Honesty or Discretion (Tai)

 Honesty or Discretion?

By Tai

How do you give a review or critique when you admire and respect the person but honestly don't like the writing? When does critique become criticism and when does honesty go from being supportive and constructive to being cruel?

This is my dilemma and it's not the first time I've encountered it.

Writing a positive review for the work of an author you truly love is dead easy. I have been sorely tempted on several occasions to give a 5 * rating and the only reason I don't is that 5 *'s suggests there's nothing left to prove. Writers always have something left to prove; even if only to themselves.

More often, I tend toward the middle ground. A 3 * from me should be taken as the sincerest of compliments and anything above that is 'praises to the Light for your work!'. That's how I personally roll and I'm not speaking on account of anybody else because everybody else has their own personal approach to critique and review.

However, that's neither here nor there. I'm not talking about the goods. I'm talking about the ugly's. The ones that, for whatever reason, I can't justify giving anything higher than a 2. And I know that ain't gonna go down well so... should I?

I recently (attempted) to read a book in my extensive TBR (I have a LOT of catching up to do) by a highly recommended author. (This is how I collect books in my TBR; recommendations). As seems to be common within the #WritingCommunity, not only is the author a well-established self-supporter (something I understand but can't personally get comfortable with), they're also well supported by other readers and writers.

I am now stuck with a conundrum. I expected amazing things. I'd just completed a highly anticipated sequel to a book from another author I sincerely respect and admire, and it lived up to and exceeded all my expectations. I was hyped on high-quality work and amped for more of the same. I was sorely disappointed. 

Now, interestingly, on a side-note, the higher quality work (and I'm assuming both examples are entirely self-published) was practically free. I've made mention to the author before that it is ludicrously under-priced and they're doing themselves no favors but, and I completely understand the sentiment, they argue both a lack of self-faith AND that they're simply grateful their book is read at all.  By comparison, the second author priced their work at almost four times that of the first and, understandably, I therefore expected at least double the standard.

WRONG! Oh, so many shades of wrong.

So, what do I do? Realistically, relaying any of my genuine opinions to the author is going to appear as if I'm playing the petty jealousy card. I'm an author, too. Surely I can find ONE nice thing to say. But... I really, truly, absolutely can't. It's written in decent enough English? There don't appear to be too many spelling or grammatical errors, as such? If I can give one positive, it's that it made me re-evaluate my own writing. It made me ask questions of both myself and my work. Not to mention that it was a sharp reminder to think before I act; I humbly admit I never bothered to read the preview offered and simply bought on recommendation, a mistake I won't repeat. 

What advice would I, as a reader and not a writer, give the author of the work I couldn't read? I honestly don't know. To me, the novel read as if the author had written Cliff Notes, tossed the entire sheaf in the air, gathered them up, and then reassembled them without bothering to sort them first.

Am I being too harsh? Maybe. All right then. Let's approach this differently. Writing 101.

There are many platforms from which to learn writing out there. There are editors and evaluation systems. There are people willing to read and critiqué BEFORE anything goes to final publication. Avail yourselves of the help on offer. NO. Writers don't simply wake up one morning knowing how to write, any more than they were born with language already in their brains. I've said this before; Athletes train and writers should, too. Brain surgeons didn't become brain surgeons just because they felt they were born to be. Pilots didn't simply climb into the cockpit and fly. If you want to write and do it well... STUDY. And for heaven's sake, don't think you can do the whole process from whoa to go all on your own. I know, I know, it all costs money somewhere along the line, and who has any of that to spare, right? But isn't it worth a little investment to do things well? Do businesses, of any kind, simply grow out of wishes? THAT'S a wish.

Invest... in people who will honestly alpha read for you at the very least. There's no point asking for reviews once your work's out there if it should never have gone out there in its original draft form to begin with. Authors, you're selling yourselves short if you waste your great ideas on poor judgment and hasty publication.

In conclusion: The novel in question did not remotely live up to its hype, (at least, not for me) and I sincerely apologize to its author for not being able to live up to my own promise of a review, even though I'd forewarned (as I always do) that I could be brutally honest. I now suspect, just a little, that its sales and circulation are sustained by the desire to befriend and support the author (and I fully understand this as they are an amazing personality in their own right). 

There's a warning in this. Make your own decisions. Do your own research. Don't accept other people's conclusions before forming your own, and... read the previews!

HOWEVER, I have a disclaimer in all of this. 

1) I had recently finished reading two extremely high-quality novels which set the bar ridiculously high for anything I was going to read in their wake. It might have paid for me to take a brief break first. 

2) MY opinion is MY opinion. I struggled. I couldn't get into the novel. The style of writing didn't suit me. 

So, what am I going to do about it? Clearly, I can't give a review. It's one thing to have a few honest and well-placed criticisms to help an author do better next time around (and I've received and been grateful for these myself). It's quite another to disparage an entire work, especially publicly. I'm also not going to lie about how I feel nor sugar-coat things. That is quite possibly how I was caught out because there were so many great reviews and recommendations I felt I couldn't ignore. Then again, maybe everybody but me truly does absolutely love this novel and to them, it's a work of literary art. How would I know?

I'm going to chalk this up to experience and learn from it myself. 

1) Don't make promises you may not be able to keep.

2) Don't blindly accept other people's recommendations, especially ones made publicly.

3) What about this novel can teach me to not make similar mistakes in my own? What is lacking? Why does it resonate so badly with me? Why does it feel so dissonant? 

Not all books are valuable because we like them. Some have the greatest value because we don't. Still, I do regret. And I do feel apologetic towards both book and author that I couldn't offer the book greater favor.

Maybe this time, as I open the next on my TBR.