I was on good reads, and sometimes when I am reading a book I like to get a vibe check on what others thought of the book, and compare it to how I am feeling as I read. I usually aim for the 3-star reviews because they usually are the most balanced and tend to not have spoilers.
However, I came across a review for an adult sci-fi novel that was docked stars because it had cussing and sex. The reviewer assumed that because the author was Christian, his alien war novel would be free of violence, cussing, and worst of all *coitus*. They LOVED the book otherwise. When did religion start interfering with honest book reviews? I am Christian and am fine with these things in literature because they exist elsewhere in the world. I certainly wouldn’t dock a book stars because it included something I morally disagree with. I view literature as a safe place to explore morally grey areas and motifs and use it as an opportunity to expand my way of thinking and grow my understanding of the world.
Of course, the user banned people they don’t know from commenting on their review, completely preventing any reasonable discourse. Bad words = book bad \*caveman noises\*
This kind of thing grinds my gears. What are some of your pet peeves on book reviews?
by Cubicleism
6 Comments
Goodreads reviews are garbage in general.
Goodreads can be a bit like the Wild West sometimes. Everyone has different criteria for how they award stars. You can go from full thoughtful reviews, to a book report that tells the plot, to a post filled with gifs as if Tumblr became sentient and got a library card. It’s all part of the “charm.”
I always get a kick out of those exact reviews because full Christian Sci-fi is honestly, really bad.
You always end up with overly bland character, black and white morality where the good guys are unambiguously good (can’t have a morally flawed stand in for Christian values, nope) and the bad guys are unambiguously bad with no relatability (can’t having people in any way liking the representation of Evil), and the good guys win at the end of the day through the power of unwavering belief, friendship, and doing the right thing all along, for which they are rewarded, while the bad guy is punished for his wickedness. Good triumphs over evil again, Huzzah!
Booooooooorrrring!
>When did religion start interfering with honest book reviews?
I guess at the same time it started interfering with book writing? Because for some writers their religion does have a big influence on their writing, while for other writers it does not … but this might lead to the assumption of some readers that the writings of a religious writer are automatically influenced by their religion.
I have seen so many reviews on Audible complaining about the swear words!
Many low ratings and reviews that say the author used the word fuck too many times.
You are an adult! Why does this bother you?
It’s really frustrating. I think it is mainly sheltered religious folks who can’t tolerate swear words in books.
It doesn’t matter what people rate books. If they dislike it for having foul language, then so be it. You can simply ignore their opinion if it doesn’t matter to you. Further the numerical rating itself is almost meaningless, especially in a vacuum (i.e. you don’t really know the user’s general approach to rating). If people don’t want to defend their review to commenters on GR, that’s also their prerogative. Just write that person off and move along.
You are better off finding critics or even amateur reviewers (like those on GR) whose approach to reviewing you understand and following them. This will allow you to situate each review in a greater context.