DNF
Title: With A Twist
Author: Deirdre Martin
Publication Info: Berkley May 2009
ISBN: 0425228037
Genre: Contemporary Romance
I’ve been pondering a new segment of book reviews, wherein I explain simply why I didn’t want to finish a book. Normally, if I don’t finish it, I don’t review it. But after some Twitter discussion over the past few weeks, enough people wanted to know the reasoning behind why I didn’t finish a book that I figured I’d try to explain.
I didn’t finish With a Twist by Deirdre Martin because, while the hero was very interesting, smart, complex, and dedicated, the heroine was too irritating for me to tolerate. It wasn’t because she’s French, or that she has that innate Parisian skill of being brusque to the point of rudeness, or that she’s prickly and not at all impressed with the hero. She is all of those things, but that didn’t bug me much. I kinda liked her for that part of her character.
What pissed me off is the numerous mentions of the heroine’s financial irresponsibility. Natalie is a waitress in her sister’s bistro in Brooklyn, and given some of the conversations in early scenes of the book, it seem Le Nat has a shopping problem. She’s cut up her credit cards, she’s got piles of debt, she has a job and an apartment – and yet maintains an attitude that she is entitled to a rich, luxurious life merely because…she showed up. And she wants it so ergo she deserves it.
What sent me over the edge is that Nat is one of those people for whom it seems real consequences don’t apply. She wants to be a manager in a New York restaurant, in Manhattan because Brooklyn isn’t good enough, and she wants to live in Manhattan – though see above re: credit cards, debt, and job as waitress. But wait! A rich, connected older friend of the family will allow her to use his incredibly opulent, gorgeous, full furnished apartment in the UN neighborhood on the east side for…free? But of course. It is Natalie.
Financial irresponsibility is common, and a major problem. And it’s not an unforgivable sin, despite the American attitude toward poverty that if you’re poor, you did something morally to deserve it (omg don’t get me started on that. Rage, I has it like damn). But the blithe sense of entitlement that allowed Natalie to believe that everyone else had the problem, not her, and my increasing irritation that she really needed a good long Extreme Makeover: Attitude Edition, like NOW, coupled with her lack of self-knowledge or acting as if she might know better any time soon prevented me from reading further, despite my enjoyment of Martin’s other books.
I disliked her so much by the end of chapter 5 I didn’t think she could redeem herself. Moreover, I didn’t want the luscious hero to waste his time for her. So I moved on and started something else.
Sarah,
First, your DNF commentary was wonderful. And yes, like a sucker I may still end up purchasing this, just for the scrumpdillyicious hero. I read the entire Shopaholic series, and while I wanted to smack Becky Bloomwood with a two-by-four, I definitely saw shades of myself in her…and am totally embarrassed by that.
Second, I do believe that a DNF holds weight if one can clearly explain the reasoning behind the DNF. You have done that here and I understand your aggrivation with the Entitlement Clause of Life and your need to stop reading before you ended up taking your anger out on small animals or porcelain objects.
Third, regarding your comment on agreeing to read books and the resultant quandry, I’m with you. I’d prefer to hear an unclouded opinion as to why you felt you had to stop than a totally disgusted review because you wanted to put the book through the shredder after forcing yourself to finish. If the author is serious about having his or her book reviewed, then s/he would want that as well.
Although I understand why Jennifer Echols considers ‘did not finish’ a non-review, I’m afraid have to disagree with her. This is because the precise definition of ‘review’ is pretty wide, and varies a lot according to the type of book. Reviews of fiction are necessarily more firmly based on the reviewer’s personal taste than reviews of non-fiction, where factual matters are crucial, and emotional response may be completely irrelevant.
If an experienced reader of a genre dislikes a book enough to abandon it unfinished, I think that fact is well worth communicating, and it is interesting for other readers to learn why. And starting a book but not enjoying it enough to read right through to the end seems to me to be fundamentally quite different from ‘reviewing’ a book by reading the blurb and other reviews rather than the text itself. Of course it is dishonest to ‘review’ a book that one has not read at all, but seems to me perfectly fair to assess a work on the basis of reading a substantial proportion of it. The writing style and characterisation are at least as important as the exact plot in a novel, and those can be rated without getting right through to the bitter end.
Whether called ‘reviews’ or not, I would vote for including these ‘DNF’ assessments. They are informative and useful.
I definitely want to see the DNFs and I consider them reviews.
Quite honestly, the ‘you didn’t finish, you don’t get to review’ argument smacks of author entitlement to me and it turns me off majorly.
