I’ve been an avid, and flexible reader for as long as I can remember. Books were always my approved escape method, and before my mom died television was for Saturday morning cartoons and when I was sick, not every day. I would always read almost every thing (except in those few years between child and teen, when I swore to never grow up and read boring stuffy grown-up books when I could keep finding fabulous ones in the kid’s sections.)

The amusing rant from Justine Musk on her original take of the Sweet Valley High books (and the decision to update and re-release them) has got me thinking a lot about the books I cut my teeth on, why I liked them, and how I might react differently to them now. I never read the Sweet Valley High books, thought I had a SVH theme “journal” that was less journal and more fill in the blanks SVH trivia. But it had a magnetic flap that held it in place in a time where all the other journals had those silly little breakable locks.

I did, however fall for a few other popular series, namely the Babysitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin, and the horse inspired (did I ever mention I was horse crazy?) Saddle Club series by Bonnie Bryant and the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell. The later was a favorite for longer, because the characters were typically teens and it dealt with more adult themes (like dating, and even the death of some of the characters.) I don’t know why, to this day, I was so drawn to The Babysitter’s Club books, because I wasn’t a baby sitter, and didn’t really want to be. But in reflection I’m also pretty happy with that series on an intellectual level because two of the seven or so character were non-white, and it commonly dealt with issues like divorce, remarriage, family safety and even job loss (for adults). I guess there the draw was that there were a lot of real-life issues (like one of the characters being a diabetic) that snuck in.

The Saddle Club books also features a black main character, the most horse savvy girl in the club was Carole, an Army brat. This series is laced with horse-facts and, as a girl with no actual experience riding, but big dreams that involved my own horse, I gobbled it, and any other horse-themed book I could find, up like candy. I got a good twenty or so books in before I out aged the main characters and started looking for something a little more mature (and something a little longer for my money).

That’s around the time the Thoroughbred series came out. It started with a girl my age at the time, who wasn’t perfect, but was stubborn and determined and hard working. This is also around the time I started figuring out that wishing wasn’t going to make things happen for me, and that teenage-dom was going to be a shake up. I read a good ten or so books in, then two things happened, I got tired of the main character switching all the time (I fell in love with the books over Ashleigh and identified with her, not the others, who were nice, but a new main character every 4-5 books wore on me) and also I started working at a real life barn, which was nothing at all like the racing  barn in the Thoroughbred series. In fact through my high school life I learned a lot about the horse world, even getting a job offer at Churchhill Downs late in my high school life, and I’d pretty much figured out at that point that I’d never have the money or drive to ride to compete, and I was tried of taking care of other people’s horses for them. (Ironically now I would love to take care of other people’s horses for them, because I suspect that kind of work is the only easy I’ll get to enjoy working with horses again.) It was a really adult decision for me at the time, and likewise, pretty hard, sort of like I was giving up on a dream.

In all that time where I was learning what it would take to live my biggest dream (at that time) the horse books stopped being escapsim for me, so I looked for something else. I’ve always had a real weakness for paranormal and it used to be that the only place you could find paranormal stories was in fantasy or horror. I guess it’s no surprise then, that I read a lot of both. I never liked the R.L. Stine books. They always went for that cheesy last twist and I largely found the books shallow. But I found plenty of other interesting books that flirted with the dark and scary for teens. Anyone who says Twilight is an original never read LJ Smith’s Vampire Diaries books. I was a big fan back in the day, and read all her books, from the Vampire Diaries, to The Secret Circle (about a potentially murderous coven of teen witches), Dark Visions (about modern psychics, like remote drawers, empaths and psychometrists), The Forbidden Game series (possibly one of her least popular, but it was about an elf, in the dangerous, Norse magic sense, who was stalking a human girl), and the Night World series (which mixed shifters, witches and vampires). Sadly the Night World series was post poned, with I think 4 books remaining to be completed and the author vanished into obscurity.

Other authors should take note though, LJ Smith fans were so devoted and didn’t for get her or her books. The used books trade for her books when they went out of print was insane. At one point I found the Vampire Diaries books on ebay for $50. Then, a few years ago Smith resurfaced. With the teen horror market in a different place than it was before (and her fan base still wondering what happened to those Night World Wild Powers) Smith’s books were re-edited, re-released and the Vampire Diaries sold to CW and is now a fairly popular show. I’m glad that the smith story has a happy ending, and that both the fans and authors survived those missing years.

