Tags
What do you think of a “bad” book review?
I’m not talking about a reviewer who brings up a couple of negative things here or there. I’m talking about a reviewer who seems absolutely merciless. The review that from beginning to end never lets up on the brutality, where the author is put through the ringer over and over again.
I read a particularly tough review in the New York Times on April 17. It was a review of a nonfiction book and I had read a previous review in the Minneapolis StarTribune that made the book sound intriguing. But I finished the NYTimes review and thought I had never read anything quite like it. I went to Twitter to see what others were saying, and I wasn’t alone.
I think a review this negative actually creates more sympathy for the author. No one wants to see an author on the receiving end of such comments, especially a first-time author.
I know some book review editors will choose to not run such completely negative reviews, instead opting to save space for reviews that will encourage people to buy books.
I don’t mind the NYTimes’ decision to run this review, because I think that most readers will see through it — that it was a review more to showcase the reviewer than the book. I mean, when you name-drop V.S. Naipaul…
If You Have Five Seconds to Spare 
I attended a few sessions at AWP this year on book reviewing. Even the old guard (including people from Oprah and NYTimes) said it’s bad form to write a scathing review of a first-time book writer. More experienced writers were a different story, but the word I got from these panelists was if you can do nothing but trash a debut book, take a pass. Better yet, pass it on to someone you think might like it more than you.
It is interesting what book review editors have to say about this. I think most probably would pass.