I’ve seen every version of a bad book review from, “It didn’t resonate with me, but it might for someone” to harsh roasting. I’ve been guilty of the former mentally, but I can’t bring myself to actively type out words and bash a book (other than Twilight, but I mean… are you kidding me, it’s Twilight). I either find something in the book that I like or I don’t review it at all.
The reason for this comes back to my admittedly weird belief in karma. If I say something negative about a book being absolute trash, I’m convinced that when I publish a book that I poured my entire heart and soul into, it’ll be shat on to no end.
It’s terrifying and superstitious, but I don’t like to put out bad energy. It always comes back to bite you in the butt. Will I be honest? Sure. Will I censor myself? Probably. I’ve taken photos of bad pages that were actually published and showed friends with the caption, “Am I being judgy or is this awful?” Most of the time, we laugh about it and move on, but it’s kind of like gossiping about something that’s cringe, right? Anyone saying they don’t gossip is absolutely lying, so don’t play.
I know the consensus is that an honest review, whether positive or negative, could actually help an author grow, but it just feels ick to me. What are your opinions about bad book reviews?
Raine August 
I definitely understand the sentiment, but I disagree to an extent. If I do find a book that is bad, I will review it but will outline by it is bad in a somewhat constructive way, especially if they are indie authors. For a lot of indie authors, having someone to at least read their work and review is both an oasis and gaining notoriety. At time same time, those review bombing books with 1-star ratings and telling the author he/she/they are a loser and should die is NEVER appropriate.
If people were talking trash about my books, I would at least like to know why. I won’t criticize the critic or argue against what my critics are saying, but I wanna know why I got two stars for something I wrote, y’know?
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