why negative reviews are so scary + how to not fail at writing them

reviewing is just part of a book blogging life.

reviewing is based on your opinion, and how you feel about the certain something. while stating your feelings sounds so easy, i came to realize that it’s not. it’s waaaay more complicated than that. especially if it’s negative, or a negative review amidst the sea of super popular ones.

why writing negative reviews can be scarier than taking a chem final

i lied nothings scarier than taking a chem final you didn’t study for 

1. scared of backlash – when i was writing a review for when dimple met rishi, it involved important topics like sex, and diversity. i read that review 10x to make sure i wasn’t writing anything that can offend anyone. i rewrote every line that remotely looked like i was trying to say something bad. why? because i was scared. i was scared of being seen as someone who doesn’t support such an important thing, and someone who is percieved of being racist. it’s embarassing, and sad to be thought of someone like that.
2. being the black sheep – confession time: way, way, way, back when i first started blogging (like i used to use blogger instead of wordpress) and i read hyped up books that let me down i changed my rating on goodreads so it could seem like i “fit in” with all the other positive reviews.  i didn’t write a whole review because anyone with a brain could’ve seen how fake i was. i don’t do this anymore, and i won’t do it anymore especially if a book is representing something in a very problematic storyline.
3. being sued – okay this sounds of a bit of a stretch, but believe me when i say, i was super scared of writing anything negative about a product, or ANYTHING after i found out you can be sued. i read a blog post about someone getting sued 350,000 for writing a bad review, and lord help me, i don’t need to be so broke that i end up in the negative values. 
4. authors can be scary?? – please read this, as well as this to figure out what i’m talking about.

so while we have that side let’s look on the side where it’s important to posting a negative review, and we shouldn’t be scared of it

1. to start off, there may be people who actually agree with you. and may think you’re helpful because you just saved them a lot of time, by crossing of that book of their TBR.
2. some authors will take the criticism in a good way, and hopefully use it later on to improve on their later books
3. it’s part of book blogging. reviews are pretty much the heart, and soul of a book blog. it’s the second (after goodreads) people look up to for a review on a book. you wouldn’t want to spread false statements on your book reviews.
4. fourth, and most important it’s your opinion., everyone has a different outlook on books, or things in general. so why should a negative opinion be considered in valid?

tips on writing negative reviews

• try to relay your opinion in a calm, and polite way

unless it’s extremely problematic you don’t want to immediately start bashing on an author. blood, sweat, and tears (bts reference!!!) have gone into these books, and the author will probably be upset, and a little pissed off to be bombarded with deragatory words.

DON’T: this book was just soo stupid, i don’t even know how the publisher allowed this to be published! my eyes were literally burning with each sentence. the author made very character sound so stupid. how was this even the final draft??? my grandmother could’ve wrote better than this, and she didn’t even go to school!! 

i think i went a bit overboard

DO: to start off, the characters were more or less developed, and i found them doing something that should really need some looking-over. there were a lot of grammer mistakes, that didn’t help with the already, broken writing 

• look at other peoples unpopular opinions

if you are unable or unsure of how to express your opinion (or if you don’t even know your opinion), you could look at the other reviews to help you out a bit. some people might see this as copying. that’s not the case. if you are quoting someone then of course credit them.

DON’T: *looks at famous blogger* *starts to write the same exact way, WITHOUT crediting them* 

DO: as another reviewer, ________ said, “lot of  plot holes, and dumb characters”. and i totally agree with that… 

• try to be sassy!!

if you try sugar-coating, but you sound like a 40 year old professor, try to make you reviews more entertaining! i love reading, may’s, julianna, or cait’s reviews because they manage to tell if something is not wroth the time, but still make me laugh. i try (key word try) to be funny, but no. i am not.

DON’T: everything about this was so stupid. for example in page 131 paragraph, 6…. 

DO: i have no idea how to be sassy, but if you want awesome exampled read Cait from Paper Fury’s review of Warcross or Em @ softlykaz’s reviews  

• balance it out

if you calm down enough, you might find something that was remotely good about the certain book. i remember when writing  When Dimple Met Rishi, i was so engrossed in writing away all the bad things about the book (which were a lot surprisingly) i forgot to focus on the one good aspect. which was the diversity, because it was so spot on.

I like to think that made me seem less like a angry, rambling, crazy, bitch, and made my conscience feel a bit better.

and one final reminder: it’s okay to post a negative review. you are your own person so by that logic, you have your own DIFFERENT opinions. so what your favorite types of review? were these tips helpful? what are some other tips you can add on? are you comfortable sharing  negative review online? let me know!