How to write a negative review
I have been to a lot of new book blogs this week. I have been seeking to grow my every increasing I want to read that list. I found I couldn’t trust a lot of the sources. I felt the blogs were not honest. I didn’t feel a heap of integrity like I do with the blogs I mostly frequent. The problem I found was all the blogs were gushing about every book. Five stars here 10/10 there. I couldn’t find a single slightly negative review. I couldn’t find anything below four stars or 7/10. I see a lot of book blogs that are obviously garnering for review books. Cultivating reviews based on “how happy will the publicist be with me when she/he sees this one!?”.
I search for integrity in my blogs, and others do to. If bloggers do not start being honest about the reads they will not garner the review books they are so actively seeking anyway. Why you may ask? Because numbers count in a real world scenario. Publicists know what bull crap is and yours isn’t fooling anyone. Step up and be honest about the books, write the truth, have some integrity and gain and audience based on that merit. Then the books will come.
Maybe I am missing the point. Maybe they only write reviews of books they love? It didn’t seem that way to me. I am known not to post on the ‘meh’ books that come my way. Meh doesn’t create an interesting review. I do however post on the good and the bad. I have found a way to post a negative review without the backlash of authors/publicists/publishers. I have a formula and I shall share it with you if you ask nicely :D.
First I write the synopsis of the book or cite it from Goodreads. Then I talk about the things I feel make or break a book.
- Character development
- Story weaving (did it break up or stay flowing?)
- Over all likability and originality of the book
Then I move on to what I did like about the book. There has to be a silver lining everywhere right? I pull that in and mention it as a redeeming factor even if I gave it two stars. At the end I think of other books in the genre comparable to the work and mention if you liked so and so, or so and so you may enjoy said book.
That way you have written a negative review and it isn’t biting or snarky. You say I feel this is why it is bad instead of OMG I WANTED TO SPORK MY EYES OUT IT SUCKS SO BAD. Which is a whole other can of worms.
Not that I need to see negativity everywhere to prove integrity. I just need to see speculation and more than gushing. What do you think?
By: Robbie
Thank you for writing this, I will be plugging it on twitter.
I must say that when I write a review that is negative or bring up why I didn’t like an aspect, I always tell *why* something didn’t work, or why I felt it didn’t. Why didn’t I like the book? Because the character development was weak, here is an example, and the plot dragged here and here and here. Yanno?
By: Pam
Which is why you are on of the blogs I frequent :P I know I will get the true story at Boy With Books!
By: Katy
I agree with you on the method of writing neg. reviews–even in books I didn’t like very much I still feel the need to point out good points and that I may not have been part of the target audience (who may like it more than I did). I’m not usually one to totally pick apart a book without giving a little bit of balance (though looking back on it I was probably harsh on The Lost Symbol ;) ).
By: Laura @ I'm Booking It
I don’t have any truly negative reviews on my blog, although I do have quite a few meh ones (these are usually 3 stars).
I generally try not to read books I don’t think I’ll like, and if I’m not committed to a book (say, book club) and I’m not enjoying it, I’ll drop it.
That said, my formula for those “I liked it, but not a lot” or “I liked it, but had issues with it” reviews is a LOT like yours.
By: Bitsy
I have no problem writing negative, and even meh reviews. It’s the glowing reviews I really struggle with. They are my shortest reviews by far. I just inarticulately struggle and gush and stammer and blush and then, like a girl with a crush, I ask the guy out. Um, I mean I ask people to go read the book. Because it’s totally hot! Um, I mean cool. But, seriously my average across all my reviews is only three stars because getting me that hot and bothered over a boy (book!) is just not that easy for me, ya know?
By: tina
I agree!
plus if the reviews blogs are getting copies from the publisher , and the author,
why are they the ones who is always winning the contests? on author blogs,. blogs ,even other reviewers blogs.
By: Michelle
Thank you for saying this! I am a firm believer in honest reviews, whether the book is “meh”, bad, or even wonderful. I will even go so far as to say that to not post a slightly negative review through omission is slightly dishonest and extremely misleading. I always feel like I am in the minority though.
By: Natasha (Wicked Lil Pixie)
I’ve had a few I really didn’t like, one was a DNF, another was one that just made me disturbed. But it’s been few & far between. I don’t have a problem writing negative reviews at all, if I didn’t like it I will tell you. I’m blunt ;)
That said, I feel guilty about not having a lot of negative reviews. I know I can’t help what I like, for the most part I get asked if I want to review a book & usually go for books I want to read already or ones that spark my interest..than I buy books as well. So I feel guilty that I don’t review a lot of books I don’t like, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to write them, I’ve just been lucky!
But I really do see what you are saying, I follow a few blogs and I have NEVER seen them review a book under a 4 and I’ve read the same book or know someone who has, who’s not liked it. But to each their own.
