If you’re already a published author, you may not want to do this. It can be painful. Since my novel isn’t published yet, I can do it for you. When my author friends read their Goodreads and Amazon reviews, they often do it with one eye open. Some give up after their first one-star reviews.
Some of the bad reviews from readers will say DNF as in “did not finish.” This is about as crushing as seeing NSF on your bank statement after you’ve bounced a check. Yet there are people who force a bad book down like cold medicine. As if it’s a test of character to endure every book they begin.
Still, we know that every bad review doesn’t equate to a bad book. Maybe the reader was ticked off standing in the 15 items or less line at the grocery store behind someone with 16 items in the cart. When I peruse reviews, I find a more likely answer as to why people dismiss certain books. Bias that has nothing to do with storytelling or literary merit can sink a reader’s assessment of a book fast. For example, they’re pro-life and one of the characters had an abortion, so they abhor the book. That’s an actual critique I saw once on Goodreads. Not a helpful review.
I’ll put my critique partner and beta readers up against yours any day. They are literary luminaries in my admittedly biased estimation. Still, when I’m in revision mode, I turn to book reviews to understand what keeps readers turning pages and reading a novel when they could be doing a million other things. I pore over the reviews for books I’ve read so I can go back to the text and understand why the reader stayed engaged or slogged through or just stopped reading. I wade through poor reviews look for recurring themes and issues raised by multiple people. A silly, errant thought occurred to me: If I can avoid all the things readers hate, they’ll love my book. Okay, maybe not, but I’ve found some valuable nuggets and some doozies, too, in the cavern of comments.
Lack of emotion and poor character development can flatten a book.
Reviewers often say, “I didn’t understand the character’s motivation.” We’ve all heard that the stakes in the story must be clear, urgent, and high. This matters to readers. Even more importantly, they want to connect with the characters and feel something. Often, they point out that highly stylized, experimental writing and story structure can work well, but not if it keeps the reader at a distance, sacrificing emotional intimacy with the characters. Another problem stemmed from characters not growing or transforming over the course of the book.
The most common assessment is “I didn’t feel any connection or empathy with these people. I didn’t care what happened to them.” Readers remarked that they knew the characters were going through tough times and some lamented they felt guilty for not feeling anything. Even in books they lauded as beautifully written, they were often left empty and uninspired. That stuck with me and I continually return to the post and book by Donald Maass on The Emotional Craft of Fiction. Don does a nice job helping us understand how to give our stories heart and make them compelling.
The pacing was too slow.
This comes up a lot in reviews. Readers mention that the book bored them, and they often point to a lack of tension and pacing that dragged. They try to diagnose the problem and will say too much time was spent developing characters at the expense of a propulsive plot. Or “nothing was happening.” All of this points to narrative drive and story beats that will keep people turning pages to find out what happens next.
There’s too much going on in the story.
One reader complaint is that the author is trying to do way too much. Often, it’s lots of big themes: bulimia, infidelity, homophobia, homelessness, global warming, and mass incarceration. That might be overly ambitious. The story can get lost in an effort to tackle and say something meaningful about all those issues. I also found that readers struggled to connect with the protagonist when her story was absorbed by a cast of multiple characters.
One reader said, “I wish the author would have stuck close to one character instead of shifting to so many others.” In the novel I’m revising, I started with four POV characters and quickly realized that it was difficult to build and sustain full narrative arcs for each of them. There are authors who do it successfully in epic narratives, but when readers only have a watered-down, surface-level understanding of the characters, they quickly lose interest.
The book didn’t meet modern socio-political expectations.
In this #MeToo era, some readers look at fiction through a new lens and are vocal about how male characters behave on the page. Do books need to align with your worldview for you to enjoy them? That’s worth exploring. In one book where the male protagonist boasts about being an occasional philanderer, some readers called his actions “abominable” and “sexist.” One person claimed the novel overtly “reinforced toxic gender stereotypes.” Usually, I don’t comment on reviews I disagree with because I like to play nice in the literary sandbox. So much for that restraint.
