Month: July 2022

Why I Will Never Leave A 1-Star Review On A Book

~ B. L. Allen ~ Leave a comment

As consumers, we often rely on reviews from other shoppers before making a purchase. After all, you want to make sure what you’re buying is worth it. Like any other product, this also holds true for books. You don’t just want any book, you want the best book, and you don’t want to waste your money either. So what do you do? You read the reviews. Then later, you might even leave a review yourself. As a teenager, I occasionally left reviews for books I’d been reading. Sometimes they were glowing reviews, and other times they were less than stellar. Regardless of the rating, I viewed it as a service to people who hadn’t read those books yet. But then something happened to little teenage me that changed my perspective on book reviews…

One day I left a 4-star review for a book I’d checked out of the library. Not a bad review by any means, but I had written that I was disappointed in the ending and that was my reason for demoting a star. This is a helpful review, I thought. Then someone ‘liked’ the review and my heart sunk when I saw who it was…the author had ‘liked’ it. I was mortified. Although I hadn’t been rude and in fact had given a high rating, this was the first time I realized authors actually read their reviews. It should have been obvious, but it just never occurred to me until that moment. I always thought of reviews as a way of informing other readers about books, not as a way of telling authors what I thought of their work.

I felt a little guilty for saying I was disappointed in the book’s ending, even though it was true. It perhaps would’ve been better if I had detailed how I thought the ending could’ve been improved, and also better highlighted the things I did like. I’m sure the author was still thrilled to receive a 4-star review—hence why they clicked the ‘like’ button—but maybe I didn’t have to be so blunt. I later had flashbacks to some of the 2-star reviews I’d left for other books and just felt…icky. Could I have been nicer? Was what I said actually helpful, or just destructive? Did I hurt the authors’ feelings? I realized that when you leave a review, what you’re actually doing is giving feedback to an author that’s put a lot of time, energy, and heart into their work. And this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be honest in reviews⁠—constructive criticism is welcomed by most authors—it just means you should be mindful of the person behind the book before writing your review.

Am I against leaving book reviews? Absolutely not. Authors rely on reviews to get more sales, especially the 4 and 5-star reviews they receive. So if you love a book, definitely be sure to leave a review to help them out! And then there’s those books you thought were OK, but had just hoped for something more or different. By all means, share these opinions in reviews also, but do so with kindness as though you were talking to the authors face-to-face. In order to learn and grow as writers, authors sometimes need to hear a few negatives so that they know what to work on in the future. But what about those books you absolutely hated? Really, it’s up to you, but as for me, I can’t bring myself to leave a review on those books. If I truly hate something, I think it’s better to not leave a review at all. And besides, just because I hate a book, doesn’t mean the next reader will hate it, too. We all have different tastes and expectations when we pick up a new read.

Writing a book is difficult and takes countless hours to complete, so it doesn’t feel right for me to drag the work of a fellow author through the mud. Books aren’t like other products—they’re art. And as a way to respect fellow artists, I will never leave a 1-star review on a book.

Reviewing Thrift Store Books: Red Rain and Endless Night

~ B. L. Allen ~ Leave a comment

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or at least that’s what people say. And when you acknowledge that something you don’t want anymore could be loved by someone else, that’s where thrift stores come in. Don’t just toss the books taking up your limited shelf space; get them in the hands of people who might like them more than you did. Maybe you didn’t even hate those books. Maybe they were fine, but you just wouldn’t read them twice. And you need to clear away some clutter, so something’s got to go. Thrift stores are a great place to drop off your unwanted books, and I’ve decided to become the receiving end for those trying to reduce the size of their book piles. I spent a good bit of time browsing through the rather disorganized bookshelves of one of my local thrift stores to try and dig up some hidden gems. This time, I found some books written by well-known authors: Red Rain by R. L. Stine and Endless Night by Agatha Christie. Let’s get into the reviews for these thrift store finds.

Red Rain by R. L. Stine

When travel blogger Lea Sutter decides to adopt twin boys found in the aftermath of a hurricane on a creepy island off the coast of South Carolina, her life and the lives of her family members are forever changed. As you would expect from the famed Goosebumps author, something sinister and supernatural is afoot. These twins clearly can’t be trusted, but while Lea’s husband Mark can see that something is seriously wrong with these children, Lea seems to turn a blind eye. In fact, Lea’s not quite acting like herself anymore, and Mark can’t seem to find the time to figure out what’s the matter with her because he’s in hot water for being the primary suspect of a series of grotesque murders—murders that coincidentally start to occur not long after the twins’ arrival. You know the twins are involved, but the extent of their evil plots isn’t revealed until the very end.

I definitely picked out this book because of the author’s name. I loved Goosebumps as a kid, and I had no idea R. L. Stine had written adult fiction. My main criticism of this book is that it just felt slow, which made it hard for me to get consumed by the story. The story is also told from the point of view of at least six of the main characters, which makes it hard to grow attached to any one of them. I think this may have been on purpose though, as it added to the disorienting nature of the story. Jumping from one perspective to another created a feeling of uneasiness throughout that the book needed to help scare the daylights out of you. I particularly enjoyed the graphic descriptions of the many deaths throughout. It’s R. L. Stine, so I’m totally here for the blood and gore!

Overall I thought the book was good. Maybe not exactly what I was hoping for, and maybe not a perfect fit for me, but it was certainly an experience that I think will stick in my mind. Are there cliches? Sure, but I don’t mind a few tropes every once and a while. Nearly every book is built on some trope or other.

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

In my end is my beginning… Michael Rogers is unsure about many things in life, but one thing that he’s fairly certain about is he wants to live on Gipsy’s Acre, a piece of land rumored to be cursed by gypsies. He has an architect friend named Santonix, who seems to have a knack for reading people and designing houses for them that they didn’t even know they wanted. When Michael meets a fabulously wealthy girl named Ellie, who purchases Gipsy’s Acre after the two of them fantasize about making a life for themselves there, they eventually marry and try to settle into their new life in a house that Santonix built just for them. A whole cast of characters, however, cause the couple trouble, including Ellie’s overbearing rich relatives and a local gypsy woman who tries to warn Ellie about the curse on the land they’ve made their home. A haunting tune sung by Ellie suggests Some are born to Sweet Delight, Some are born to Endless Night. And figuring out who is born of Endless Night is not quite as simple as one might think.

This book blindsided me, in the best possible way. I knew that since it was a mystery novel by the Queen of Mystery herself that I’d probably need to read it twice to fully appreciate the finer details that first-time readers overlook. I definitely look forward to reading this book again so that I can appreciate it on a different level. My only criticism is that I felt like it wasn’t possible for readers to solve the mystery on their own, which perhaps is quite purposeful, but I spent the majority of the book trying to put together all the pieces just to realize certain clues were deliberately hidden until the moment of reveal. Still, it was a great book. Reading it again will be a real treat.