Author Note: This post was originally published in May of 2018, but I have edited it since then (April 2025) to reflect my current thoughts and book review practices.

Good afternoon, lovely Arrowheads! If you frequently review books, you more than likely have come across a few reads that you were not fond of. Whether you found the plot to be weak, or the characterization poor, you’re planning on writing a negative review of the work.

Now, the devil and the angel are sitting on your shoulders, trying to convince you of whether you should completely bash the work and point out all its flaws, or take the the polite route, mentioning why you didn’t like the book and offering constructive criticism for the author. Which should you choose? Might I sway your decision with these few reminders:

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. My intention in posting this is not to offend or judge anyone who may write heated book reviews. I have in the past, before I became an author. This is just an encouragement to reconsider and think of the author before saying things that are ultimately unhelpful or mean-spirited.

Consider the Author

As an author who has been on both sides of the argument, I suggest taking the polite route. “But why?” you may ask. “I despised this book. It grated my every last nerve!”

Here’s why: Authors are people, too. Authors can see their reviews. Authors can see posts they are tagged in or that include their hashtags on social media. Some authors, myself included, already have insecurities outside of the writing world. Oftentimes, writing is the one outlet where they feel their contributions matter. Offering unwarranted, unexplained hateful comments because it’s entertaining for you is rude, plain and simple.

Consider How You Would Feel

As a former book reviewer, I know it’s easy to let your negative take on the book set your fingers aflame on the keyboard with a colorful rant about how terrible the book was. I’ve been there in the past. But, keep in mind that the person who wrote the book may see your review and give up writing.

Now, you may be thinking, “Well, tough luck! They’re a published author! They should grow a thick skin!” Okay, let’s turn that around: how would you feel if your new book, which you put your heart, mind, and soul into for months or even years was met with the following review:

This book was straight trash. The plot was cringey and made me want to plunge my head into the sand like an ostrich. I’ve never met the author, but I could tell she’d be annoying just by how unbearable the book was. The author has no talent whatsoever and whoever decided to give her a publishing deal must not be able to read. By far, this is the worst excuse for a book I’ve ever read!

This type of review points out that the book is a stinker in the reader’s eyes, yet doesn’t offer any specific reason as to why they think so. Does my point sink in yet?

As an Indie author, I have yet to receive a review that hateful and unwarranted, but if I had of as a new author, I honestly would’ve cried myself to sleep, believing my author career has been forever tarnished. Now that I’m several years into my career and have received low-star reviews on my books, I know everyone gets bad reviews and have used the constructive criticism in some of them to better my writing. But still, hateful reviews can be hard to take!

The sad thing is that there are loads of scathing reviews like this being posted on a daily basis, and what we should ask ourselves is why? Does it make some readers feel superior to tear authors down? Are they just doing it for their own entertainment or to create shock value? I don’t know. But now that I’ve seen both sides of the story, whenever I share my opinions on the books I read now, I keep this old familiar phrase in mind, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” So, how can readers write a polite negative review without discarding their promise to be honest?

Writing a Polite, Negative Review

Though I made the decision in 2020 to no longer write or share book reviews, the most polite thing I knew to do when writing negative book reviews in the past was to offer constructive criticism about what didn’t work for me as a reader. For example, if the story felt as if it were dragging on and caused my interest to wane, I might’ve said, “at a certain point, the plot lost my interest. I feel that if a scene or two [name the scenes] were edited out, this would not have happened.” Or, if the characters felt two-dimensional, I might offer, “[name characters] could have been more developed in the following way.” If there were positive attributes about the book that I really loved, I mentioned those as well to balance out the constructive criticism.

If you happen to come across a book that you can’t seem to find anything nice to say about to balance out the negative, it may be best to follow the old saying and say nothing at all. For readers, I’m not going to advise you to not leave 1 or 2 star ratings (or critically written 3 star reviews); the choice is entirely up to you, the consumer.

On the other hand, for fellow authors, I will advise you that it doesn’t portray you in a positive light when you rant about how much you dislike a fellow author’s book via your author accounts. Prior to 2020, before I made the decision to no longer rate books at all on my Goodreads, a personal objective of mine since I had become a published author was to not post reviews for works that I thought deserved a 1 or 2 star rating. The lowest rating I personally posted of a book was 3 stars, and in my opinion, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the book was bad, but that it could have been improved in certain areas to make it better. Fellow authors, keep in mind that your comments can be seen not only by the authors, but by your followers and friends as well. Would you rather be seen as an author comparable to Simon Cowell on his American Idol run, or an author who is kind to other authors and actively builds them up instead of tearing them down?

Let’s try to keep the Golden Rule in mind: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 7:12 🙂

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

Do you have any other tips for writing a polite, yet negative book review? Share your tips in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