I explained in the comments that my own novel-in-progress explores how toxic masculinity affects two of my male characters during a time of heightened economic anxiety. This is real, and I don’t want to avoid it in my fiction. The reader I engaged with in the forum responded that it’s irresponsible, even dangerous, to promote toxic behavior without acknowledging and condemning it in the text. This presents a complex conundrum because I believe it can be authorial intrusion to judge character behavior in the narrative. Still, it’s perfectly acceptable to me if characters check the problematic behavior and call it out as offensive. And if that creates genuine story conflict, even better. Reader comments on this issue forced me to think about the author’s responsibility during these times of social change.
Cultural meaning can get lost in translation or be intentionally misunderstood.
As literature becomes more diverse with people of color contributing in greater numbers to the canon, racial differences emerge in reader comments. For example, I read a review of a novel written by an Afro-Latina author. The book addresses gentrification of an urban city and the protagonist laments the role of white people in her changing community. One reader commented, “I was disappointed by the racism in the book at a time when society has tried to rid itself of discrimination.” I chose to ignore the “racism” charge considering the sociological definition of racism and the structural power required to put it into practice.
In addition, there were readers who challenged the sprinkling of Spanish in the text often spoken by a Dominican woman. It’s true that I like having some context as a reader when a language that is foreign to me is introduced. Still, I’m comfortable with cultural authenticity that I may not fully understand. That’s how I learn and grow. I’ve noticed these occasional critiques in reviews of books written by authors of color. My takeaway here is that some readers expect authors to sanitize their truths and strip stories culturally to make narratives more palatable for certain audiences. That’s a hard pass for me as a writer.
The blurbs and promo copy promise something the book doesn’t deliver.
This happens when the famous author blurb on the front cover promises a heart-pounding rollercoaster of a ride and the book turns out to be a quiet, introspective read. Readers feel cheated. They will ask, “Am I reading the same book he (big-time blurber) did?”
The other issue readers have is with how publishers promote a book in the marketplace. Readers will complain that the novel was marketed as a climate fiction book when that issue was tangential to the storyline or barely mentioned. Some of this may be out of the author’s control, but it’s important to know how your book is being positioned to its target audience.
There you have it. I’m amazed that two people can read the same book and come away with vastly different impressions. Still, there are consistencies in critique that help us understand our readers.
You can thank me later with a five-star review someday.
What trends are you seeing in reader reviews? What have you learned from them as well as your own experiences as a reader? When you’re crafting your novels, how much do you think about potential readers and how does that influence your writing?
About Nancy Johnson
Nancy Johnson writes at the intersection of race and class. Her debut novel, THE KINDEST LIE, is forthcoming in 2021 from William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. This is the story of an unlikely connection between a black woman searching for the son she never knew and a poor, 11-year-old white boy who finds himself adrift in a dying Indiana factory town. THE KINDEST LIE was named runner-up for the 2018 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Award. Nancy’s work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine and has received support from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, Tin House Summer Novel Workshop, and Kimbilio Fiction. As a television journalist, Nancy received Emmy nominations and multiple writing and reporting awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists. When Nancy’s not writing, you can often find her exploring bookstores, festivals, and restaurants in her hometown of Chicago. Nancy is represented by Danielle Bukowski at Sterling Lord Literistic.
Great post, Nancy! You give us a lot to consider as we read and write book reviews. And I loved the idea of keeping these themes in mind as I work on my own WIP. Thanks!
Thanks, Julie! Sometimes I spend hours reading through the more thoughtful reviews. Even when I read a critical review of a book I loved, I see that novel again through new eyes.
Thanks again for the retweet!
Best,
Nancy
Nancy, I really related to your post. Excellent advice. Both in my published books and my WIP, I’ve had reviewers and critiquers say that describing graceful boys as a “boy ballet” was sexist; that I shouldn’t kill off a gay character because, you know, he’s gay; that a teenage girl can’t have a snarky thought about overweight women at the beach because that’s fat shaming and I’ll lose readers; and perhaps my favorite was a 2-star review on one of my books because they didn’t realize when they requested it from NetGalley that it was paranormal and they don’t like paranormal. Eliminating every single potentially offending sentence, offensive character, or controversial topic leaves you with bland, vanilla story IMHO. Having said that, I have learned a thing or two about how to improve my WIP by reading reviews. Cheers.
Hi Densie,
Yes, I read a lot of reviews from readers who have very clear expectations on cultural norms and how characters should be portrayed. I admit that as a black writer I think about wanting to present positive images of black people. At the same time, I know our characters should be as flawed, complex, and nuanced as people really are. The last thing we should do is flatten our characters or stories in service of these expectations. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes in her TED talk, there’s danger in just having one story. When we have many stories in the canon with varied genders, ethnicities, body types, and sexual identities, then we won’t feel as much pressure for each story to represent every truth.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Densie!
