Negative Reviews: How I Handle Them and Why I Post Them

I've been wanting to do a post about this topic for awhile now, but I'm just now getting around to it.  It's a debate that I've seen all of the blogverse.  Do you post negative reviews and if you do why do you even bother? So I figured it would be a great discussion post.  Which is something else I've been wanting to do for awhile, more discussion posts, I've been blogging since 2011 and I'm finally at a point where I think I'm a little knowledgeable about some blogging topics. It's time to share a bit of what I know with you. 

Negative reviews are something, that I honestly think, need to be posted.  Yes, I've said it a million times in my reviews, not every book is for everyone, but when you're blogging you are sharing your thoughts with your readers and in your every day normal life don't you share your negative thoughts too? I know I do, if I don't like something I've ate I'm going to tell someone.  It's the same when it comes to blogging and negative reviews, at least that's the way I see it. If I don't like a book I want my readers to know that I didn't like it and why I didn't like it.  

I don't however believe in bashing a book totally or an author.  That is a major no no! Authors work hard on their books and it doesn't take them just a few hours to write them.  It takes them months and sometimes years.  When I post a negative review, I try to find at least one thing nice about the book, if I can't, I still post the review.  (But I must say this has only happened once and it was a book that I didn't even want in my house any longer due to how raciest it was.) I don't agree with bashing the author, the author isn't the one you are there really to talk about in a review.  Yes sometimes I do say this author's words are amazing or this author is fantastic with the way she weaves her plot, but talking about the author personally isn't okay!! Unless you are saying something nice.

Also, when it comes to writing a negative review, I think it's important to remember to be constructive in your reasoning as to why you didn't like it.  For example, I didn't like one book due to it's plot line being like every other book that I had read at that time and it was very predictable.  In the review I mentioned that if the author had thrown in a few twists and turns that I more than likely would have liked the book and given it a better review or if the book needed to be edited to get a better editor.  There are tons of different ways to be constructive and not just mean. 

A negative review isn't the same as a DNF, but the rules I use for negative reviews still apply when I post.  For a Did Not Finish book review, I tell why I didn't finish it.  It's that simple.  Most of the time, I don't rate DNF books, but there again I have in the past, since then I have changed my review style.

I hope this little glimpse into writing negative reviews helped.  If you have any more questions as to how I handle them or why I post them, please leave me a comment below and I will be happy to answer them.