Home For Fiction – Blog

Some time ago, I read a book that shall remain unnamed (and so will its author). The implied deal was that I would read the book for free, in exchange for a review. I read the book and came up with a detailed review trying to offer several points that would help the author as well as any prospective readers. But one should know how to receive feedback before asking for a review. Otherwise, unexpected things might happen!

In this case, after reading the review, the author asked me not to publish it on Goodreads. The rating I would have offered for the book in question would have been a 3/5 stars. As always, I review and rate from the perspective of the intended audience. But the author kindly asked me not to publish the review anyway.

How to Receive Feedback: Learn to Separate between Subjective and Objective

I respected the writer’s wish and didn’t publish the review. What disappointed me the most wasn’t the fact that I couldn’t publish a review I put some effort in. Rather – and perhaps naturally, for an educator – I was sad because I got the feeling the author didn’t understand the subtle difference between liking/disliking a book and reviewing it.

Indeed, the writer seemed to place emphasis on me not liking the book. Personally, I would’ve preferred it if the focus had been on the objective analysis itself. To be fair to the writer, s/he did mention that s/he was grateful for the review. S/he also said s/he feared it would offend me not to publish it. But that is beyond the point. Indeed, it is another sign that the author took the review too personally.

How to Receive Feedback: A Critique of Your Work Is not Personal

In any case, I decided to publish the review on my blog. Naturally, I do so removing the details that would make the book or the author recognizable. Not only do I feel I owe it to myself, for the effort I put, but I also see it as an opportunity to talk about how to receive feedback.

So, read the review for yourself and draw conclusions. In particular, try to put yourself in the author’s place. Would you have asked me not to publish such a review? Personally, I would see it as a great asset for my novel to have a review like this displayed below it. But, each to their own.

The Review in Question

(any names or descriptions that could reveal the book or the author have been removed)

Let’s start with a sobering realization about reviews in general: few people know how to write fair reviews. A fair review is useful to the writer and prospective readers alike. Unfortunately, most reviewers predicate their reviews on whether they liked a book or not. This is an entirely unfair way to review a book. It is useless both to the author and any prospective readers. (Anyone interested in the subject can take a look at this article).

With all these in mind, let me say it right away. [Book title] is as far away from my personal preferences as a book possibly can. However, I have tried to be as objective as possible. That is to say, I have approached reading and reviewing this book not as myself but as the intended audience.

Intended Audience and Generic Considerations

The intended audience for [book title] is a first problem area for the novel. Nominally, the book belongs to the romantic fiction genre (if we believe Amazon categorization at least). Although some of the necessary genre markers are there (unidimensional characters, focus on the surface of events, and others) the plot has little or nothing to do with romantic fiction, for important reasons which I cannot name in order to avoid revealing parts of the plot.

What is the novel’s genre then? More crucially, what is its intended audience? The way the author has structured the plot, I believe there is a relatively narrow target group. That group will absolutely love this novel. What is that group? Single parents, I’d assume.

There are plenty of rich descriptions of what it means to deal with young, rebellious children being a single parent. Unfortunately for anyone outside this narrowly defined scope, these very details will keep them away. Inevitably, they will come off as too annoying, repetitive, and frustrating, at least in the first third of the novel.

Descriptions, Style, and Pace

Although the descriptions are decent (and the language fully suited to the general style of the novel) there is a feeling of imbalance. In particular, it feels as if there are scenes missing. This occurs both on the structural level (i.e. sudden, staccato jumps from one scene to the next) and on the narrative level (important details are absent).

Focusing on the latter, as it is the most crucial for the whole, I think the novel could use a bit more exposition processes revealing the main characters’ motivations and drives. The protagonist, [name removed], has this hint of depth in a scene where [description removed], when she reveals how her difficult childhood made her more independent. But that is offered like a tender flower, only to be carried on the wind. There is no further exploration of either her past or the motivation behind her present.

Narrative Issues: The Problematic Past

The past in general is a problematic area in [book title]. Not only is there too much narrative linearity going on (one second, then another second; one step, then another step), but critical information is predicated on past incidents that are not properly presented in a narratively attractive fashion.

To explain this somewhat more (as I believe it is one of the areas holding back an otherwise attractive storyline), at around the midpoint of the novel there is a major revelation of sorts, that throws the entire story into disarray. I mean that in a good way. It creates an attractive hook in what, until then, has been a rather lackluster setup.

However, the problem lies in this very description. Why does the entire novel depend on something not influencing the plot until after its midpoint?

Perhaps equally problematic is what the narrative does to exploit this narrative twist. Without revealing too much, this detail is used to build the entire second half of the novel, until its (rather unconvincing) ending. But the foundations of this twist are paper-thin. Hence, the more the narrative builds on top of it, the noisier its eventual collapse.

Genre-wise, the story acquires some rather improbable hues from suspense (even hinting at the supernatural, though thankfully it never goes there) and mystery. Ironically enough, this would probably be the most suitable genre to characterize the novel (more than romantic fiction, anyway), but only if the first part of the narrative had been less linear, hinting more at what is to come.

This is precisely what I meant earlier, when I mentioned the past not being properly explicated to the reader, and the linearity of the narrative holding somewhat back an otherwise attractive story.

Things Happening To Characters; not because of Them

An additional element that I found slightly problematic is the narrative’s insistence on chance happenings. Though it might be a bit silly to bring in narrative theory and literary criticism for such a casual book, it did remind me of Mikhail Bakhtin’s “adventuristic time” – “suddenlys” and “just-in-the-right-times” – which indicate a story where things happen to the characters, and not because of them.

Narratives predicated on chance usually reveal frail structural foundations – in other words, the plot can only be resolved with such chance events, usually culminating in narrative endings that are surprising and avoidable (a Deus ex Machina kind of ending), which is what the ending of [book title] probably is.
(more info on narrative ending types)

Conclusions

After this onslaught of critical observations, one might wonder if the novel is worth reading. Again, I really must emphasize this: a fair review cannot be based on whether the reader/reviewer liked the novel or not. Furthermore, whether the novel is worth reading or not is an entirely subjective matter. Conversely, a fair review should be an as objective as possible exploration of the novel as a narrative product.

Inevitably, this process often becomes clinical and impersonal, whereas reading is an eminently emotive and personal activity. Hence, I am not suitable to offer an objective answer to such questions (other than for my own self as a reader).

On an entirely subjective level, I consider [book title] a generally well-written novel, which can grab (eventually) the attention of many readers, offering a human, everyday story (one, however, that is left sadly underdeveloped). In a literary world full of, on the one hand, witches, ogres, and werewolves and, on the other, arrogant rich men that woo women that hate to love them, a story about family, responsibility, children, and, ultimately, putting one foot in front of the other has my vote.