Best,
Nancy
I just started Americanah last night and was hooked after the first two pages. She has such a confident narrative voice.
Thanks for your thoughts, Nancy. We live in a world whirling with tossed off comments. If we were to focus on those every minute of our creative time, nothing would come to the page. There are norms, some of them relatively new, that we need to consider, yes. But there will always be misinterpretation on the part of the reader. Some people see what they want to see–interpretation can leap from what is black and white on the page. And why dismiss a total story for one aspect of it? Can’t we grow in empathy by reading the entire story, seeing where it leads? Wishing you the best with your WIP.
Hi, Beth! Great hearing from you as always. I agree that there’s often misinterpretation on the part of the reader. That’s to be expected since we bring our own perspectives, biases, and life experiences to a book.
Best of luck with your novel, too!
Nancy, you offer much of value here, especially in your discussion of hot-button issues and how to treat them responsibly in fiction. I think it is up to readers to know the difference between a character’s beliefs and those of the author. That is a basic skill in reading and should have been taught in school (if not, why not?).
You mention juggling four POV characters and possibly revising your novel to tone that down. That hits close to home, as the novel patiently waiting in line behind my current WIP has four POV characters and I am devoted to all four of their narrative arcs. I will be interested to know how you worked out this problem.
Hi Anna,
I agree. I believe some readers ascribe particular ideologies to the author based upon the storyline and choices of the characters. In some of the reviews I’ve read, the reader mentions googling the author to try to find out if her political beliefs align with what was portrayed in the narrative. It’s helpful to know though that some readers won’t be able to separate the merits of the story from the worldview presented.
About multiple POV… I’ve struggled with this one. Some authors master a large cast of characters brilliantly. In my case, the protagonist’s voice was getting lost as I tried to present full narrative arcs for all four POV characters. Ultimately, my story is about an unlikely friendship between a black woman engineer and a poor, 11-year-old white boy. In revision, I made those two my POV characters. The other two POVs I eliminated are important parts of the narrative, but I’m able to incorporate their perspectives through my protagonist’s POV. Her mother and brother put a lot of pressure on the choices she makes and I’m able to show that effectively without giving them a POV. Now, my protagonist has a stronger presence on the page and the stakes for her are hopefully clear and urgent.
I look forward to hearing how you tackle it. :)
Thanks,
Nancy
What a great article!
I used to train managers and other employees in industry, and we always asked for feedback. After an intensive hands-on two days on effective communication and listening, the feedback that made me roll my eyes and throw up my hands were ‘not enough red candies’ and ‘chairs were uncomfortable.’
It had never before occurred to me that I could have the same experience with a book review.
Negative reviews from well-meaning people are incredibly valuable. First, I listen carefully to my beta readers, and then I challenge them to nitpick. What could be missed? What could be misunderstood? Where did it lag? I owe critical improvements to my product to candid, constructive criticism. It never occurred to me to read reviews that way.
A lot to be learned there. Thank you so much!
Bob, hello. I agree with you. I think we’re often too quick to dismiss criticism, but there can be something valuable to learn from it. I like how you pointed out “well-meaning people” because we have to weed out the commentary from those who aren’t giving thoughtful, insightful critique.
I’m glad to hear you’re looking at reader reviews through a new lens.
Best,
Nancy
Nancy, you offer a lot of food for thought here. But I’m not sure I share your view on the usefulness of delving really deep into reader reviews in order to inform the next thing we write. (And forgive me if I’ve misunderstood and that’s not quite what you’re saying.) Here’s why…
The same book, and indeed the same element within a book (number of POVs, “stances” taken on particular issues, etc.) will get opposite reactions from readers. One person hates multiple POVs while another person adores it. One person reads a character as reprehensible and irredeemable and decides that the author is irresponsible in writing him/her that way, while another reads the same character as someone to be pitied, as an example of what not to be. It depends so greatly on the reader’s lens, preconceptions, prejudices, upbringing, schooling, attention span, etc. And, as you rightly pointed out, it depends often on what kind of day or week they’ve been having.