I’m firmly in the camp of people who think reviews are supposed to be geared towards readers and that informing readers why or why not a book worked for the reviewer is their sole responsibility; whether the author or publisher is going to be happy about the review is completely irrelevant to me as a reader and I do not frequent sites where it’s clear that the reviewers are constrained to only say positive things.
During a panel on reviews at Celebrate Romance, Sybil read excerpts to us of a ‘work’ that was just about to be published. There was not a single person in that room who would have considered it necessary to read the book to state categorically that this was an incredibly bad book and didn’t deserve to be published, readers and authors alike.
I’m also one of those defective souls who have a hard time abandoning books and I’m pissed off at myself every time, since I waste hours I could have spent on reading something I would have enjoyed.
I’m very grateful for reviewers who can articulate why or why not things worked for them and if a book is a DNF not because of ‘life got to busy’ or ‘started something else’, but because of something that’s inherently wrong with the book, I absolutely want to see a DNF review.
Reviews are for readers, not for authors!
DNF and F reviews are kind of like car accidents…I usually end up checking them out simply because of what they are, and I love this site b/c it’s not full of bullshit. I used to read the RT reviews, but got so very tired of the lack of standards. Everything was 4 or 4 1/2 stars. ARGH. SBTB and Dear Author at least lay out the flaws and are upfront about it.
I consider a DNF a review. Its an opinion based thought, just like the A, B, C, D, or F reviews-they just couldn’t be finished because of a problem the reader had with the book. Its valid. You didn’t say, “God this book just sucked b/c the heroine was a bitch”, you laid out why exactly this book bothered you (which consequently is a big pet peeve of mine as well).
Thanks Sarah!
@ Elizabeth Wadsworth:
Looks like the same pair on the Bella Andre books.
I’m a reviewer, not an author, and I tend to agree with Jennifer. Especially in an instance like this when the DNF is based on the reviewer’s personal hot buttons rather than the actual quality of the book. (Hot buttons I happen to share, but that’s besides the point.)
On the other hand, having DNF instead of a grade seems reasonably adequate to make the distinction. I would be frothing at the mouth about assigning a grade to an unfinished book.
P.S. But perhaps sticking them in “the Dump” is a little too weighted? Again, this was not a criticism of the book for being poorly written, just for being personally aggravating. It seems very harsh to consign it to the figurative trash when you don’t know if in fact the heroine/book redeemed itself.
I think reviewers have the right not to finish books, especially unpaid reviewers. But this site is not just for kicks anymore, it has a reputation and an associated book out now. That brings with it a certain amount of reviewer responsibility.
Keira Soleore said:
I don’t think I agree with that last line. A DNF review is still a form of promotion, which is what the author/publisher mostly needs. A typical review has two purposes (or three if the reviewer wants to encourage a discussion among review readers).
For readers, a review is useful as it will help them to make an informed decision whether to buy it or not.
For the author/publisher, the review is also designed to publicise the book (regardless of its allocated grade or in this case, lack of grade).
IMO, a DNF review does serve both purposes. That is why I feel Sarah and other reviewers who issue DNF reviews aren’t in the wrong.
(I should clarify my point; if a DNF review consists an explanation why the reviewer couldn’t finish it, then it’s a review.)
I am among those that like to see DNF reports. My personal definition of the term “review” is broad enough to include DNF reports, though I do understand how someone else’s interaction with that word could lead to some different expectations upon seeing it.
I also like to imagine that an author might appreciate seeing a DNF review, though of course by definition they can’t be as thorough as a review of a full story. In this instance, perhaps the heroine does some soul searching and starts on a path to change, but within how this story is structured that process doesn’t begin until Chapter 8. An author might appreciate knowing that an audience’s patience isn’t going to last until Chapter 8, so structurally it would make sense to hint that change is to come earlier in the story. While that knowledge won’t change this story, it could be valuable to know for the future. (This is leaving aside the Art vs Commerce argument to a degree since I would suppose anyone wishing to get published has to write for the audience to *some* extent in order to even have an audience.)
Finally, I think DNF reviews also open an opportunity for discussion about the story just like they do for full-story reviews. It could lead to someone saying “Read just 10 more pages, Sarah, and you may feel different about the heroine”, it could lead to a good discussion on characteristics in fiction that an author has to handle with particular skill to keep the reader going or maybe just offer some insight into how to get a reader to like a character that is dislikable, or it could lead to a reader discovering hidden prejudices within herself that opens the eyes to things read in the past that may deserve another chance.