In the same time period I read a lot. My teen years were rough and I had a book-a-day habit. I went through a vampire phase, which led me into some pretty strange places, like the Vampire Twins series, about, well, a pair of twins who discover they were genetically prone to being vampires and have to face their dark sides (in the form of their not-pleasant vampire father). As well as Caroline B. Cooney’s vampire trilogy (The Cheerleader, Return of the Vampire and The Vampire’s Promise), which is about a vampire who works out a deal with the teen girls that live in the house he haunts, to drain their classmates and give their skills and abilities to the teen girl. So the girl invariably want to be talented, popular, smart, etc and trade in their classmates to the vampire for these things. These two series showed me about the different interpretations of vampires and opened me up to other things as well, namely trying out adult books.

I remember another vampire-themed horror book that got a ton of rereads from me, about a teen girl who goes to live with her uncle who operates a creepy wax museum and lives in an apartment over it. The teen discovers the town is being plagues by a vampire killer, who it turns out is one of the teens that hangs out at the wax museum and thinks he’s becoming a real vampire. It wasn’t actually a supernatural book, but I remember it was the first place I ever hear the term deadpan being used, and I found it pretty gruesome at the time. (I cannot remember the title of the book, or the author, but I remember it had a green spine and I think there were fang marks on the cover, made by lipstick like the killer in the book was leaving on his victims.)

The thirst for more vampire books pushed me into picking up other books, like Ann Rice’s vampire series (then her Witching Hour series because I’d liked the vampire series), Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde series, SP Somtow’s Vampire Junction (and later Moon Dance, which still blows me away every time I reread it), Poppy Z. Brite’s books and eventually Laurell K Hamilton’s books (thought the vampire burn was fading then, and I was happy to see she had more than just vampires in her world).

Despite the vampire craze I had a side-love for a rather obscure teen fantasy series, The Secret of the Unicorn Queen. It mixed science and magic (and unicorns!) in way I hadn’t seen before and as a budding writer I was fascinated that it appeared to have been written by a writing group sharing the world setting and characters and doing it rather well. It also gave me a break from all the adult setting and themes (but not like adult, adult, because I was a junior in high school before I ever picked up the Anita Blake books and I’d dropped out of college and had my first child before those books devolved to where they are today.)

But the biggest influence to my reading habits, and the one that still means the most to me is Christopher Pike. With a few exceptions I sucked his books up like chocolate shakes. Pike is often compared to Stine, but they were always different. For one Pike didn’t stick to horror. The Eternal Enemy, for example deals with androids and time travel, and The Starlight Crystal is also a dark SF book. Stine had stalkers and killers, but Pike had reincarnated goddesses, witches on rampages, and then there was The Midnight Club, still one of the most heart breaking books I’ve ever read, about a group of terminally ill kids living in a hospice together who gather at midnight and tell each other stories. Cliche, maybe, but anything could, and did happen in Pike’s books so it was rather wild.

I read Pike… well I still read Pike, though most of my collection was lost in a move years ago. Some of his books are being reissued as well, though it looks like my favorites aren’t among them.

So what books meant a lot to you as a kid/teen and how did your reading tastes evolve?

ETA: It bugged me so much I had to look it up and I found the vampire/wax museum book I was looking for. It’s Vampire by Richie Tankersley Cusick.

Last week (I’m still catching up from vacation) the fabulous and lovely Ann Aguirre guest posted at the equally fabulous and lovely Stacie Kane’s blog about her choice between reviewing and writing. Aguirre says:

However, as my career took off, I decided I was an author first. And part of that means not slagging off my colleagues because honesty aside, there is always the “competition” factor. People read your nasty review and think, damn, she’s just jealous that X is doing so much better than she is. It makes you come across as petty, even if you just genuinely didn’t like the book.

I understand this so well, and guys n’ gals, it totally sucks. There is no way around it. As a straight reviewer there is some “They’re just jealous” reaction when it comes to bad reviews (and to make things more complicated sometimes it’s true), but it’s a much bigger reaction when the reviewer is a writer too. That little accusation comes out so much quicker.

I suspect someday I’ll have to hang up my reviewing hat in the name of good business sense and keeping the peace with colleagues. Already I’ve bought books so that even if I don’t like the books the author friend still gets the royalties, I’ve turned down books, refused to review books, and left my ability to be neutral up to other editors (who have so far had faith in my ability to be honest).

