I'm asking this purely out of curiosity. I tend to look up reviews after I've finished a book already because I want to know what other people think of it. I RARELY look up reviews beforehand; I don't want them to influence my impression of a book, since I know tastes are subjective. The only exception to this is monthly roundups people do of their reading, where they share little reviews of what they read throughout the month, but I think that's different since I'm not going out of my way to look up reviews of a specific book.

I'm interested in hearing why you read reviews!

I saw something today and I’m really curious what other readers think.

Someone commented on an author’s personal Instagram post to say they weren’t a fan of the new book. The author replied with “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” The person who posted the screenshot felt icky about the author’s response.

Personally, I didn’t think the author was out of line. I don’t really see the point of going onto an author’s own page just to drop a negative comment. That isn’t a review, it’s just putting criticism directly in front of the author for no real reason. Review platforms exist for a reason.

I also saw someone comment back to me about this ‘but sometimes authors don’t read reviews and won’t see it’ and I just always felt reviews are for other readers? I don’t know. And also how is ‘I didn’t like this book’ helpful in any way and why does it need to be seen?

That’s just me. What do you all think? Is it fine to leave negative opinions on an author’s page, or should that stuff stay on review sites instead?

Curious to hear everyone’s take.

I recently saw someone say they can’t imagine the setting within the book and they read like they are “watching a movie” which got me intrigued. Personally for me when I read, I might get “flashes” of imagery but I think I’m more focused on interactions and actions! So it’s a bit like I imagine the two characters but the background is blank? I often also don’t really have the full image of the characters so it’s just two mannequin like figures. If there are paragraphs of description about the environment I may take a moment to kind of piece it together but afterwards it’s more of the feeling and atmosphere and doesn’t stick around as an image.

How do you experience stories and does it take effort if you “watch it like a movie?” Do you have a soundtrack playing in the background or is it just environmental noises? Do you even imagine how the character voices sound like? How much detail is there?

This monster is gosh darn eloquent.

Also, can I keep calling him a monster? Demon seems harsh.

i’m boooooored :(

Finished the book and immediately needed to lie down emotionally, spiritually, and maybe even historically.

i’m actually so bored is it going to get interesting? it’s soooo slow 😭