(no subject)
There has been much visiting lately.
Miss eyeteeth came by to Philadelphia this past Wednesday, and stayed the night at my place. We'd only met each other twice before, and briefly, and since then only communicated via lj, so it was nice to have some proper conversation over Thai food and beers. She proved to be delightful company.
Currently, my sister is visiting for a few days. Today, I took her to a reading of Carolyn Turgeon's** Mermaid at kylecassidy's. There were scones and cream and wine and music by Molly Robinson, and I got to see shvetufae, which was lovely. And" tomorrow we are going to explore Old City, and Philadelphia Magic Gardens.
**Carolyn's previous book, Godmother, has the best negative reviews a book could possibly have, as far as I am concerned. It's pretty funny. Whenever I check out an author on Amazon, I go directly to their negative reviews. They are often the more revealing, and even if I disagree with them, they can really help point out the weaknesses of a book--or even just provide a good example of where a book may not sit well with some readers. And if any of the negative reviews are well-written and seem intelligent, I take the critique into consideration when evaluating the positive reviews.
Godmother has a 4-star rating, and most of the reviews are 5 or 4-star ones. The positive reviews just repeat the general PR for the novel: "magical," "original," "a dark take on the Cinderella story," etc. I clicked on the 1-star reviews, expecting to find either a harsh but solid critique, or a simpler "this book sucks, it's so boring" ype commentary. The first of the 1-star reviews said this:
"If you are looking for a sad depressing story that will probably make you cry, then this is the book for you. If you want an uplifting Cinderella story, keep looking. THIS IS NOT A CINDERELLA STORY! This book is very well written. It pulls you into the story and keeps you reading. When you get to the end and finally understand what it is about, you will be sorry you read it. If I could scrub this story out of my brain, I would. As long as I remember this book, I will regret reading it. "
"Are you kidding?" I thought. "This is a ONE star review? That the book is beautifully written, compelling, and so emotionally affecting that it makes an indelible impression? That's high praise, not criticism!"
The pattern continues with the 2-star reviews.
"Ok. There are plenty reviews on here but I've just got to say the obvious which is: WHAT THE HECK?! The moments of beauty in this book were nothing short of rhapsodic. All the way through I was honestly enchanted, mesmorized, lost in ways you just can't get lost in fairy tales anymore. And then, it all came to a crashing halt. This book is marketed and packaged designed to lure the reader in promising one kind of story and delivering another. Instead, this is a bait and switch. Art? Maybe. But I don't care. It was so intrinsically beautiful on the surface, adressing the premise, I can't help but wonder what would have been created if she would have had the courage to see it all the way through. I have never been so hypnotized by "faeries, Cinderella" and the like. This was dark and sensuous, thick with magical dust and possibility. And then, suddenly, it crashed to earth, made fools of us all and may satisfy the intellectuals but crushed the rest of us."
"Trying not to give spoilers here in case you're wanting to read this book, but I found it really disappointing. I guess I was expecting an enjoyable urban fantasy novel with a happy ending--you'd think a novel based on Cinderella would have a fairy tale, feel-good ending. Not so. I was really enjoying the story, and the author had a lot of good things going for her, had created an interesting character that I cared about. But then the ending just wiped all the magic away. Imagine you were saving a nice bottle of wine for a special occasion, only to find that when you finally opened it, it had turned to vinegar. Or remember that episode of "Dallas" where Bobby woke up to find the whole past season had been a dream. For me, the ending was that type of experience. I found it very depressing and felt that the author had just been wasting my time. Don't read this if you like happy-ever-afters."
The only actual criticism I could see was that some readers felt the book was too repetitive stylistically.
"No thanks. I was hoping based on the description for a slightly off beat silly, possibly romantic story that would be fun to read.
Good concept, but that's not what this is. I sort kept thinking through out the book that the text was in a constant repeat mode. The same sets of lines were repeated over and over, this is not a typpo, it was story filler. And it wasn't enjoyable, in fact I eventually got annoyed."
So to sum up: it doesn't have a happy ending. Everyone agrees it's written well, but some consider it repetitive. That's it.
...Yeah. If I ever publish a book, I would love to be so lucky as to get these kinds of negative reviews. Ha.