There are a few points I have as to why I’m still reviewing:

1. I don’t think publishing is a competition, and certainly not a competition between people.

There are so many tastes, and opinions, voracious readers, trends, paths a career can take… you name it. Authors like Ann and Stacia aren’t my competition, not just because I’m not at their publishing level, or because it’s our books that (will) share space on the shelves, but because their success means good things for my success. Not just because I might, someday get them to recommend me to their audience or blurb my book, or even because they are readers who just might buy my book too, but because their books being published now keep readers engaged and interested to potentially read my books later. They are continuing to foster the audience and the love of reading that I’ll need to foster once I sell my books. they’re keeping publishing alive today so that I can publish tomorrow. Careers take different paths, work on different time lines and spike through different mediums all the time. If I look at the current books on the shelf, or at the other authors or writers around me as competition I’m already failing, discounting the value of the reader and the audience.

2. I believe friends can, and should be honest with each other. Even about the bad stuff.

It’s not easy, but the strength of a true friendship comes from loving each other not just despite your flaws, but because of them. I don’t adore my writer friends because they write great stories, I adore them because of who they are.

I do understand that sometimes pressure is too much (on both sides), and some people do get upset that their friends don’t love their work. I understand that I disappoint people with my reviews. In fact, more negativity has come to me from people upset that my “Liked it, didn’t love it” reviews weren’t “I totally <3 this” reviews than from my outright negative reviews. Which leads into:

3. I don’t know like writing negative reviews, but negative reviews are my opinion and no review/refusing to review is apathy and is a genre-fan sin.

This is why I try to be very specific when something disappoints me or outright upsets me in  book. Because talking about it is still talking about it (and some readers adore the very things I hate), it’s still getting that attention and dialog out there, and refusing to review it is refusing to add it to my scope of the genre at all. Plus, combined with the experience I mentioned previously, more people have been upset at me about the equivalent of three star reviews than for genuinely bad reviews. So I really can’t win. Even if I did refuse to write bad reviews someone would get upset because I didn’t recommend it highly enough, or because I didn’t lather the book with glowing praise.

4. Reviews aren’t just my opinion, they are my dialog with other readers.

This overlaps with my other points, but I feel I need to bring it up. I review for different sites, each one with a different target audience. Dark Scribe is a critical site that puts a lot of importance on a book’s value to the genre, the current mindset of readers and the long view of things. Monster Librarian is tightly focused on educating librarians on the horror genre and one the books that will give them the best bang for their buck. On my own I think about being a broke, but passionate reader with likes and dislikes like everyone else. I think about the wide variety of tastes in readers and who the books would appeal to, even if they don’t appeal to me.

A perfect example is A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix. I’m a hundred pages into this book, and not really liking it. I find the characters boring and the plot cliche and over dramatic at times. But the writing is actually good, the setting descriptions are flavorful and I know EXACTLY who I’ll be giving my copy to when I finish it. I know who will love this kind of book. It’s not me, but there is an audience. What I try to do with my BookLove reviews is connect the right readers with the right books.

5. Right now reviewing pays more than writing.

Actually, I had a hard time with this one, because it seems like everyone wants me to read, review, endorse or help promote their book, but so very few readers and editors want to buy my books. In those dark moments it feels like the publishing industry wants to just take from me (money, time, effort, sanity).

But the rule of making it as a freelance writer is you have to focus on the things that pay your bills. Right now that’s reviewing. Reviewing has gotten me more contacts, more money, a larger audience and a firmer reputation in the genre world than writing alone has. If that changes, I’ll consider hanging up my reviewer hat. But until then, even if I upset other writers, I feel I’m doing what’s right for my career at this point, which is the best any author/writer/whatever can do.

There’s long been complaints about the Amazon reviews system. Most recently Paul Carr at Tech Crunch addresses the issue after a segment of readers began to mark books as one star solely because the publisher hadn’t yet made a Kindle version available. This decision is completely out of the control of the author, so it does seem sort of dirty to punish the author for the publisher’s policies.

But this isn’t the first case, or first kind of review/rating manipulation to plague amazon. Any writer and author, particularly in the small press can tell you about the author who begs people to give them 5 star review only, encourages their friends and family to rate books they’ve never read, or even make multiple accounts (called “sock puppets) themselves to bump up their own rating. Likewise there are authors who reward fans for posting 5 star reviews, but not 3 or 4 stars. And authors who routinely post 1 star reviews to the books of people they see as competition, or people who they have personal grudges against.