So while these differences in opinion make for great discussion in a book club, classroom, or online, what is the author to do with it? Do we write to fit particular expectations? Do we write “safe” stuff so as not to offend anyone? Do we write only for the most distracted reader who we can’t count on to read carefully enough to understand our meaning? I’m definitely not interested in writing that way.
When reader reviews complain about the author not towing some particular political line, that says to me that:
1.) The reader has some fundamental disagreement with the character or author and this book maybe just isn’t for them, and that’s okay because there are a lot of different people in the world and maybe someone else is the true audience.
2.) The reader is confusing storytelling with propaganda and believes that fiction’s main purpose is to present an agenda and enact change. Sure, some fiction has that goal, but not all. And when it does have that goal it is far more effective when it is subtle about it than when it is shouting about it.
What it does not say to me as an author is “change the way you tell stories” or “change your mind about Issue X so that you can placate Angry Reviewer.” I feel like once we start doing that, we risk self-censoring and pandering when perhaps courage and backbone is called for instead.
Even with something like pacing I don’t know how I feel about changing the way a story is written in response to reader reviews. For some people (perhaps more and more people due to how our brains are being rewired by our use of technology) pacing could never be fast enough. But there are people out there, myself included, who don’t mind a leisurely stroll through a story. Some stories want to be told at a slower pace. But a reader with different expectations might find them too slow. To me, that doesn’t mean the pace is bad or wrong for the story. It means that that reader likes faster paced books.
Just as a writer can find it difficult to revise a story when they get too much input from too many sources (Blog Post said I should do this, but Beta Reader 1 told me I should do this other thing, and Beta Reader 2 said exactly the opposite, and my critique group had five different opinions as well!) I worry about beginning writers being overwhelmed by the feedback found in reviews and then freezing when it comes to working on their own stuff.
In my work as a freelance editor, and especially when I have done manuscript reviews for people at conferences who are working on their first or second manuscript, I repeatedly hear writers saying “Oh, so-and-so told me to do that” when I question a narrative choice in their story that didn’t seem to make sense or be a natural next step. Almost always it is followed up with, “I didn’t think it was the right thing, but…”
All this to say, definitely if there is a pattern in your own reviews about something like “I didn’t feel like I got to know the characters enough to care about them” probably there’s a problem there and that’s one thing you could work on doing better in the future. But I’d caution against allowing reader reviews to push you around when it comes to your creative vision.
Thanks for this thought-provoking post!
Hi, Erin! Thanks so much for presenting an alternate perspective here. I don’t use reader reviews to inform what I write. However, I find value in using them to keep the reader, or my audience, at the forefront of my mind. I’m not writing in a vacuum.
1) I like to know what readers consistently point to in novels they love and connect with emotionally. While two readers may look at a text very differently, there are helpful elements they point out that I sometimes miss or take for granted as a writer.
2) When addressing socio-political issues in my fiction, I’m interested in reader perceptions and expectations. That doesn’t mean I’m going to make changes in what I write, but I need my finger on the pulse of my audience. I want to think through my responsibility as an author and make clear choices.
I don’t view it as readers “pushing us around.” They’re the ones I’m writing for and I’m in conversation with them through the narrative. Whether I agree or disagree with their assessments, I always want to be aware of who they are and how they interact with stories.
Thanks again, Erin, for your honesty. That’s why I know I’ll always get an honest critique from you. :)
Best,
Nancy
I think the way you describe your use of them seems useful. I was just thinking about how someone who was perhaps less confident might find them overwhelming to the point of paralysis because I’ve seen that so often in writers. Carry on!
:D
Nancy, your post today is certainly thought-provoking. I kept having one thought, “Writing to reader comments is like teaching to the test.” Meaning it’s specifically goal-driven, at least to some extent. It’s too soon for me to have much personal experience to share, but my gut reaction is that reader comments on other books are educational, for certain, but they don’t drive my work.
Mia, hello. Interesting analogy to compare this to “teaching to the test.” I think we’re on the same page. For me, reader comments are educational. I like to see what drives readers to engage with a book. Often, these things are universal tenets of storytelling. But no, reader commentary doesn’t drive decisions I make on which stories to tell. Instead, it’s a way to get out of the writerly bubble and hear what real people have to say.
Thanks for sharing.
