So today I was talking with a bookclub I was going to join, but decided against it because unfortunately I was very very different from them and they just wouldn't have a good time since I don't fit in at all. (Womp womp for me. Maybe next time!!)

For a moment, we actually almost started an argument. They brought up the last book they read, and I meantioned that I also read it and unfortunately didn't like it... I know I shouldn't have said this, I was just nervous and blurted it out!! But the conversation basically turned into an argument that hate-reviews and/or overly negative reviews should not be public if they aren't constructive because the author spent a lot of time on their book and it won't change now that it's published, that if you aren't an editor or author yourself you don't have the credentials to offer such criticism, and that all reviews should offer some kind of constructive criticism to help the author grow for their next work...

And more, but... I didn't really feel like retelling how a group of people yelled at me... 😭

So. I write pretty negative things about a lot of books. Unfortunately I am very fussy and picky with books most of the time, and I have definitely written a hate-review(?) or two before. But I NEVER tag authors or insult them as a person. I always thought that if you buy a product, you are open to criticize and dislike it, because reviews aren't for the one that made the product... but for people looking to buy said product.

The whole thing made me feel some type of way, and I'm not sure if I'm just being sensitive because they called me out but I just wanted to know what other people think and how you guys write your reviews! Do you think authors belong in reader/review spaces? How do you go about writing your reviews? I'm very curious and I want to do better with my own reviews.. 🦭

Listen, I know it's a parody of an already less-than-excellent book, but it is killing me that somehow the house the mer are currently in is described as being underwater (they're all tails out, there are direct mentions to the water around them) but also is "in an air pocket" where Mariah is breathing (also Mariah had to be told she was no longer underwater which?????????) If the point of the parody was the book is truly terrible, then it wouldn't annoy me, but since Joonie is saying to hate on that book is to be a misogynist I'm slowly dying every other chapter.