Not to mention the occasional flare up of authors against bad and not so bad reviews and the people who post them (and worse, in this case, is the time Amazon actually banned the reviewer when the author campaigned against her 3 star review to the point where the author posted the reviewer’s home address. Remember, Amazon “fixed” this problem by BANNING THE REVIEWER.)

Over at agent Nathan Bransford’s digital place a discussion is going on on how to fix this. The first idea thrown out is to limit reviews to people who have bought the book from Amazon. This is a valid idea, however, it’s far too punishing, in my opinion.

See, I post almost all my reviews to Amazon, but I buy very little from Amazon. It’s common practice for authors and publishers to give out free copies, print or electronic, before publication, or just after, all to create a “buzz” of consumer interest in the book. Amazon already restricts reviews from being posted before the launch dates (even thought they’ve been known to ship books before the launch date.) And while cutting out people who buy books at competitors would be the exact kind of thing I’d expect from Amazon, it would also reduce Amazon’s usefulness to publishers (which in turn would make Amazon’s temper tantrums and  buy button removals less effective).

So why not a wikipedia style policy, where certain books are “locked” when “digital vandalism” occurs?

Well, if you want to know why not: It’s because amazon thrives on the loading of their ratings by authors and sock puppets, and the controversy of revenge fueled low ratings. It gets people going to Amazon, which is kind enough to suggest books the person might have forgotten about. The hardest part of business is getting people into your business and that’s what this level of community and interaction does for Amazon. It gets people looking, and you can’t sell if nothing’s bringing them in. Authors slant their Amazon reviews in the hopes that those 5 stars bring more sales, and Amazon encourages poor reviewer behavior because it helps put Amazon in a position to be irreplaceable.

So bad behavior will continue to be rewarded, especially the bad behavior of readers penalizing publishers for not having Kindle versions. Because, how can Amazon take over the ebook world if publishers keep resisting?

Many kudos to all! (And especially to my editor Vince at Dark Scribe Press and Lee Thomas!)

LGBT Anthologies

• Gay American Autobiography: Writings from Whitman to Sedaris, edited by David Bergman (University of Wisconsin Press)
• Moral Panics, Sex Panics: Fear and the Fight Over Sexual Rights, edited by Gilbert Herdt (NYU Press)
• My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them, edited by Michael Montlack (University of Wisconsin Press)
• Portland Queer: Tales of the Rose City, edited by Ariel Gore (Lit Star Press)
• Smash the Church, Smash the State! The Early Years of Gay Liberation, edited by Tommi Avicolli Mecca (City Lights)

LGBT Children’s/Young Adult

• Ash, by Malinda Lo (Little, Brown)
• How Beautiful the Ordinary, edited by Michael Cart (HarperCollins)
• In Mike We Trust, by P.E. Ryan (HarperCollins)
• Sprout, by Dale Peck (Bloomsbury USA)
• The Vast Fields of Ordinary, by Nick Burd (Penguin Books)

LGBT Drama

• The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, by Kate Moira Ryan & Linda S. Chapman (Dramatists Play Service)
• The Collected Plays Of Mart Crowley, by Mart Crowley (Alyson Books)
• Revenge of the Women’s Studies Professor, by Bonnie L. Morris (Indiana University Press)

LGBT Nonfiction

• The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, edited by Drewey Wayne Gunn (MLR Press)
• The Greeks and Greek Love, by James Davidson (Random House)
• I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, edited by Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole & Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Oxford University Press)
• Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences, by Sarah Schulman (The New Press)
• Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, by Nathaniel Frank (St. Martin’s Press)

LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror

• Centuries Ago and Very Fast, by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
• Fist of the Spider Woman, by Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• In the Closet, Under the Bed, by Lee Thomas (Dark Scribe Press)
• Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam/Spectra Books)
• Pumpkin Teeth, by Tom Cardamone (Lethe Press)

LGBT Studies

• Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities, by Julie Abraham (University of Minnesota Press)
• Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight Against AIDS, by Deborah B. Gould (University of Chicago Press)
• The Queer Child, or Growing Sideways in the Twentieth Century, by Kathryn Bond Stockton (Duke University Press)
• The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade, by Armando Maggi (University of Chicago Press)
• The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century America, by Margot Canaday (Princeton University Press)