Miss eyeteeth came by to Philadelphia this past Wednesday, and stayed the night at my place. We'd only met each other twice before, and briefly, and since then only communicated via lj, so it was nice to have some proper conversation over Thai food and beers. She proved to be delightful company.
Currently, my sister is visiting for a few days. Today, I took her to a reading of Carolyn Turgeon's** Mermaid at kylecassidy's. There were scones and cream and wine and music by Molly Robinson, and I got to see shvetufae, which was lovely. And" tomorrow we are going to explore Old City, and Philadelphia Magic Gardens.
**Carolyn's previous book, Godmother, has the best negative reviews a book could possibly have, as far as I am concerned. It's pretty funny. Whenever I check out an author on Amazon, I go directly to their negative reviews. They are often the more revealing, and even if I disagree with them, they can really help point out the weaknesses of a book--or even just provide a good example of where a book may not sit well with some readers. And if any of the negative reviews are well-written and seem intelligent, I take the critique into consideration when evaluating the positive reviews.
Godmother has a 4-star rating, and most of the reviews are 5 or 4-star ones. The positive reviews just repeat the general PR for the novel: "magical," "original," "a dark take on the Cinderella story," etc. I clicked on the 1-star reviews, expecting to find either a harsh but solid critique, or a simpler "this book sucks, it's so boring" ype commentary. The first of the 1-star reviews said this:
"If you are looking for a sad depressing story that will probably make you cry, then this is the book for you. If you want an uplifting Cinderella story, keep looking. THIS IS NOT A CINDERELLA STORY! This book is very well written. It pulls you into the story and keeps you reading. When you get to the end and finally understand what it is about, you will be sorry you read it. If I could scrub this story out of my brain, I would. As long as I remember this book, I will regret reading it. "
"Are you kidding?" I thought. "This is a ONE star review? That the book is beautifully written, compelling, and so emotionally affecting that it makes an indelible impression? That's high praise, not criticism!"
The pattern continues with the 2-star reviews.
"Ok. There are plenty reviews on here but I've just got to say the obvious which is: WHAT THE HECK?! The moments of beauty in this book were nothing short of rhapsodic. All the way through I was honestly enchanted, mesmorized, lost in ways you just can't get lost in fairy tales anymore. And then, it all came to a crashing halt. This book is marketed and packaged designed to lure the reader in promising one kind of story and delivering another. Instead, this is a bait and switch. Art? Maybe. But I don't care. It was so intrinsically beautiful on the surface, adressing the premise, I can't help but wonder what would have been created if she would have had the courage to see it all the way through. I have never been so hypnotized by "faeries, Cinderella" and the like. This was dark and sensuous, thick with magical dust and possibility. And then, suddenly, it crashed to earth, made fools of us all and may satisfy the intellectuals but crushed the rest of us."
"Trying not to give spoilers here in case you're wanting to read this book, but I found it really disappointing. I guess I was expecting an enjoyable urban fantasy novel with a happy ending--you'd think a novel based on Cinderella would have a fairy tale, feel-good ending. Not so. I was really enjoying the story, and the author had a lot of good things going for her, had created an interesting character that I cared about. But then the ending just wiped all the magic away. Imagine you were saving a nice bottle of wine for a special occasion, only to find that when you finally opened it, it had turned to vinegar. Or remember that episode of "Dallas" where Bobby woke up to find the whole past season had been a dream. For me, the ending was that type of experience. I found it very depressing and felt that the author had just been wasting my time. Don't read this if you like happy-ever-afters."
The only actual criticism I could see was that some readers felt the book was too repetitive stylistically.
"No thanks. I was hoping based on the description for a slightly off beat silly, possibly romantic story that would be fun to read.
Good concept, but that's not what this is. I sort kept thinking through out the book that the text was in a constant repeat mode. The same sets of lines were repeated over and over, this is not a typpo, it was story filler. And it wasn't enjoyable, in fact I eventually got annoyed."
So to sum up: it doesn't have a happy ending. Everyone agrees it's written well, but some consider it repetitive. That's it.
...Yeah. If I ever publish a book, I would love to be so lucky as to get these kinds of negative reviews. Ha.