I recently got back into reading novels, and one thing surprised me: the lack of reviews. There are books with plenty of readers but fewer than 20 reviews! Has the review culture died? Where are the long, detailed, and critical reviews I used to love reading? Please come back, I miss you! ps: I blame letterboxd
I think five reviews per novel is already very rare I also miss reading long reviews, they are so fun and I love knowing how others feel about certain characters, or the plot, and how the ending was...
Yeah, it's hard to find novel with lot of reviews nowadays, especially reviewer who read 100+ chapter
Honestly when I read novels and I see it already has reviews I become lazy to review. Usually they have the same points I want to make as well so I just read through them and like the ones that I agree with
I haven't noticed that reviews went away. Usually lack of reviews means the novel is either new or not very popular. Or maybe the chapters were deleted. Remember that "many readers" might be a fake number as some translator groups get off on artificially inflating reader numbers for one reason or another. Over the course of the last few months I actually picked up several new novels with very few chapters and no reviews. And now each novel has several hundred chapters and pages of reviews. So people are definitely reviewing stuff. You might not get that many detailed and well-critiqued reviews, though.
reviews and chapter comments are very rare indeed. I know most people just read the free rips on whatever site. But I use Yonder to read some online novels (in particular: The Academy's Survival Guide) and even though eventually if you binge a series you have to buy coins or wait to read more, on the otherside since its a paid app. there's plenty of after chapter comments to take part in and read to see what others think.
I feel a lot like what @Novelreader 22102 said, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I try to leave reviews but usually what I want to say has already been said by others, so it feels pointless to say the same thing again and again.
I thought the same before, but I have changed my mind since. The reason is - you never know if this one guy is right or wrong. Or maybe better way of putting it - will you agree with this one guy or not? There are pretty much always positive and negative reviews. The funny thing is, often the reason one person gives for a positive review is the exact same reason someone gives for a negative review. Basically multiple people look at the same situation in the novel/the novel and view it from different perspective. And basically, the more people confirm/deny any particular viewpoint makes it a little more clear if someone just have a weird perception of the events or maybe the novel really is the way someone say it is. This is why I often look first at the negative reviews and see what they say. If they all repeat similar points, I might not read the novel if the points are important to me. But if there is one guy who just says something no one else says, I will assume that he is just weird and have a strange perception.
This is centered around """negative""" comments. Mini rant below. Spoiler: my 2 cents Negative reviews get roasted on so many sites. On NU, TL groups make it clear: unless you're gushing, your opinion doesn't matter. Share a negative review and good luck dealing with the backlash from other users. Writers and artists can be just as sensitive to any criticism, only wanting people to rave about their work and leave 5-star reviews everywhere. It's exhausting, and this is why people are often discouraged from sharing their thoughts on something.
There are two sides to this coin. One is that you often do get backlash from fanboys or translators or writers who can't take any criticism. They also look at almost anything that isn't overly positive as hating on something. On the other hand, you also often do get people who don't write any constructive criticism and just say stuff like "this is a total garbage" and that's it. And sure, it might indeed be a total garbage, but it will be more helpful and informative to know why. I never pay attention to comments that simply state something like this without giving any explanation.
I also want to add that I totally get what you’re saying, and I agree with you. While we are on this topic, overly positive reviews without any context aren’t helpful either. It’s important for reviewers to at least mention one thing they did or didn’t like. Some works are so lacking that all you can offer is a vague comment though. The lack of engagement can (and has made) people less likely to write thoughtful reviews, especially if they feel like their opinions are being nitpicked or ignored. To piggyback on my previous comment, Spoiler: this reply was getting too long, thus the spoiler I’ve noticed that some folks get really upset if a favorite work doesn’t get a perfect rating, which makes it harder to have honest conversations. When I look for reviews, I often see comments like "loved it!" with no real details, and that doesn’t help much. For anyone trying to decide what to read or watch, having some solid feedback is really important. I also love to read long, detailed reviews, no matter what the rating is. Please keep them coming.
