This, my friends, is fact. You are welcome to deny it all you want, but the truth to what I am about to say remains.
All my reviews and most of my posts are my opinions. Obviously, if I summarize a book, the summary’s fact, but when I talk about the writing or the characters? That’s my opinion. No, I don’t say “This is my opinion” or “I think” all the time, but it’s just a given and should be mentally added in front of most of the sentences. I shouldn’t have to say that every time. Besides, it’s on my About page. It’s pretty pointless to keep restating it all the time. I know most people aren’t geniuses, but I’d like to think that they have at least some common sense as well as a sense of decency.
Apparently, I’m wrong on both accounts.
The other day I got my very first bashing comment. To be honest, I was kind of exciting since although I have gotten a comment that disagreed with one of my negative reviews, it didn’t swear at me, and I’m pretty sure the grammar was acceptable. And actually, I just started laughing when I read this comment. Not that there’s really anything funny about being called an a****** and being yelled at over the internet because you didn’t really like Eldest. It’s just pathetically sad. (Do you hear me, overzealous fans who use annoying chatspeak? YOU ARE PATHETICALLY SAD! Look, now I’m yelling, but I really think I need to get this point across.)
Here’s the thing: insulting someone who’s a perfect stranger and telling them they don’t know anything because they don’t like a certain book…it just…well, honestly, it makes me hate that book even more because it shows that the fans can be jerks.
I like to read the Bringsr forums on Amazon. You get a lot of fans and a lot of non-fans there. The fans question why the non-fans even check those forums. Well, this non-fan finds them very amusing, especially when both sides start bashing the other and look like fools. She also finds it rather hysterical that there are fans who find Paolini to be a very original writer. After all, Star Wars doesn’t have a dragon, right? No, but Dragonridersof Pern does, right? (I’ve never read it.) Only wait. Anne McCafferty gave Eragon a glowing blurb, didn’t she?
I write in a very different tone when I post in those forums. I know that if I say something wrong, more people will beat me up for it than if I share an uncommon opinion here. On Amazon, I keep stressing “opinion”, and certainly, I am nowhere near as biting in my negativity. My Eldest review posted here would not be what I would post on Amazon.
We all have different reasons for liking or disliking books. And sometimes, we can’t pinpoint exactly why. For example, I’d love to dislike Flavia Bujor’s The Prophecy of the Stones. To be honest, Inheritance is probably better-written. Both are pretty ridiculous and cliche and both get preachy, but I think Inheritance is for the most part a step up. Yet I dislike Inheritance and really love The Prophecy of the Stones. And yet, that I love that book is really the only positive thing I can say about it. And it’s not “love-to-hate” or “love-to-make-fun-of”. I really enjoy reading that book.
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy Eldest. I liked Eragon enough to get the second book (wait…I think I got them both at about the same time because I like to read complete series) and I will read the third book eventually. I’ll just probably wait for paperback because I don’t care enough. But there’s always the hope that Paolini’s writing is going to get better. He has promise. Some of his descriptions are truly lovely (maybe he should write travel brochures?) and when I say that I find his characters flat, I mean boring, not necessarily one-dimensional because I do think there’s some sides to them. Sides I find uber bizarre, but sides nonetheless. I honestly believe that if Paolini had decided to start off with something simple rather than trying for the next great fantasy epic, he probably would have written something good. As it is, Eragon had potential to become a nice fantasy novel for readers not yet ready for Lord of the Rings. I’m willing to blame a poor editing job, but I’m going to spare you my amateur thoughts on editing and why I love it so much. As it is, it’d be pretty interesting to see the first draft of Eragon. Since it was originally self-published, I wonder if any really radical changes were made. I’d have to think that Paolini’s Knopf editor didn’t want to make too many changes to the original edition.
So anyway. When you accuse me of hating Paolini and his writing, that is simply not true. I have never met Paolini. Though his acknowledgements seem to suggest that he’s conceited, he could in reality be a very nice young man who just has trouble writing in a natural voice after striving for epic prose. And yes, I dislike this “epic prose”, but that’s just me. I’m not going to beat you up for it if you love it. I don’t expect everyone to love Shannon Hale’s writing and I don’t care if you hate The Goose Girl. Okay? It’s my all-time favorite book, but if you don’t like it, that’s fine. Just don’t tell me that you don’t like it as much as Princess Academy because Enna’s story is unclean and inappropriate. Because that’s just so stupidly ridiculous. It’s also stupidly ridiculous if you say Austenland is bad because it’s “dirty” (uh…yeah. Okay. Maybe it’s not squeaky clean, but you know, it is an adult chick lit novel, not a young adult or middle grade fantasy novel) or “not what you were expecting” (you picked it up expecting Princess Academy, didn’t you?)