Bisexual Fiction

• Arusha, by J.E. Knowles (Spinsters Ink)
• Holy Communion, by Mykola Dementiuk (Synergy Press)
• The Janeid, by Bobbie Geary (The Graeae Press)
• Love You Two, by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli (Random House Australia)
• Torn, by Amber Lehman (Closet Case Press)

Bisexual Nonfiction

• Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life, by Edna O’Brien (W. W. Norton)
• Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents, by Minal Hajratwala (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Map, by Audrey Beth Stein (Lulu.com)
• Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood’s Dark Dreamer, by Emanuel Levy (St. Martin’s Press)

Transgender

• Bharat Jiva, by Kari Edwards (Litmus Press)
• Lynnee Breedlove’s One Freak Show, by Lynn Breedlove (Manic D Press)
• The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, by S Bear Bergman (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Transmigration, by Joy Ladin (Sheep Meadow Press)
• Troglodyte Rose, by Adam Lowe (Cadaverine Publications)

Lesbian Debut Fiction

• The Creamsickle, by Rhiannon Argo (Spinsters Ink)
• The Bigness of the World, by Lori Ostlund (University of Georgia Press)
• Land Beyond Maps, by Maida Tilchen (Savvy Press)
• More of This World or Maybe Another, by Barb Johnson (Harper Perennial)
• Verge, by Z Egloff (Bywater Books)

Gay Debut Fiction

• Blue Boy, by Rakesh Satyal (Kensington Books)
• God Says No, by James Hannaham (McSweeneys)
• Pop Salvation, by Lance Reynald (HarperCollins)
• Shaming the Devil: Collected Short Stories, by G. Winston James (Top Pen Press)
• Sugarless, by James Magruder (University of Wisconsin Press)

Lesbian Erotica

• Flesh and Bone, by Ronica Black (Bold Strokes Books)
• Lesbian Cowboys, edited by Sacchi Green & Rakelle Valencia (Cleis Press)
• Punishment with Kisses, by Diane Anderson-Minshall (Bold Strokes Books)
• Where the Girls Are, by D.L. King (Cleis Press)
• Women of the Bite, Edited by Cecilia Tan (Alyson Books)

Gay Erotica

• Rough Trade: Dangerous Gay Erotica, edited by Todd Gregory (Bold Strokes Books)
• Impossible Princess, by Kevin Killian (City Lights)
• I Like It Like That: True Tales of Gay Desire, edited by Richard Labonté & Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• The Low Road, by James Lear (Cleis Press)
• Eight Inches, by Sean Wolfe (Kensington Books)

Lesbian Fiction

• Dismantled, by Jennifer McMahon (HarperCollins)
• A Field Guide to Deception, by Jill Malone (Bywater Books)
• Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory, by Emma Pérez (University of Texas Press)
• Risk, by Elana Dykewomon (Bywater Books)
• This One’s Going to Last Forever, by Nairne Holtz (Insomniac Press)

Gay Fiction

• Lake Overturn, by Vestal McIntyre (HarperCollins)
• The River In Winter, by Matt Dean (Queens English Productions)
• Said and Done, by James Morrison (Black Lawrence Press)
• Salvation Army, by Abdellah Taia (Semiotext(e))
• Silverlake, by Peter Gadol (Tyrus Books)

Lesbian Memoir/Biography

• Called Back: My Reply to Cancer, My Return to Life, by Mary Cappello (Alyson Books)
• Mean Little deaf Queer, by Terry Galloway (Beacon Press)
• My Red Blood: A Memoir of Growing Up Communist, Coming Onto the Greenwich Village Folk Scene, and Coming Out in the Feminist Movement, by Alix Dobkin (Alyson Books)
• Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag, by Ariel Schrag (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone Fireside)
• The Talented Miss Highsmith: The Secret Life and Serious Art of Patricia Highsmith, by Joan Schenkar (St. Martin’s Press)

Gay Memoir/Biography

• Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back, by Reynolds Price (Scribner Books)
• City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960’s and 70’s, by Edmund White (Bloomsbury USA)
• Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division, by Jon Ginoli (Cleis Press)
• Once You Go Back, by Douglas A. Martin (Seven Stories Press)
• The Pure Lover: A Memoir of Grief, by David Plante (Beacon Press)