Yea, you are totally right. Usually if I can't find good reviews for something, I google it and it often, ironically, takes me to Reddit, where sometimes there is a lot of comments that can have some points of value.
I've been falling into the same routine. I find myself scrolling through Reddit way more than I’d want to. I've also got a few YouTubers I trust for reviews on books, products, and stuff like that. It would be great if more people felt comfortable sharing their honest feedback, though. Like, leave the shame at the door and just be real about what they don’t like.
About the one lined review- I'm pretty sure that's just to let other people know their rating isn't fake. Like a human has read this sortof. The thing about negative review is that I can only bring myself to leave negative reviews if it's something genuinely wrong with the plot. Oftentimes I would find a novel annoying and come back to find that I just didn't see the tag or maybe a translator note at the end of the summary that specifically mentions what I found annoying. There are also times when I have to dnf a novel but I have no idea why I'm dnf-ing. It's just the vibes. Therefore I just feel it unfair to leave a negative review when I can't even articulate what I didn't like abt the novel.
Robots nowadays can leave long and very detailed reviews, much better than most humans. Using latest generative models they can even be different from one another. And the process of registration and such can be automated too. I am certain there are scripts available for it if one looks around, I just never bothered. As for the other things, it's perfectly fine to just write what you wrote here in the review - the novel made you feel bad or icky and you cannot really pinpoint why. I also find many novels that make me feel bad and it's hard to pinpoint why because it's not really just one thing, but overall vibe of the novel or many little things together. And there is no such thing as fair or not fair in a review, with the exception of two things: if you actually read the novel and writing your honest opinion, and you didn't ignore tags or main point of the novel if it's about things you don't like. Even then, some novels have absurd number of tags, maybe over 20. Clearly they cannot be all prominent. And some tags can mean very different things in different novels. It's fine if you opened a novel, found something you didn't appreciate and then wrote about it. And if you actually want to better understand your own feelings about novels, I recommend two things: read reviews written by others and read or watch writing advice. There are some really good writing advice channels that give short 10 minute type videos about different aspects of writing with examples. If you watch some, you will be able to articulate much better what kind of things you like or dislike because it will give you a compass on where to look for things in terms writing.
I've seen some novels getting bombarded with 1 Stars but not an ounce of review, I ended up writing one myself. Honestly, I think it's either bots or trolls at this point. I don't write reviews in this site, simply because I do that in the original site of where the webnovels I'm reviewing were released.
Spoiler: reply Personally, if I see a bunch of vague, short, positive comments, I might think they’re just bots or paid reviews. Also, I totally get you! I understand how hard it can be to write a review. Jotting down notes while reading can really help you later on. I think it’s great that you want to be fair! I also think it’s perfectly fine to write a review even if you don’t have a lot to say, it can help you improve your writing skills and write better reviews. Plus, writing one for yourself can clarify why you didn’t continue with a book or what you didn’t like or wished had happened. Of course, I’m all for making sure to not disregard the tags, premise or key points. Spoiler: reply It is strange how so many novels or books get flooded with 1-star reviews/ratings. Some definitely deserve it, though! I love that you care enough to leave a comment. Speaking of reviews, what's your take on people who leave 5-star reviews just to counteract those "trolls" or to boost a low-rated book that they feel doesn't quite deserve that level of negativity? And on your last point: leaving reviews wherever you read can really make a difference, both for the authors and for potential readers, even for TL groups. So we should all try when we can to leave one, in my humble opinion.
For those who rate 5 stars on web novels to counteract the trolls and bots, I don't really have much to say, I don't know if they actually like the novel they reviewed or not but even if they don't, I would still find it understandable on why they did that. Personally for me, if I didn't particularly found a novel interesting in the first place, I probably won't even bother leaving a review.
@sgrey @mintflavored Thanku for the suggestions . I do like leaving reviews it's just that I feel I don't have much to share mostly. But ur right. The few times I have written reviews I did take down notes whole reading to make the review. I should probably continue doing that so I'll still remember the points by the time I finish reading.