Ah, semantics!
I agree that DNF is in a slightly different category from other reviews, but as long as it is made very clear, I don’t see the problem with calling it a review. This is a reader-centered site, and readers (as is pretty clear from the discussion up-thread) find DNFs with explanations very useful. If our buttons are different, we may well decide to buy a book that a reviewer didn’t finish—I’ve done that, just as I’ve passed along books I couldn’t finish to people I thought would like them. Friends, even. I wouldn’t do that with a D or F book, but when a book is just not to my taste or hits one of my hot buttons, I know that there are friends and sisters who would probably enjoy it.
This book sounds like it was written well and had a good hero. I’ve never read anything by this author, but now she’s on my radar as a writer I should check out—although not this particular book, because financial irresponsibility is a HUGE turn-off for me, having been married to it and lived through the consequences for too many years. Whether you call it a “review” or a “reaction,” a “response,” a “whatever the hell you want,” it served the purpose that reviews serve for me as a reader. It told me SB Sarah’s response to the book, and her reasons for it, and gave me the information that I need to decide whether I would feel the same way. I am sure that if I were NOT put off by the same thing that kept her from finishing, there are plenty of other places I can look on line for the opinions of reviewers who finished the book. Oh, and the review was entertaining to read, too.
I disagree that a DNF review, clearly labeled and explained as SB Sarah has so painstakingly done, abrogates some code of “reviewer responsibility.” Every reviewer has her or his own standards, pet peeves and squicks, guilty pleasures, and straight (or not so) preferences. The responsible thing is to own those, and to acknowledge the role they play in one’s response to the work under consideration. To read a book that you are pretty sure in advance you won’t like, and then to give it a lousy grade, seems irresponsible to me. To read a book by an author whose previous books you have liked, and then to write a clear and intelligent explanation of why you decided not to finish this particular book, seems completely different.
I think there are a number of strange expectations going on here (at least it seems so to me). It’s the duty of the author to keep the story interesting enough, by whatever means (sometimes that means so good you keep reading, sometimes so bad you keep reading), to keep the reader reading. The reader doesn’t owe the author anything. If a book is complicated and demanding, the reader chooses to put the energy into the book, not because they owe the author a full hearing, but because they think whatever they’re getting in return is worth it. In my opinion, a reviewer is simply a reader whose opinions of what they’re reading people trust/want to hear. An editor has to read the whole book. If the book fails to keep the reviewer engaged, he/she doesn’t have to finish it, as long as they’re open about why and when they stopped reading. Yes, it’s a problem to review a whole if you haven’t read it; no, it’s not a problem to review negatively the parts you did read, as long as you’re up front about not having read all of it.
That said, thanks for posting a DNF, and I hope you’ll post them again, as necessary.
I don’t agree. I think that BECAUSE this site has become so big, and its responsibilities correspondingly larger, the SB’s have to prioritize where they’re going to spend their time.
I, for one, would rather see an increase in DNF reviews than a decrease in SB participation in the site and at various romance-related events because they’re busy finishing books they’re hating.
Yes, it’s a review site, but it’s also a site where we talk about items of interest to most members of the bitchery, like e-book readers, and pricing, and ass-headedness on the part of publishers and book-sellers and lawmakers.
I’m okay with an SB hating a book and not finishing it because it hit some personal triggers. That kind of thing tends to spawn some very interesting conversations about what those triggers are, and how common they are, and how they came to be.
I don’t mind the DNF reviews at all. I think they’re just as helpful as a ‘full’ review.
I’m just a guest here on SBTB and as such I don’t feel comfortable telling you there is a certain way to do something. If you want to keep DNF’s- go for it. If you want to force yourself to read every book sent to you- go for that too. It’s your call and I’m just here for the ride.
“I don’t agree. I think that BECAUSE this site has become so big, and its responsibilities correspondingly larger, the SB’s have to prioritize where they’re going to spend their time.”
Note I did not say that the responsibility was to finish/review every book. But I do see the responsibility in how the book comment/review is presented, which I think was Jennifer’s original point.
Please keep the DNF reviews. I try to finish anything I start, but there are some book far too craptastic to finish. But I do like to know the reason. Recently I gave up on Bad Girl by Maya Banks because I found her description of a particular profession offensive. And that’s not too legit a reason, and I wouldn’t list that. But I also put down some crappy romance a few weeks ago because the writing and characters were just that bad. Someone set a kitchen fire, then proceeded to talk about it instead of putting out the damn fire. Keep ‘em coming.