But if you say that you found The Goose Girl slow and you just couldn’t get into it, that’s okay. It is long and probably could have been shorter. But I still love each and every word of that novel dearly. If you say that you read Austenland just because you’re a Shannon Hale fan and so you thought it was just okay because you really don’t like chick lit, that’s fine. You have to judge based on what the book is, and sometimes people forget that.
Everyone has the right to an opinion, and about books, there really is no right or wrong opinion. And everyone has the right to voice that opinion, though it should always be in a respectful way. Yes, sometimes I can get pretty bashing, but please know that I hope that it’s in an amusing way. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings. Please know that if you love Inheritance, when I bash Eldest, I am not bashing YOU. Eldest is just a book that I didn’t care for. I want to have fun writing my reviews. As Inheritance is already so controversial, it makes the series easy to write scathing reviews for. But take my tone with a grain of salt. This is my blog.
When I write a review, I try not to talk about the author. I will never say “Paolini sucks” or “Bujor’s an idiot for sending her book off to be published”. I focus on the book. The author has little to do with it. I mean, if Paolini writes another book after he’s finished Inheritance, I very well may pick it up, just to see if it’s any different, any better. It very well could be. Once upon a time, I absolutely hated Meg Cabot, though I had only read the first two Princess Diaries books. But I thought they were dirty (I was ten). But then a long time ago (and several years after I had The Princess Diaries), my cousin said that her favorite book was All-American Girl. I gave it a try and I loved it. I read the ninth Princess Diaries book and really really liked it. I feel like an idiot for having said, “I hate Meg Cabot,” which is ridiculous because I love to read her blog. But now, I tend to say “I hate So-and-so’s books.” I want to leave out the people writing them.
Back to the “everyone has a right to voice their opinion” thing. Positive reviews are great. I love to write them. I love to tell people, “This book was great!” But I can’t say that about every book, and I’m not going to. If I read a book I don’t like, I’m probably going to tell people. Maybe they’ll still read the book (I don’t let negative reviews keep me away from a book for the most part if it’s one I really want to read, though I may wait for paperback), but they may have lower expectations, which is always great because it’s easier to like a book if you’re not expecting it to be amazing. The important thing is thoughtful reviews. Reviews that are “OMG!!! THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! READ IT!!!!” are just as annoying as “THIS BOOK SUCKS!!!! I HATED IT!!!!! IT WAS A WASTE OF MY TIME!!!!” Neither are helpful. But we need thoughtful reviews, both positive and negative, so we can see both sides of a book and make educated decisions about whether or not the book is for us.
I believe that those avid fans who go around defending their beloved books on the internet by swearing at the non-fans…I think they that what they’re doing is wrong. Why else would they use email addresses like yourblogstinksalot@yahoo.com? They’re scared that we just might take it into our heads and email them (which we won’t). They think that the anoymosity of the internet will protect them. Well, if any of you avid fans are reading this, how do you live with yourself knowing you take a book so seriously, that you love a book so much, that you just start swearing at strangers on the internet who didn’t like the book? Does that make you feel better? Really? To be honest, it seems an immature way to deal with it. A better way is to either just walk away without saying anything (I do this a lot) or to be honest (in everything) and say why you disagree in a polite way. I don’t care if you do. I appreciate comments that disagree with my opinion and try to point out things I may I have missed. I probably won’t change my opinion, but I like to understand the other side.
This is what I believe: As I have said, we can’t always pinpoint the exact reason we like or dislike a book. There are some really great books out there that I just didn’t love. Like most of my friends love Beauty by Robin McKinley; I’m not even sure I liked it. And as I said, The Prophecy of the Stones is pretty awful but I love it anyway (like I love The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement). You probably wouldn’t swear at someone because they don’t like chocolate ice cream, would you? You may tell them it’s ridiculous, but in a joking way. And if you’re being entirely serious, you’ve got issues. But most people know that you can’t help your tastebuds. You just can’t. I’d love to love chocolate ice cream, but I just really don’t. It tastes funny to me. Other than that, I can’t really describe it. Books aren’t any different, yet people treat them that way. And it’s sad and it scares me. Me, who loves books. Me, who wants to work in the literary world. Books mean the world to me, but being a decent person and respecting others, even when I disagree with them? That’s even more important.
So thanks, guys. Thanks for keeping it respectful and for knowing that there’s nothing wrong with holding an uncommon opinion. You rock. (Die, Edward! Die!) 
(And if that’s long and rambling, I apologize. It’s hard to write posts like this.)
