Fair Reviews

Lately I've been reading a lot of one star book reviews. I've become fascinated by what would inspire a person to take the time to write about something they already wasted their time in reading. Mind you, I'm not saying they wasted their time--they're saying it by virtue of their one star grading. In the many reviews I've read the one thing seems to be consistent, the reviewer criticizes the language and/or the sex in the novel.

I don't have a problem with a reviewer calling out an author's misspellings or bad grammar or even a hard-to-read font. There are any number of things that can go wrong with the writing of a novel; anything from head-hopping to tense jumping. I've read novels where the main character had an unexplained name change midbook. All of these examples are reason enough to lose a few stars from a review, but they are not the reviews about which I'm writing. I'm writing about reviews like the one that follows (in part):

I love a good book of betray(al) and hoping the wound come(s) out o.k. but this book was all about one man and see how many male and female he had sex rather runch (raunchy?) to me. I start to hate the main character from chapter 3 if he wasn't beating his wife he was screwing some man in the nasty way.

Note: To avoid changing the focus of this blog I'm ignoring the review author's spelling and grammar mistakes.

I haven't read the novel being reviewed here. The author has four reviews on Amazon, three with four stars and the one star above. As an author I know the importance of book reviews. Over the years, fair negative criticism has improved my writing and helped me grow as an author. Reviews like the one above are not fair and serve no purpose beyond exposing the reviewer.

First of all, if you can form your lips to say (or your fingers to type) " he was screwing some man in the nasty way" you should never read (and review) a novel with a homosexual plotline. Actually, I think you should stay away from novels with any kind of explicit sex because you're probably generally confused.

This review is just one of many one star reviews I've read that under rate novels with explicit sex. If a novel is classified as a picture book, juvenile, or YA (young adult) by all means it loses points for describing adult sex acts. It can lose stars for excessive profanity too.

When I see that a novel is classified as a paranormal romance I expect a certain amount of sex. And I especially expect sex in a novel labeled erotica, but the one star reviews that I've read about erotica novels repeatedly criticize them for being "porn." I don't know what makes one novel pornographic and another erotica. I've heard a lot of explanations, such as, erotica focus more on the story while porn showcases the sexual act. I figure if the Supreme Court can't define pornography, I don't expect Amazon reviewers to be able to nail it.

The solution to this problem seems simple enough to me, I would advise readers who are offended by sex and language to stay away from paranormal romance and erotica, but if you choose to read those novels find a reason to give them a single star review based on something other than the inclusion of sex and profanity. It really is just that simple.