4 Reasons Why I Love/Hate Reviews

1. Can't live with them/Can't live without them. 2. Readers demand that you have them/Readers don't like to write them. 3. Five-star reviews are wonderful/One-star reviews not so much. 4. They make me sad/They make me happy.

 

           “Gripping”

           “Couldn't put it down”

           “Compelling”

           “The most well-written book I have ever read”

Writers love to read reviews like that. I know I do. We've put our heart and blood into our work and we want to hear that you “get” what we have created. We want to hear you say you will lap up any and every word we have ever written or ever will write.

When I look at my Amazon account and I see another review has been posted, my heart races with excitement/trepidation. It could be good, but it might not be.

           “Unfortunately, this book is really, really poor”

           “The characters were uninspiring”

            “I would rather watch the grass grow”

            “Well, this is one authoress I will not be reading again.”

            or even “It was OK”

I don't like to hear any of that. Well, I guess I don't hate the “OK” one but it's not as warm and fuzzy as, “The most well-written book I have ever read”. I really liked that one.

I know the commentators think they are just being honest, but don't they understand that this honesty thing can set off a whole chain of unpleasant events, like:

The writer gets a bad review.

The writer gets bummed out.
The writer begins to fixate only on the negative review, ignoring the other 129 positive reviews.
The writer sinks into a deep, dank, drinking depression.
The writer considers drastic measures, like:

1. Suicide? Too drastic.
2. Never writing again? Maybe.
3. Writing back to the reviewer? Yeah, that's the ticket. Let the reviewer know why you left out big chunks of plot, or why you thought character development was unnecessary, or most importantly, why you thought a hundred page description of the man's chest added intrigue to your young adult cook book novel.

Fortunately, the writer decides not to actually write back to the reviewer but instead spends copious amounts of time composing witty hypothetical responses in her head. That makes the writer feel a tiny bit better.

But, the supreme comfort, as all writers know, is to read the bad reviews of other, much more famous, much more successful writers.

Here are some actual reviews.

Pride and Prejudice - “A completely forgettable book, and I have no clue as to why so many people find it romantic.”

War and Peace - “2nd worst book ever”

Anna Karenina - “Quite possibly the most boring thing I have ever read.”

I wonder if the great J K Rowling feels demoralized when her readers belittle her new novel, “The Casual Vacancy”. This book has more one-star reviews than five-star reviews and has generated considerable disappointment from her loyal readers. I know comments like “Dull, Dismal and Disappointing” and “100 shades of 'meh'” would make me sad, but on the other hand her book is currently #25 in books on Amazon. And, since there are somewhere around five million books on Amazon, being #25, is probably going to trump a heap of warm and fuzzy reviews. So, I guess, in the end, it's not really how many good or bad reviews you get; it's how many readers read your book.

 

The Crime Victim's Face

Aurora, Colorado . . . Oak Creek, Wisconsin . . . Tucson, Arizona. Blood and dead bodies everywhere. Everyone wants to see what the criminal-of-the-day looks like and to a lesser extent, know why he did it. Eventually the killer's photo is posted everywhere and citizens intently study the image for signs of obvious evil. People like to think that, if the situation were to happen to them, they would immediately recognize the insane grin or the racist glower or the orange hair and then be smart enough get the hell out of out of Dodge . . . or something. Lamentably, criminals of the future refuse to be defined.

The very saddest part is that the criminal's picture is the one we remember. Why? Because after the initial broadcast, it is then broadcast again. And again and again. And again and again. The deceased victims? The surviving victims? The heroes? The victims families? Not so much. Not at all really, after the first week or two.

And that is in the high profile crimes. When someone's child is murdered in a robbery or a drug deal gone bad or for no apparent reason at all, the public will most likely see a photo or two of the killer, if he's known, but no images whatsoever of the victim. That is wrong.

Why do these murderers' faces need to be shown over and over again? I understand once or twice but to the point of a previously unknown felon's face being burned into our brains? Created by that ubiquitous reality show - “the news”, which routinely turns criminals into celebrities.

If the victim happens to be famous already, like Gabrielle Giffords, that is another matter. Every moment of Ms. Giffords recovery was documented, which is fine. But when she was shot, there were other victims too. Some survived and some did not. If you are an everyday Joe, then it's as if you were killed in a car crash . . . sad, but not so memorable.

My book, “Escaping the Arroyo” is about a crime not as renown as the ones above, but notorious just the same - in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The mugshot of convicted kidnapper/rapist/killer, Michael Guzman, landed on the front page many times. There would have been even more pictures but his attorney informed the court that cameras made him nervous. Contrast that with murder victim Julie Jackson, who's beautiful face never made the front page at all. Recently, also in Albuquerque, another convicted murderer's image, Michael Astorga, who always seemed to be smirking at the camera, dominated the media. Victim Jim McGrane's photo was also shown, but again and even though he was a Bernalillo County Sheriff shot in the line of duty, not as often. As for pictures of Astorga's second murder victim, Candido Martinez, they were few and far between.

My point is, yes, these horrible crimes are going to be discussed ad nauseum, but why is it the criminal's face we remember? Reporting the evildoing is necessary but instead of repeatedly showing the murderer, how about showing the victims - not also, but instead . . . every time. In the case of the deceased victims, all they have left are their pictures and the memories they represent.

                                             
                                            Buy "Escaping the Arroyo" at Amazon.com

                                             
                                              Aurora Colorado Shooting Victims