By: Dianne Salerni
I generally don’t write bad reviews for books I choose to read on my own, because who wants to spend extra time with a book you didn’t like?
But when I accept a book specifically for review, I write it — even if I don’t like it. I follow a similar formula: synopsis, problem areas, then positive points (even if I have to stretch to find them).
I have a specific friend I use to bounce negative reviews off (and she uses me the same way). We check for snarkiness in each other’s work. Occasionally, removing a single modifier will be enough to turn “snarky” into “classy.” I try to be respectful because no matter how much I disliked a book, it was somebody’s baby.
Once in awhile, I’ve even received a polite thank you from an author after I’ve written a negative review, explaining that my critique has given them something to think over for future works. That makes the stress and effort of writing a negative review worth it in the long run.
By: Daphne
Very interesting post and you raise several good points. I write reviews for everybook that I read and most fall in the 2.5-3.5 range. There are some books that just don’t work for some people but I always try to find something positive to say even in books that i might give a 1 or a 2 or even a DNF. I really try not to be mean about it. I had an author recently send me an email thanking me for my honesty in my review (I gave it a 3.5) and explaining why I thought certain parts just didn’t fit together.
By: Lexie C.
Hm. Generally speaking if I enjoy a book, I give it at least a 3 (on goodreads or amazon that is, not on my blog proper). I figure that’s a 60% on a Grade Scale and the author obviously kept me interested, but I had to second guess things, or the story didn’t explain things well enough for me to like it completely.
Truly negative reviews (2 or 1) are a foreign concept to my blog/goodreads/amazon. Unless its a book I bought myself, I won’t even write a review. Its likely I didn’t finish the book and if I did it gave me a headache so I don’t want to go near it again. If its a book sent to me by a publicist, I try to do my best to formulate my thoughts into an e-mail without sounding harsh or cruel. I want to show that I did read, or at least try to read, the book and explain why it didn’t work. I figure that is the least I can do so they don’t think I just took the book and forgot about them.
By: pussreboots
My blog ratings average is 3.5 on a 5 point scale. That means I’m writing slightly more positive reviews than negative ones. This month 9 out of my 26 reviews have been in the one to three star range. When I write negative reviews I try to explain why the book didn’t work for me and what would have worked better. Of course reading is such a personal thing. It seems I’m often reacting negatively to the MOST POPULAR book ever.
By: Lenore
I review every book I read, and that means sometimes I am going to write a negative review. However, there are people who have the policy that they only review books they loved – and if that policy is clear on their blog, then I don’t really have a problem with it. I get what you mean about it seeming suspicious though…it would be a dream come true to love every book you pick up – it’s just very, very unlikely!
By: J.C. Montgomery
I’m sorry, I had to wait to write this because I kept getting a case of the giggles.
“OMG I WANTED TO SPORK MY EYES OUT IT SUCKS SO BAD”
This got to me. There have been books that have me echoing this sentiment in my head, but never on my blog. What is really sad is that I’ve read another blog that pretty much said that word for word. [shakes head]
Your post reminds me that I made a good decision to keep track of all my reads that includes lots of information such as what I rated them. I do a regular check on my personal stats to see if I am giving too many high marks, not reading enough translations, am I reading too many historical fiction books (never!), etc.
It helps keep me honest…to myself and my blog. If I don’t like a book, I will post about it, even to say I abandoned
it. Sometimes I don’t write a lengthy review because I don’t think it deserves that much of my time to write one.
Perhaps this is a diservice. Not sure yet. But, well…my blog, my decision. At least it will get a review, and a negative one – so I guess it’s okay.
I just LOVE how you put things. Oh man, here I go giggling again. Must be the word “spork”.
Seriously Pam, whenever I get maudlin on Twitter, throw a “spork” my way. Guaranteed I won’t be down for long!
By: Nayuleska
Good post here. I do say if I don’t like a book, although generally I manage to pick ones I enjoy. I do give lower ratings if I didn’t enjoy a book, or abandoned half way. There’s been the odd book I haven’t been able to read, and they don’t get any mention
I always try and point out what didn’t work for me in a book – a book review is the good and the not so good, it’s not a case of us promoting the book (although I get rather enthusiastic about books I enjoy so some reviews could come across like that!)
By: bermudaonion (Kathy)
Great post! I totally agree that you can write a negative review without being mean. You can just say, this didn’t work for me.
By: Lahni
I hate writing negative reviews because I feel bad! So usually I just won’t review the book if I didn’t like it or didn’t finish it. But even for books I did like, if there is some aspect that bothered me I’ll mention it.
