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I’ve been seeing quite a few TikToks of readers sharing the books that they absolutely hate. Even worse are the videos of creators listing the books that will automatically put you in the group of people they will never trust if you list a book that you like that happens to be on their lis of books they hate.
These videos all feel very off-putting to me, especially as I continue to work on my own novel and edit the books that others have spent time to write. I know how much work goes into writing (unless you’re one of those folks okay with theft and using AI). I also know how much vulnerability you have to exhibit to put your work out for agents, editors, publishers, and the public to judge.
Of course, I used to review video games in a past life. And I have given out a bad review, but those are the rarity. For all of my reviews, I did the work of playing the game and taking note of the art, music, writing, and gameplay. I thought about the game in the context of its genre, and I thought about the people willing to shell out money to play a game. I have never given a zero score, but I did make sure to make note of technical glitches or poor translations that would have made the game hard to play through for people purchasing the game.
These types of reviews took work, and I never lightly gave out low scores based on a general “dislike.” I know that folks can get a lot more engagement on social media by stoking the outrage machine and going on and on about what they don’t like. And there are whole groups of folks who will say something is bad because it’s political (that is, it has a woman as a protagonist) or says something that they don’t generally agree with.
That’s just not something I can get behind, especially because I know how hard it is to create these works and the courage it takes to get these stories in front of people. So, I’m much more likely to post about things that I do like than the things that I don’t. And if I do write about something that isn’t working, I make sure to note why it isn’t working for me (well, this book is very well written, but, no, I’m not interested in cannibal serial killer spicy romances, thank you very much).
But, I tend to stay away from being negative about the media I consume nowadays just in general. I’m much more interested in uplifting media that I truly enjoyed (like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which was a brilliant book that I couldn’t put down and still think about weeks later).
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