Best,
Nancy
Great post! Reading reviews of one’s own book can be painful and misguided. Reading the critical reviews of great works of literature like Anna Karenina and The Goldfinch gives you some perspective. Some of my friends complain about the chauvinism of writers like Philip Roth, James Salter and Richard Ford. But I really love those authors. One of my best friends read Wallace Stegner’s classic, Crossing to Safety and pronounced him antisemitic. I highly recommend reading The Sound and the Fury for insight into multiple POV and some unusual style.
Hi, Luna!
Thanks for the book recommendation. You’re absolutely right that two readers can see very different things in the same book. That’s why I enjoy reading critical reviews of books I loved. It helps me analyze the text more carefully and look under the hood a bit.
Of course, there’s no substitute for knowing your own intent as a writer and being true to that. But I still find it helpful to listen to the voices of our readers, too.
Best,
Nancy
Thought-provoking post Nancy, so thanks for that! For those who are traditionally published, I think we have to also keep in mind the important role played by the professionals in bringing a book into the hands of readers. Prior to a novel arriving on the shelves, the author has already received agent input and editor input. Revisions are suggested and made based on their professional experience of the market as a whole. Readers who review books are very small pockets of expectations as most readers simply read a book and pass it on, recommend it to friends, shelve it or (shudder) throw it out.
I was fortunate enough to have my first novel nominated for a young readers choice award by the OLA. My book didn’t win but it did stay on high school reading lists for quite some time, filling my email inbox with student reviews for several years. It was an excellent education in being alert for repeat opinions that could be useful for future projects but what I also learned was that you are never going to please everyone and you’ll make yourself crazy if you try.
Tell your story your way. If your characters have warts, don’t hide them. Human beings are flawed. We don’t all act in a politically correct manner, we don’t all have the same moral codes, the same world view. Those differences will and should be reflected in our characters.
Linnea,
You make great points. We will never please every reader. I’ve received input from a critique partner, multiple beta readers, workshop leaders and participants, as well as a professional editor. All of them gave incredible insight from their perspective as writers. But when readers tell you what they think about a book, they’re usually not using the language of craft. They just know what worked for them and what didn’t. I love hearing that and find it helpful.
I agree with you about presenting flawed, complex characters. That’s vital.
Thanks again,
Nancy
This is brilliant… When it’s Someone Else’s Book, I can gain a lot of insight from a negative review — without feeling defensive!
Okay, right, Janice?! When you’re not emotionally involved, you can read a review more objectively. :) Thanks for commenting! – Nancy
Nancy – I really love this way of seeking what readers are hoping for in a story. It’s good preparation for whether or not we’ll want to see our own reviews in the future, too. Ha!
Like your reservations with how cultural meaning can get lost in translation, I read critically reviews that have your “too much going on” point, too. Frequently it’s a prejudicial red flag to me when I see reviews thinking that there can’t be both homophobia AND racism addressed in a story. Or “you already have one gay character, did there also have to be one who is transgender?” as though these situations all live in a vacuum.
I like to look at 3-star reviews as a reader, I wonder if I start looking at them through the writer-lens I will be able to pull out what a story looks like that is neither “meh” or “WOW!”?
Hi Janet!
Good to see you here. Like you, I often gravitate to the three-star reviews. The snarky, rude comments are usually found in the one-star reviews. The three-star ones usually come from people who enjoyed the book but have some interesting critique to share.
I agree that the criticism of “too much going on” shouldn’t keep us from having more than one marginalized character in a story, for example. That being said, I have read books that pack too many themes and stories into one novel. I studied novel writing with Ann Hood for a week a few years ago and she said a lot of writers want to throw explosions and shootings and dire diagnoses into one story to make it interesting. I still remember her advice: “Trust the affairs of the heart to be enough.”
Thanks for sharing, Janet.
Best,
Nancy
Great post. I write reviews for most books I read, because as a writer I appreciate how helpful it would be to the author to hear about how her/his work has touched me. I typically don’t write negative reviews because I’ll stop reading If the book fails to keep me engaged. Therefore, it’s an out for me, to not comment about a work that I didn’t finish. My WIP has four POVs, that’s the story I want to write about. I love to read multi POV stories with common threads. You’ve presented great food for thought in that piece. Good luck to us with turning our WIP to a book to be reviewed one day.😊
Thank for the sharing such a great blog. Thumbs up!!