By: Jeanne
A lot of the bloggers I read have been saying that they don’t write negative reviews because a) they don’t finish books they don’t like and/or b) they don’t want to deal with the author or the fan fallout from a bad review. I’ve been thinking about this a lot for the past six months. One blogger I had a lot of respect for had a post about how she wouldn’t finish a book she didn’t like, and so for a while I didn’t want to argue directly with her. Now she’s no longer blogging and I’m posting my thoughts about negative reviews over at Necromancy Never Pays on Thursday of this week.
By: heidenkind
The only books I don’t review are ones I didn’t finish, because I feel that’s unfair. But even those I sometimes write about (although they are NOT reviews :D).
The vast majority of books I read get three stars. It always amazes me when people are like, “Oh, I’m sorry you did like it.” Er, what? I gave it three stars; that means I did like it. I don’t know why everything has to be all gushy to translate into a “like.”
Anyway, if you’re looking for a bunch of gushy, positive reviews, my blog is definitely not the place to go. :)
By: Anna
I have more positive reviews than negative reviews because I’m becoming a better judge of books I think I will like. But even with the books I enjoy, there still might be a little something that didn’t work for me, and I’ll talk about it. When it comes to a book I didn’t like at all, I usually try to find something good about it, but there definitely is a way to say the book wasn’t my cup of tea without being rude about it.
By: Gina
Honestly (no pun intended) I am in total agreement. I write negative reviews, but they are not purely negative. Regardless of the book, if you are going to take the time to review it in the first place, there had to be some redeeming quality, some shiny pearl of hope that you can make reference to within it’s pages. After all, you are writing your opinion about what you read and really…you thought every second of every book was fantasical? Umm..okay, if so great…but really, is that your final answer? Case in point, I have a few (yes, more than 1) coming up this week that I wasn’t in love with. It doesn’t mean I desicrated them by any means, but I did discuss the story, the good, and the not so good. From what I’ve seen so far, authors, publishers and readers respect your opinion more if you are honest than if you make everything into rainbows and sunshine. (sorry for the mini-rant…I get wordy at times) ^_^
By: Debbie's World of Books
I know some blogs do only review books they like. I try to review everything I read but I try to buy, borrow or accept for review books that sound like they are ones I would like. That said occassionally I do end up with books I dislike. When I review them I try to say why I didn’t like them. I rate on a scale of 1-5 and so far I think the lowest raiting I’ve given is a 2. Most fall along 3-4.
By: Kay
I agree with your comments, but I will say that i rarely finish a book that isn’t working for me. It’s kind of my rule. Too many books, too little time. Don’t have to read something I’m not liking. Even a review copy. I would try to either pass the book along to someone else (such as my book groups) or I would email the person sending it to me with a bit of an explanation as to why I won’t be reviewing it. I do try to pick books that I think will appeal and turn down many that don’t seem like something I would enjoy. That being said, I don’t 100% love every book I review and I will probably include something like, “While I might have wished that the pace of the mystery was a little faster….” or somesuch. Otherwise, if I love a book, I say I love it. And if I say I love it, I mean it. That, in a nutshell, is why you won’t see a negative review on my blog, but I still feel it is an honest blog. Perhaps I should do some posts on DNF books, but I don’t choose to. At least not at this time. Thanks for a thought provoking topic!
By: Mark
Honestly, I try to follow your formula whether I liked a good or not.
I know I do tend ot be overly positive, but that’s mainly because I chose my reading, so I tend toward stuff I think I will like. If I don’t like an author, I definitely don’t pick them up again.
By: Amanda
I enjoyed reading this article and found myself agreeing wholeheartedly!
I don’t have a problem writing negative book reviews. In fact, I rather like them.
So far (!) I’ve only had one irate author comment on a negative review. I published her comment, but couldn’t be bothered replying. The book was extremely low quality, patronizing new age twaddle.
What irks me -as you’ve pointed- is when people DON’T have passion for what they’re writing about. If a book doesn’t move me in some way -if I can’t find something to wax lyrical about- then I don’t write a review. A boring, meh! review is as much a negative review because it’s going to put people to zzzzzzzzz sleep!
Thanks for the thought-provoking article!
By: Serena
I think honesty is important and I find that publicists prefer it.
By: The Slowest Bookworm (@slowestbookworm)
Hi, I was just clicking around the blogs when I came across your article. I am a ‘new blogger’ and I actually felt just a little hurt when I read that first paragraph. It came across that just because I am new to the blogging scene, I am not worthy, or any good at writing book reviews. I totally understand where you’re coming from with what you say about ratings, and I have seen many examples of bloggers who only ever give out 4 or 5 star ratings, but maybe it’s not just newer bloggers who are guilty of this?
Reading further into the post you’ve given some great pointers on how to go about writing a negative post and I think/hope that this is something I already do. My Goodreads page states that my average book rating is 3.59.
Thanks for a post that dragged me in enough to make me want to comment =)