Lesbian Mystery

• Command of Silence, by Paulette Callen (Spinsters Ink)
• Death of a Dying Man, by J.M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)
• From Hell to Breakfast, by Joan Opyr (Blue Feather Books)
• The Mirror and the Mask, by Ellen Hart (St. Martin’s/Minotaur)
• Toasted, by Josie Gordon (Bella Books)

Gay Mystery

• All Lost Things, by Josh Aterovis (P.D. Publishing)
• The Killer of Orchids, by Ralph Ashworth (State Street Press)
• Murder in the Garden District, by Greg Herren (Alyson Books)
• Straight Lies, by Rob Byrnes (Kensington Books)
• What We Remember, by Michael Thomas Ford (Kensington Books)

Lesbian Poetry

• Bird Eating Bird, by Kristin Naca (HarperCollins)
• Gospel: Poems, by Samiya Bashir (Red Bone Press)
• Names, by Marilyn Hacker (W.W. Norton)
• Stars of the Night Commute, by Ana Bozicevic (Tarpaulin Sky Press)
• Zero at the Bone, by Stacie Cassarino (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

Gay Poetry

• Breakfast with Thom Gunn, by Randall Mann (University of Chicago Press)
• The Brother Swimming Beneath Me, by Brent Goodman (Black Lawrence Press)
• The First Risk, by Charles Jensen (Lethe Press)
• Sweet Core Orchard, by Benjamin S. Grossberg (University of Tampa Press)
• What the Right Hand Knows, by Tom Healy (Four Way Books)

Lesbian Romance

• It Should Be a Crime, by Carsen Taite (Bold Strokes Books)
• No Rules of Engagement, by Tracey Richardson (Bella Books)
• The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin, by Colette Moody (Bold Strokes Books)
• Stepping Stone, by Karin Kallmaker (Bella Books)
• Worth Every Step, by KG MacGregor (Bella Books)

Gay Romance

• Drama Queers!, by Frank Anthony Polito (Kensington Books)
• A Keen Edge, by H. Leigh Aubrey (iUniverse)
• The Rest of Our Lives, by Dan Stone (Lethe Press)
• Time After Time, by J.P. Bowie (MLR Press)
• Transgressions, by Erastes (Running Press)

After much consideration I’ve decided to split BookLove into two. All reviews of adult books will continue to appear at BookLove. My reviews of kid books, as well as kids’ reviews of kids books, will appear at the new site Kid Tails which remain PG rated so that if kids surf onto the review site they won’t find Coraline reviewed side by side with a paranormal erotica novel.

Kid Tails is also open to submissions (unpaid) of reviews from kids and grown ups alike (especially from teachers and librarian and classes who want to talk about their favorite books). Here’s the dish:

Kid Tails is a book journal site for kids and kid books! By focusing only on kids and kids books we can keep our site clean and kid friendly.

We are looking for YOUR opinion about books. We accept reviews from all ages (including grown ups), from students, parents, teachers, librarians and whole classes!

We will try to post a new review every Monday (and increase our rate as we get more reviews). You can email reviews to ZombieMichele@gmail.com  Please include your name & age (for children’s reviews), name (for adult review), the site the review first appeared on (if the review is a reprint), or your teacher’s name and class (if it’s a class review).

All books reviewed should be for Young Adult audiences or younger. We would like at least two to three lines for a review telling us what the book is about, whether you liked it or not and what the best part was (also please tell us if this book has a theme, like Christmas, or spring, or vampires). Adults are welcome to add comments about the appropriateness of the book for young audiences and how well it could be integrated into teaching plans or parent-child reading sessions.

We will also post reviews of books we have already reviewed (because this will give different opinions or show grown ups which books kids like the best).

Questions and comments can be sent to ZombieMichele@gmail.com.

Thanks and we look forward to reading with you!

Sometimes both “hats” (I hate that term, but it common and easy to understand) are hard to wear. So from the mind of someone caught between in a rather public way, let me offer a few words.

Reviewers are #1 READERS. They are your audience, they are just vocal (and I hope) well-read members of your audience. Almost all the reasons I had for becoming a reviewer revolved around being a reader. I wanted to expand my horizons, record my thoughts of what I read, contribute to the reader-sphere and figure out why I liked the books I liked. Even my quest to build my own audience base comes down to me wanting to relate to readers.

