A friend once asked me to review on Goodreads a book she was planning to indie publish in a few weeks. Like a shmuck, I said, “Sure, I’d love to” with no further details. I had briefly workshopped stuff with this friend (before dropping out because I had no energy to write at that point in my life). Her stuff had been mostly fantasy YA, and I had enjoyed it. I was sure I would have no problems reviewing this book positively.
I was so wrong. The book turned out not to be SFF but a romance novella. For me, romance is like salt. I don’t mind a little in my books. Occasionally, it really hits the spot like a good salted caramel. But would I ever eat a pile of salt? Nope.
Not only that, but it turned out that the book was, well, just okay. Like, if my friend was still workshopping the book, I would have had lots of questions and feedback. But my friend was ready to ship the book and just looking for some reviews to get the ball rolling. I had no idea what to do.
Continue reading “On the Ethics of Negative Book Reviews”