ON BRUTAL REVIEWS

Love them, hate them...

I always marvel at Pa Ikhide’s ability to be ‘rudely’ blunt. This makes me wonder sometimes—do people really say the truth when they review or talk about your book online? Or are the words they utter in private the recording you need to steal and play? One thing I am sure of, at least, is this—people who love your work rush to post about it on social media. People who don’t, or at least who weren’t blown away by it, remain silent. In retrospect though, I remember a respected author who once said reviews are for readers and not the writer. That could be true to a large extent and yet debatable.

My verdict:

Some of the most honest reviews come from people who don’t know you or have never met you before. This category may insult you or tear your work into pieces online without mercy. They are also the group that could rave about it to high heavens and promote it as though it were their own.

But, I almost forgot, here’s another category—those who recognise that you’re adored and famous and who don’t want to be the odd ones out who hate your book. So they too try to gush over it in public. Why? Because they probably are writers too, or at least roam within the literary circles and as such are afraid of losing a friendship they hope to have someday. I, however, have a friend who’s well-known in literary circles, and yet dared to brutally (and respectfully) critique a certain famous author’s work in a review. He didn’t back down one bit about what he thought didn’t work. And guess what? They became friends.

Talk soon.

—Nathaniel