I’d like to add another vote for DNF reviews. I hate getting part way through a book and deciding to ditch it. I usually read the last chapter first, though I am not usually a last chapter reader.
Yes, it is an money issue: captcha economic85
@ Sarah
I didn’t say there was a problem. I said agreed with Jennifer that DNF is not a review. To me DNF is the reader’s opinion of a portion of the book. Which yes, a review is just your opinion of a book – but it is your opinion of the entire book, not just part of it, and therein lies the difference for me between a DNF and a review.
I also said
You clearly stated that you didn’t finish this book because you have a personal hot button about financial irresponsibility and you didn’t give it a grade, so I have no issue with what you wrote. I was just agreeing with Jennifer’s statement that in my opinion a DNF is not really a review and gave my reasons for that opinion.
As an author and a reader, I think this DNF was handled just right. Not only does Sarah fully state why she didn’t finish the book (which I give mad kudos for because most sites don’t bother to anything more than whip out their DNF stamp), but this comment pretty much says it all:
Sarah didn’t say the heroine doesn’t redeem herself, she simply stated that based on what she’d read up until that point, she didn’t think the heroine could.
Personally, I don’t process that comment as a knock on the author. I process that comment as the author hitting one of Sarah’s No-No buttons. It happens. Besides, the minute I see a DNF “grade” I know I’ll only be getting part of the story, which means if I want to know whether the author managed to pull a miracle out of their ass…I’ll have to go get the book. Because, hey…miracles happen too. 🙂
As a rules nerd, I agree with Jennifer and web, and think that DNF entries are great, but shouldn’t be filed under “reviews.”
As someone who picks up books, reads them, and then wonders what Sarah or Candy thought of the title, “reviews” is where I’d look for any book, including the ones I throw against a wall.
Catagorically, I don’t like it; but organizationally, I do. So, I guess where you file these is a choice between being right and being helpful. Personally, I’d go with right, see earlier mention of being a rules nerd.
And @Lori’s point on the absurdity of semantic arguments on blog tags: welcome to the internets, where no point is too small to be argued over. As long as it doesn’t keep us up at night, we’re doing ok. http://xkcd.com/386/
As a reader and a purchaser of romance novels who reads blogs in order to decide what to read/buy, I am FOR DNF reviews.
I’m sure that many authors may not like them. But, as the purchaser, that’s not my problem—I prefer to be informed. That’s why I read these blogs.
Life’s too short to waste reading unpleasant books!
As someone who writes, I really would want to see a detailed DNF review as much as a full review—because if my story isn’t holding the reader until the pay-off, I want to know why.
I have to know why to keep from repeating the same mistake next story. What about you?
As an avid lurker and lover of the “reviews” in general, (I use them to keep myself busy and happy at work) I’d could care less if DNF’s are by definition, “reviews.” I just want them tagged as such, then I can access them the same way I access the other reviews, by author and grade.
Hate me if you must. I just want my Smart Bitch “Reviews!”
It’s the writer who is obliged to engage the reader, not the other way around.
I don’t think we’re ‘obliged’ as reader or reviewers, to finish a book that fails to engage or starts pissing us off. Especially when there are so many other books on the shelves or in the TBR pile that could be so much more rewarding.
As for not knowing if the book iwill get better, consider these examples:
You’re motoring along at 80kph, and someone is only doing 40. You can tell in a blink that they are a bad driver. And they are wasting our time.
If you go to a restaurant and the soup is godawful, it’s logical to assume the rest of the meal is going to be equally hideous. Do you owe it to the chef to finish the food?
Why should books be different?
(Please remind me of this when my book comes out, kthxbai)
I’m all for the DNF reviews and hope to find them under “Reviews,” along with all the other valid and detailed reviews this website posts. The DNF is just as important, IMO, as the rest of the alphabet grades.
If you go to a restaurant and the soup is godawful, it’s logical to assume the rest of the meal is going to be equally hideous. Do you owe it to the chef to finish the food?
No, not if you’re a regular person out for dinner for the evening.
But if a restaurant critic for a magazine makes a judgment of the the entire menu based on one dish, he’s doing the restaurant and ultimately his reviewers a disservice. Oh, in his review he can say it loud and clear how much disliked the first dish. But he’s required to sample a few other dishes and offer his opinions on those, too.
I meant “his readers” not “his reviewers” up there.
Keira,
my point is if you are making something for another person’s consumption – whether a book, or a meal, or clothing, or a house, the onus on on the maker to make it good, not the receiver to have to stomach it.
