Things that make me go “Meh” reviewer edition
Here’s some palate cleansing musings on what I like and hate when it comes to reviewing.
Like: Genre bending. And gender bending. But mostly mixed genres, like paranormal mysteries, urban fantasy, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, SF mysteries. Think The Princess Bride (romantic fantasy), Practical Magic (paranormal romance), The Crow (dark fantasy), Constantine (mystery fantasy) etc.
Dislike: Romance only plots. If the entire plot is two people getting together, in multiple (or not) senses of the word “together” I’m not your audience. If you have paranormal, SF, humor or mystery aspects added in, I’m game.
Like: Stories that start with a trope or cliche and totally make fun of them or do something new with them. Think Shaun of the Dead.
Dislike: When authors don’t add their books to sites like GoodReads and LibraryThing. I post my reviews there too, so if you want your reviews spread add your book to their databases.
Dislike: Rape as romance. Seriously, I cannot stand this. If you have your heroine or hero raped and then try to set up the rapist as a misunderstood love interest I will put your book down and review it as is. This also includes scenes of “questionable consent” via emotional manipulation, drugs or alcohol. In romance books or romantic plots. Rape as romantic totally has a place in horror books, bu you should not bill it as a romance–as in meant to be romantic or make the reader think romantic. I’ll quit you.
Dislike: Stories that try to make the lead character sympathetic ONLY by making all the other characters pick on them. Does not work. I will put the book down.
Dislike: “Molester”, “Abuser”, “wife beater”, “tranny”, “rapist”, “gay”, “black”, “Nazi”, etc as character descriptors. Don’t tell me someone is a wife beater and molester and that=bad guy. Show me how evil the person is. Don’t tell me a character is a stereotype, show me. I’m not against stereotypes, because like cliches they can be interesting places to start, and sometimes you can’t avoid having a flat character (like they’re tertiary or lower, or they embrace the stereotype wholy and that is their character) but try, okay?
Like: Sarcasm. Humorous jokes. Irony.
Dislike: Gross humor, gore, violence, foul language–used gratuitously. A basic rule of writing is that every scene, event, etc should mean something, contribute to the plot or the world building or the setting. Stick to this one. Even if the purpose is “distraction”. Ones that worked for me–the ADD nature of Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin, the second brother’s POV in Amberville by Tim Davys, the violence and gore in Wrath James White’s work. The violence in the early Saw movies (because there was a point to them, a lesson.) What hasn’t worked for me: Most slasher movies. All the sex in The Tudors.
Dislike: Any plot line where the climax depends on the author withholding a key bit of information from the reader. You know, most of the Tales from the Crypt stories.
Meh: Characters I can’t connect with. This is my most common reason for marking a book a three instead of higher. I just never connected with or felt for the character. Sometimes it can be helped, sometimes I’m just not the target audience. So this is a meh instead of a full dislike.
ETA: Dislike: Really bad science. Fake it, fine. Make it sound realistic, fine. I’m not a stickler, but blatantly bad science (like giant nuclear waves that shatter, somehow escape orbit again and destroy the sun, or visitors crash landing on a planet and walking out without any idea of the atmosphere, gravity, temperature, etc.) throws me out of a story very hard, and makes me start picking apart the rest of the story.