In my opinion the best authors are widely read.

Whichever side of the author/reviewer divide you fall on you can (I hope) understand why we read. The love there of. The search for awesome, satisfying fiction wherever there’s a page and two covers. It’s a voracious desire, even if our reading habits don’t keep up. So if you understand that, you likely also understand the utter disappointment of a book that doesn’t deliver.

Readers ALWAYS bring something personal to a book they’re reading because they have chose that book for THEIR entertainment or THEIR information. If it doesn’t sound even the least bit interesting you cannot get a reader to pick up your book. Readers cannot forget who they are, especially since by the nature of reading it takes a period of time to complete the book and we do not live lives that allow for sitting down and reading the whole book at once. For example it takes me 6-20 hours of reading for me to finish a book and this is considered fast reading. I can finish a book in a day, if it is engaging and I do very little else. So by the nature of the activity there will be interrupting. The book will get put aside for minutes, hours or days. The reader will stop reading to live their lives and as such books simply do not sweep people out of their identities and into the book. Readers can suspend disbelief, but they cannot suspend their own opinion and personality in order to assume the one the author wishes. At best readers can eavesdrop and sympathize. We can connect, but not become.

While I believe that there are no taboos in fiction when you get into offensive and argue-triggering ideas, concepts and events an author must convince a reader that there is point, a purpose, to the story they are being told. I read and reviewed Pain Killers by Jerry Stahl, which was absolutely filled with racism, sexism, addict, hate speech and other highly offensive material. Like Natural Born Killers and most Tarantino films the story is out of control to begin with. It’s dangerous, almost a parody of human behavior at it’s worst. It’s Jerry Springer, with a point, completely over the top and almost a farce of real life. The point is that it’s sadly not an inaccurate reflection of humanity, but by making these things part of an overwhelming narrative the author makes the statement that such human behavior is a over the top farce in and of itself. Now suddenly this highly offensive narrative had a point–making fun of such extremes even as it uses them as tools in telling a greater story.

In short if you go this route, or that of high sex, high blood or gore, it should have a point vital to the storytelling itself. Even Lolita had a point. the best horror stories might be violent and gory, but the the gore isn’t the end all, it’s the dressing up of the point, and in the great novels the gore, like the language is used to manipulate the reader into believing certain things vital to pulling them into the story. The storytelling should not be effective without the use of racism, abuse, gore or sex (Think Palahniuk’s Choke, where the sex is absolutely vital to the telling of the story) if you are going to use it in your book.

As a reader I have a huge problem with romances wherein the hero rapes the heroine. Rape is not attractive. It is not romantic. I cannot stand romance books where the hero rapes the heroine (or vice versa).

However when I read horror the rules change completely, because horror is supposed to make you uncomfortable. A relationship between a heroine and hero that includes rape and beating and even drugging would be acceptable to me in a horror book because it could very easily be a tool to make me feel terribly uncomfortable.

That leads into my next point; Because readers always bring themselves into the story readers will always go into a story with expectations. Some come from the genre (I expect horror to make me feel uncomfortable, scared or creeped out, for example), or from a knowledge of the author’s previous books (you can see an example of my own expectations from an author’s previous books in my review of Prey by Rachel Vincent, where I had to confess that I expected the series to lose its bite as readers got more attached to the characters), or from recommendations they’ve received from friends or online. This will affect a reader’s experience as well–and worse you can’t control this.

On to disappointment. No matter what the reason–the story not being what they wanted, the storytelling not being good, technical writing problems, or even just a story being good, but no spectacular–readers hate to be disappointed. Very rarely does someone buy a book wanting to hate it. Even books that have bad reviews might have elements that some readers like. Some readers literally cannot get enough of certain things (vampires, zombies, love stories) and will read and probably enjoy almost every book with those elements that they can get their hands on. Which is something I keep in mind when reviewing a book I didn’t personally enjoy. Rare is the book that no one can enjoy.

But readers are not against you. We want to enjoy your book. We want it so much we try to push aside ourselves aside to enjoy your tale. (This is suspension of disbelief. We know CSI is NOT accurate, but we pretend it is so we can enjoy the story they are telling, not the sheer heavy details of accuracy. No one wants pure accuracy in speculative fiction, because then fact checking becomes more important than storytelling.) It’s upsetting for us when we don’t enjoy your work, and yes, we do wonder if it’s just us. It’s a reviewer’s job to analyse:

1. Do I like it–Yes or no.

2.Why or why not?