I think Sarah’s review, where she honestly admitted she couldn’t go on, was a valid opinion, and a review is merely one person’s opinion.
“But if a restaurant critic for a magazine makes a judgment of the the entire menu based on one dish, he’s doing the restaurant and ultimately his reviewers a disservice. Oh, in his review he can say it loud and clear how much disliked the first dish. But he’s required to sample a few other dishes and offer his opinions on those, too.”
The analogy’s not quite the same—a restaurant critic for a magazine is being paid to review the restaurant, and readers are paying to read the review. If I was paying to read the reviews here, maybe I’d feel differently about DNF (though I don’t think I would—if a reviewer went some where and didn’t think he/she could finish out a meal, for whatever reason, I’d want to hear that too).
Also, as readers of the review, we have no idea how much of each dish the reviewer ate. As much as you can say book=meal, you could also argue book=dish (and meal=all the author’s books), and a few bites will tell you how the dish as a whole is. You might try a few different dishes to see if everything’s terrible, but you don’t have to eat all of each one to form an opinion.
I think its a great idea to include DNFs in reviews. I am somehow oddly compelled to read every book that I start. I’m not sure why but I have to at least skim it. Even books that I hate – I always finish them (even if they are skimmed). Maybe I’m too optimistic and hope that the book will redeem itself in the end. Anyway, everyone has different standards and a DNF by Sarah and Candy still contains a lot of info for me.
I’m with WorthaFortune on this one. I don’t care how DNFs are categorized – in essence, the DNFs do what a review does for me: 1) What’s the book about? 2) What did you like or not like? 3) Were the DNFs well-written and entertaining just like reviews are?
Check, check, and check. I think Sarah did a good job on all three points. If you didn’t finish it, and gave reasons, then that’s all I ask. Please keep ‘em coming!
Also, gotta admit, I’m loling a bit at the restaurant analogies, but I think Polly hit it on the head with her explanations.
While I’d overall prefer to read reviews on stuff you did finish, I can definitely see the appeal of an occasional DNF review. Though I’m glad you are doing these DNFs for books you had already agreed to review, so you are posting an explanation and not a tirade from your bad book pile.
On one hand, it would be frustrating to be the author of such a book. Perhaps the heroine redeems herself and the author is shouting “I know she starts off as annoying, but I fix her I promise!” But on the other hand, if you get far enough into a book and you don’t even care if a character redeems him/herself or not as long as you don’t have to spend any more time reading, then the author probably did not do a good a job as she should have foreshadowing a change of heart.
My cutoff is page 100. If I don’t care after a hundred pages, I see no reason why I should finish the book. I know this might boggle the mind of people that read series books of 600 pages each (a friend didn’t respond well to my “early” quit of the Wheel of Time books) but in my experience 100 pages is plenty of time to make me care, especially given that with the best written books I’m caring by the end of chapter 1.
My policy on my site is along the lines of what Jennifer Echols said: I don’t consider it a review if I didn’t/couldn’t finish it, and I don’t mention the book at all. (With one exception that I bitched about without mentioning the name of it. Not fair, but I didn’t want the author Googling herself and bitching me out at the time.) I am surprised that everybody else disagrees with her in wanting a DNF “review” and now I wonder if I should reconsider. But…
(a) A lot of the books I couldn’t finish weren’t so much bad so much as I was bored. For example, I tried to read some Amelia Peabody books, but everyone being perfect and arch and twee irritated me and the plots weren’t interesting enough to keep me in there wanting to deal with the twee. But they aren’t badly written, just not my taste. I hear many people like them and I wanted to like them too, but I don’t. I’ve been sent Heavy Russian Thrillers and Great Depressing Literachoor from a publisher and frankly, after reading previous Heavy Russian Thrillers (that weren’t badly written, but I don’t enjoy the genre in general) and Great Depressing Literachoor (ditto) they’d sent me, I didn’t even want to pick up those books, much less finish them. I don’t think it’s fair to say “I couldn’t read it” and give the books the public diss when it’s not badly done and just isn’t something I’d pick up voluntarily/the subject bores me. And if I wasn’t specifically asked about the welfare of the book, then I’d rather not mention it.
(b) The few books that were real wall-bangers that I stuck with reading, well, I dearly wished I hadn’t stuck with them. The lone book that improved from the wall-banger status I was at in the first few pages actually went back to being WORSE and a total wall-banger at the end as well. Another book I read recently was godawful, but I just finished reading it so I could make fun of it in the review. I think after 150-200 pages, if I still hate the book and it’s not showing any improvement, odds are it isn’t going to have a miracle that makes it worth recommending in the last 100+ pages. And I’m not sure if it’s any different than just giving the book a flat out F, except that I’m feeling guilty for not finishing and “giving it a chance.”
