March 22, 2012

Thursday's Dirty Little Secret #15

My favorite meme of the week! Dirty Little Secret is hosted by the lovely ladies of Under the Covers. This awesome meme challenges book bloggers to share a new dirty little secret each week.


To participate in the meme all you need to do is:


1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image (code above) and copy instructions.
3. Answer the question we propose! This can be done in any way you like, post a video, write a post etc.
4. Then add your link at Under the Covers


Non-bloggers, leave your answer in the comments! 

This week's question is:

 How do you go about reviewing 1 or 2 star books or books you didn't enjoy?

Ah yes, the infamous negative review. I'm actually writing one right now for Friday's post and am struggling with it quite a bit. This book, and the ethical controversy surrounding it have really pissed me off. The majority of the time, I try to find something nice to say about the book while explaining the exact reasons it didn't work for me so that others can decide if those are also their pet peeve areas or if those parts aren't really something that keeps them from enjoying a book. I also do a lot of reviews for indie authors, so if I didn't like the book, I talk about areas that could be improved in hopes of helping them become better writers. However, this particular book has absolutely crossed the line into pissed off, sarcastic review territory. If it had just been the poor writing, that would have been one thing, however when an author starts violating the rights of another, I cannot be blamed for my fury. The book I'm talking about has brought me a lot of grief from its fangirls who seem to think no one is allowed to not like their precious favorite series, and how dare I say negative things about it. I hate to break it to you ladies, but not everyone is going to like the same books you do. I hate having do defend my right to my own damn opinion. When faced with a situation like this that just completely stresses me out, I want to just say screw it and not review at all, but I shouldn't have to do that. I have a right to feel the way I feel about any book in particular. When I write a review, I don't set out to bash a book, I set out to explain exactly why I did or didn't enjoy the time I put into reading it.


Anyway, now that I've ranted a bit, negative reviews are my way of helping others decide whether they should spend their time with a particular book, or maybe move onto another that would better suit their tastes. I'm all about helping fellow readers find superb reading experiences, and if I can help them avoid a dud, then the crap that often comes with writing a negative review is well worth it.


So, what's your dirty little secret?

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