Another exception might be if I read a not-so-great book by an author whose other books I’ve enjoyed, I might pick up another of theirs later on.
So I guess it depends on exactly how I feel about that book I don’t like, but I think I tend towards only giving authors one shot to impress me before I move on.
Breaking up with a series…I think the ideal series is when the author creates a familiar setting inhabited by an ensemble cast of characters that are carried from one book to another and more or less take turns as the main characters. As the series progresses we get to touch base with previous happily ever afters as other characters take center stage. Lorelei James’ Rough Riders Series; Belle Andre’s The Sullivans Series; and Stephanie Laurens’ Cynster Series. The books can be pretty much read out of order. While tending to be formulaic some plot lines are resolved in each book while allowing others to be carried on throughout the series.
I wish more romance authors would plan series that are self contained and include an end of the series with plot lines resolved and couples united in the last book. Mary Balough tends to limit her series: Simply Quartet, and Huxtable Quintet for example.
The problem is when a series takes off like Janet Evanovitch’s laugh out loud Stephanie Plum Series, or Rita Mae Brown’s cutesy Sneaky Pie Brown Series. The longer the series goes on the more formulaic. Stephanie…listen to me relationships are not a zero sum game, find someone else, neither man is right for you. And FYI hamsters don’t live THAT long certainly not for a 16 books I read. Mrs. Murphy, the mystery solving animals, stupid humans shtick strains the credibility of even the most devoted animal lovers, Harry reconcile with your ex or cut him loose, and most towns as small as Crozet haven’t had a murder in decades much less annually.
I do tend to go straight for the one-star reviews myself and almost never read the five-star reviews, like many others here. However, don’t discount the three-star reviews – often the three-star reviewers provide details justifying why they don’t feel they can give the book a higher rating.
@Joan: You will be pleased to know that Harry reconciles with her ex. However, the books have now turned so political – sometimes nearly page-long cane-thumping polemics about how bad things are compared to how they used to be – that I finally gave up about two books ago.
I’d have to say that breaking up with an author depends, for me, on my history with that author and what problems I have with the current book.
If it’s a new-to-me author, I’ll usually give them a second shot if I don’t like the first. If it’s an author with whom I have a lot of history, it’ll take more for me to be dissuaded.
And, yes, sometimes I find that my opinion just doesn’t mesh with “everyone else.” I can think off hand of several wildly popular books that I found terrible – some for editorial reasons, some for author voice, some because I hated the characters, and a notable few for all of the above.
Sometimes that disagreement is with regards to an author I otherwise love. I’ll give you an example on this one. I love La Nora (see the snapshot of my bookshelf that Sarah put up not too long ago for visual proof on that point). But I really, really disliked Chesapeake Blue. So intensely that I didn’t even keep the book – which, considering that I own every other thing NR has written, is saying something. I know a lot of people who loved that book – they felt it was the grand finale pay off for the Chesapeake Bay trilogy. It just… well, it didn’t work for me.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I look for in reviews. I want to see a review that tells me WHY something did or didn’t work for that reviewer – it’s one of the things I very much appreciate about Smart Bitches and Dear Author reviews – it isn’t just “I liked/didn’t like this book”—there is a full explanation about what elements caused that feeling. Maybe whatever threw off that reviewer isn’t something that bothers me. Or maybe something the reviewer liked about the book is a trope I hate.
Reviews are valuable – even bad ones, maybe especially bad ones – when they give you information about the product being reviewed so you can make a better decision.
Breaking up is hard to do. Linda Howard was an autobuy since her Silhouette days (ALL of which are still on my keep shelf), but since I have hated, absolutely HATED, several of the books she’s written in the last ten years, I stopped buying them. That doesn’t mean I don’t get them from the library in hopes that the magic returns.
Why do people get their panties in a bunch because you trash a book they love? For some reason we have moved away from civil discourse. Instead of an exchange of thoughts and the understanding that we are all entitled to our own equally valuable opinion, we shut down anyone who doesn’t believe what we believe or like what we like. As though not liking the same thing is somehow a personal insult. There seems to be no disconnect between saying I don’t like your favorite book and saying there’s something wrong with you because you do.
That being said, like a lot of others, I have an easier time telling you what I don’t like about a book than what I do, and that’s informative. Good reviews rarely tell you anything useful. For that reason I always find the fair to middling review more helpful. And they’re obviously not a bad thing. Look how many D/F books reviewed on this site have ended up on the top seller list the next week.
Elise Logan says:
Perhaps I’m reading this comment incorrectly because this confuses me a bit : I wouldn’t class saying “it didn’t work for me” as the reviewer indicating *why* it didn’t work. Explanations for me are along the lines of “I didn’t think this grand finale pay off for the trilogy worked because the ending too abrupt” or “The plot was not believable” or “The characters from previous books did not behave as I expected” or something like that.
Even if a book is almost universally praised, I actively look for negative reviews to see if the (perceived) flaws are things I can live with. But then, I also read the ending first, so I’m difficult like that.
JaniceG – sorry. I edited out a good portion of that post because (a) it ended up much longer than I intended and (b) it didn’t seem the appropriate place for my review of Chesapeake Blue.
I’ll cop to that and say I should have revised the following sentence to read “What I look for in reviews is information that tells me WHY something did or didn’t work for that reviewer.”
Sorry for the confusion.
Elise – Thanks for the explanation. We’ve all edited in haste.
I buy nothing. I let the library store and dust my favorite books. If they’re a true favorite, I will never forget the author. As long as the writing is good, I’ll remain with an author or series through two or three books that didn’t work for me personally. It’s okay…I didn’t pay anything for it in the first place. With the availability of e-books on loan, I probably didn’t even have to drive to the library to get it.
The biggest turn-off for me is character spinelessness, and/or indecision. Closely followed by a low squick tolerance, sometimes when I read about a heroine’s horrific suffering, it’s hard to believe in the HEA. In other words, the author has to make the cake worth the bake.
I sometimes stop reading series, not because I dislike them, but there are just too many books, not enough time, and I want to try out new authors instead. That’s why I stopped the Eve Dallas & Roark books after about 6 or 8, and quit reading about Kinsey Milhone at the letter “M”. Julia Quinn and Stephanie Laurens are getting to that point also, not that I wouldn’t happily read any of the aforementioned books, if I ran out of other reading material. I might still read them, but they get downgraded from ‘autobuy’ to ‘borrow from library’.
I do read reviews, both positive and negative, before buying something new. If I sense the reviewer’s taste is not the same as mine, I ignore the bad review. If I’m still undecided, I download a sample before buying. The reviews here and at other blogs have sold me on several new authors, and really expanded my reading universe.
I broke up with Linda Howard after many years of enjoyment because I can’t take the violence in her recent books. Other authors I’ve been married to for so long, I can’t imagine not reading them. That list includes Liz Carlyle, Jo Beverly, Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney and Lisa Kleypas.