@Jennifer: the important thing is that you have a policy, and you stick to it. If you don’t mention books you don’t finish, that’s fine for you. Obviously your readers are okay with that. But as anyone can see from this thread, there are a lot of readers of this site who value the DNF opinion/response/reaction/review as handled by a Smart Bitch—upfront about it, and careful explanation of why she DNF, including honest assessment of what personal hot buttons it pushed. Give us information, and we will judge from that whether this is a book for us or not. Just like any other review. The fact that you are basing your opinion only on the part you read? That’s part of the information we will take into consideration in forming our decision.
Is there some fear that readers, like sheep, might mindlessly follow a DNF review and not buy a book, and that would somehow be unfair? To someone? I don’t like to think that the readers of this blog are at all sheeplike; I certainly see few signs of that.
But then, I would accept a restaurant or theatre or film critic’s DNF as legitimate as well—if you can’t take any more of it, you should stop. Tell me that’s what you did, and tell me why, and I can take it from there as far as deciding how it affects my desire to try the same experience. As long as you aren’t seeking out the kind of thing you normally despise, just for an excuse to take more shots at it, of course.
Maybe there should be two categories: A regular DNF for books that you didn’t finish because the writing and plot sucked and no one in the world should spend good money for the book, and DNF-P for Did Not Finish-Personal due to plot twists or attributes that specifically bother you but might not bother other people.
As for this particular book, I’ve read all of Deirdre Martin’s other books and liked them quite a bit. This one is a story of a minor character in Just a Taste, which provides background about why Natalie has such problems with debt. (Don’t know how much detail With a Twist provides because it hasn’t made it to Australia yet.)
But that’s exactly the info I’d need, as a reader, if you didn’t finish a book! If I enjoy that kind of book I’d know to disregard the fact that you weren’t interested in finishing it. But if I don’t enjoy those sorts of characters then I’d want to know that’s what they’re like so I don’t waste my time on the book. That’s exactly why DNF reviews are still useful as long as you detail why you stopped.
Let me say “With a twist” as a title?
Was I the only one that instantly had M. Night Shyamalan before his minds eye upon reading that title? 🙂
I think a DNF review is (with a given reason why one didn’t or couldn’t finish said book) a fair deal.
There are stories out there that you just can’t bring yourself to read to the end and it’s not always because the writting, ahm, is subpar. Some characters just start to grate on us and sometimes enough to spoil the otherwise enjoyable writing.
It happens.
First—I failed to mention in my earlier comment (I’m Number One! I’m Number One!)(erm. sorry.) that I am all in favor of a DNF post/review. I have five children and cannot afford to buy every book that catches my eye, and our library system does not buy mass-market paperbacks to put on the shelves. They do circulate donated mmpbs, but the selection is inconsistent at best. So, please. DNF your little heart out!
Second:
“Abrogates.” SonomaLass, I think I’m in love with you. See, this is why I love this site! Smart women who are not afraid to use their full vocabularies.
My husband and I are individually and collectively teased about using “ten-dollar words”, and we joke back that we are trying to revive a dead language—English.
Jennifer, I’m with Heather (errant dreams) in saying that I find value in a person who reviews books detailing why a book or a series doesn’t work for her. Why? For the selfish reason that it helps me understand that reviewer’s tastes and how they match up with mine. There are many times when I’ll see a book talked up or down and part of my decision-making process on whether to give a book a chance is the old “consider the source” concept.
I’ve used the analogy before of a person who reviews movies for my local paper. There are certain kinds of movies my family likes that this person loathes and we’ve generally found the more scathing her remarks, the more we know our odds are good for enjoying it. When she has the lukewarm or positive review? Then we know to beware. If we didn’t know her tastes, however, we might take her positive or negative recommendations at face value and skip things that are right up our alley.
GrowlyCub:
Yes. What GrowlyCub said. Repeat as needed.
Catering to the publisher, or giving the author A for effort, on a review site is, in my opinion, intellectually dishonest.
Web:
This comment bothers me. Should Sarah and Candy modify their output because of…what exactly? I don’t understand what you’re getting at here.
As a reader I don’t owe the author or their publisher anything beyond paying for my copy. And since I’m paying, I like to be able to make an informed choice. A succinct and upfront DNF review such as this is helpful to me as a buyer. I value that.