Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The Joy of Bad Reviews

Last night I finished Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. I loved it. I should add that I was listening to the audio version and that Frances Sternhagen’s performance was mesmerizing. I came away having truly fallen in love with the book and being ever so glad Dolores (not a spoiler) killed who she killed.

But the best part was going to the Amazon page and reading through the 1 star reviews.

A few of my favorite comments from negative reviewers:

“Terrible book by a great author. I really like Steven King but this book was so bad I couldn't finish it."

- Randy225

The following review, one must note, is for the movie, but they posted it as a review of the book... giving a 1 star to the thing they liked rather than the abridgment they despised:

“The adaptation only skims the very good plot of the novel and Jennifer Jason Lee is awful and irritating as the daughter who isn't even in the novel in her adult form. None of the eeriness from the novel is in the movie. If the screenwriting had been better, the portrayal of the other characters could have made this a good movie."

- Lauren
“The language level was atrocious: barbaric, stupid: the kind that appeals only to goons, idiots and, apparently, Americans(Canadians are Americans, too, genius). I scoff on the term Best Seller. As far as I'm concerned, it means beans."

- Anonymous Coward
I can’t tell you how heartening it was to see those reviews. Maybe you understand why. If you’re an author, I can almost guarantee that you do.

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