Effective Book Reviews

Book reviews are an integral part of the writing experience. They are a source of information for prospective readers, a measure of an author’s success, and a flexible market indicator for an author’s future. There is, however, an art to writing an effective and constructive book review. I find that the core of the reviewers art is a nugget of truth called, keep it positive.

Keeping our critical works positive is not a new concept; Hollywood has been exhibiting this skill for years. If one listens to how everyone in Hollywood talks about everyone else in Hollywood, it’s always gushingly positive: Finest director I’ve ever worked with, most talented actor in recent film, a cinematographer of extraordinary skill. Sometimes, Hollywood insiders have to reach for a compliment review but they always find one: I learned a lot from his thirty years of film making experience. Well, you get the idea. Very rarely do we hear a Hollywood (or really entertainment) celebrity publicly say some something negative about a colleague. On those rare occasions that a celebrity oversteps his bounds, I’ve noticed that the nay-sayer slowly, or rapidly, descends into obscurity. We just never hear from them again. We could all take a lesson from Hollywood-speak.

Now, don’t misunderstand my message. Hollywood celebrities do say critical things about each other, but they do it in a positive way. Hollywood celebrities aren’t being disingenuous. Most everything they say is true. Their praise may be the only positive, and also true, things that they can come up with to say, but they are true none the less. They just talk about each other in a diplomatic and complimentary way.

As an example, I subscribe to a local movie critic on a local TV news show in my area. Whether he likes a movie or not, whether he pans the movie or not, his reviews are positive. Recently, he reviewed the second ‘juvenile-bro-slapstick’ movie in a ‘juvenile-bro-slapstick’  series. This was not his movie genre. He said that if you like the first j-b-s movie, you would like the second j-b-s movie. He seemed to compliment the movie as artfully satisfying a certain segment of the movie going population. He also seemed to suggest that that select segment of the movie public had value. Then he added, if you are not a fan of j-b-s movie number one, this film may not be for you. He let the rest of us know not to waste our time. This movie was only for the cult following. Masterful. He panned the movie but he presented everything in a positive light.

As the popular antidote says: He could look at her lovingly and say, when I look into your eyes, all time stands still. Or, he could say, you got a face that can stop a clock.

I prefer book reviews that follow this positive profile. I like a reviewer that tell me the aspects of the book that the reviewer enjoyed. It enhances my enjoyment to know what to look for in the book as I read. I like when a reviewer ignores the minor deficiencies of a book. I don’t need to have them pointed out. Most of time, I will be so involved with the story, characters, and plot that I will just flow over the flaws. Most readers than I associate with tell me the same thing. They gloss over the flaws and fill in the gaps. I had a recent review of one of my books that focused solely on a series of questionable punctuation choices. As a matter of fact, the reviewer said that he could ‘not’ recommend the book because of what he viewed as unforgivable punctuation mistakes. I considered his review a whopping compliment. Punctuation errors was the worst he find, woo-hoo. He couldn’t find anything to criticize about my character development, plot twist, spelling or even my wording. It was a negative review but I liked it. I wonder how many people read the re iew and decided not to buy and read the book.
I have read my share of negative reviews, some scathingly negative. The ironic this is that I really enjoyed some of the same books.

Now, as Thomas Magnum would say, 'I know what you're thinking.' There are books that are just so bad that it is difficult to say something nice about them. Well, my local TV movie reviewer just doesn’t review the worst of the worst. For books, my opinion is the same. If the book is just so bad that a reviewer can’t say anything positive, then don’t write a review. If a reviewer just can’t stand it, I suggest that the reviewer contact the writer privately and express himself outside of the public eye. If the writer and the book are that bad, the reading public will find out on their own soon enough.

My name is Jeff Bailey I write action thrillers inspired by real events taken from everyday news. I also infuse elements of my near 50 years of experiences in nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and nuclear research in to my stories.

 Not On My Watch is about a LCpl. Casandra Sing, a Marine aviation rescue firefighter. The inspiration for Cassie's character was the stories that my granddaughter, who was a Marine Corp. aviation rescue firefighter at the time of the writing. Elements of the story are also taken from my service in the Army Nuclear Weapons Program. LCpl. Sing witnesses the murder of two U.S. Army M.P.'s and decides that is her duty to stop the murderers. The situation gets complicated when she discovers that they have also stolen two nuclear weapons.

Welcome to my world!