Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sometimes a Book Review Says More About the Reviewer Than the Book

I love perusing reader reviews on Amazon.com. I almost always click on the one-star reviews first because those tend to be the most interesting.

Like this review for Robert Whitlow's The List:
    I read this book, not knowing that Robert Whitlow was a christian author. I read the back and it seemed interesting (how I choose most of my books). I was overwhelmed, and not in a good way. The born-again christianity hidden within what would have been a decent story, turned me off. It made me doubt my very existence, and I think that should have been mentioned somewhere on the dust jacket. Don't misunderstand me, I was raised Catholic, and am not anti-religion, or anti-christian in any way, but the feelings that the characters described as hearing God were unrealistic, and for those of us who apparently lack this "calling" it made me feel like I was worthless, and frankly had a very negative reaction to the book with a severe emotional breakdown. Please don't try to "save" me. I just wanted to give a warning to anyone considering purchasing this book.
I had never heard of The List before, but now I kind of want to read it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I got a good amount of joy reading the 1 and 2 star reviews of David Platt's Radical.

Rachel R. said...

Ooh, Radical is a GOOD book! :)

I often choose my books based on who hated them. ;)

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