3. Where are the bits that cause me to like/not like it?

4. Are they because I couldn’t connect with this story/these characters or are they do to poor writing? Or both?

5. Would other people like it? Why or why not? And, what kind of people would like it?

6. (Not all reviewers consider this one, but critics do) What value does this book has in the greater context the genre, the author’s career, the current state of the world and literature?

Most books I read are good, but not spectacular. My top complaint is not being able to connect with a lead character. This is completely typical of reviewers, readers, agents and editors. We all do this because we love it. We read because we love it. (For the most part) We are not your enemies, or your opposites. There should be no professional divides. We ARE your audience. We are your street team. Every single reader is not just a sale, they are a potential word of mouth recommender.

We are not reviewers, we are vocal readers.

You can find another great take, from an author point of view here where Mike Shevdon says:

If the reviewer liked or disliked the book, if it horrified or amused them, caused them to stay up late or throw the book at the wall, that is down to their personal experience of the book. They have made the effort to place themselves in an open state of mind that was receptive to the authors imaginings.

…but then the author did it for me. This is exactly why you should NOT EVER snap back at a reviewer. There just is no way to do it without looking like you’re throwing a fit.

My review (which I absolutely stand behind):

“…She needed a man. Hell, maybe if she bothered to drop down below 220 lbs she might find one. That, and she’d have to not talk. Basically she’d have to become an anorexic mute and then she could possibly attract the attention of a blind man with no sense of smell.”

Want another excerpt?

“Oh, and this book is self published, so there will be typos. Oh yes, there will be typos. Think of them as easter eggs. Happy hunting!”

Under is the tale of two bad tempered middle aged office workers who are one small town’s only defense against cannibal creatures who are getting ready for a feast. Quinn tells the truth, there are plenty of typos to “hunt” for, mixed in with formatting errors, like words printed on top of each other. (Note: This refers to the original edition. In the revised edition these are supposedly fixed.) There’s plenty of violence and profanity, along with sexist and racist comments and female characters who are lined up like pigs for a slaughter.

Jacob, the lead character, is very hard to relate to, and framing him not with some kind of amateur knowledge that saves the day, but instead with a load of cops and state troopers who are bumbling idiots and jerks leads to this book feeling like a poorly spun Rambo fantasy. The lack of editing, the -ist jokes and complete stereotyping of every character who isn’t the hero leads to Under reading like a first draft, or first novel attempt that’s not quite there.

Horror is no longer and excuse for sexism, racism and homophobia and self publishing isn’t an excuse for typos and a complete lack of consideration for the money readers might spend on a book. Take your chances on this one, if you wish, but be forewarned it doesn’t have much to offer.

And the public response from the author from GoodReads, available here (behind the cut):

Continue Reading

It is NEVER a good idea to snap back at a reviewer for  a review of your book that you didn’t like. Hmm, perhaps I’m not getting my point across.

It is NEVER a good idea to snap back at a reviewer for a review of your book that you didn’t like.

Never.

If they are wrong, let it go. If they insulted you, let it go. If you think they had an agenda, or didn’t even read the book, or missed the point–Let. It. Go.

Rant in private, to friends. But for gods’ sakes do not email them an insulting letter, and do not start a public thread insulting and ridiculing them.

Because, are you listening? A review is an opinion. It may have weight, it may not. And it’s not because you might piss off the reviewer, it’s because you will expose your inner fucktard and like racist slurs and private porn tapes that inner fucktard is what people what people will recognize you for.

You will reveal that you have no ability to deal with opinions about the work you put up for public sale, and therefore public discourse, that aren’t positive. You will reveal that you have no real respect for the opinion of the reader and no drive to write and publish your best work. Instead it ALWAYS comes off as if the author is a spoiled brat throwing a fit because they didn’t get the praise they deserve, and it looks this way even if the reviewer is wrong. (Except, I refer you back to the above paragraph: A review is an opinion. “Wrong” is not an easy thing to assign to an opinion.)

P.S. Also, many many reviewers and review sites already have a no self published books policy. You’re giving more people a reason add one.

P.P.S. Oh yeah, and emailing me nasty emails means instead of reviewing your book and moving on, I’ll start warning people about you, your work and your nasty email.