I wanted to write an honest book review about a new picture book. The line drawings were cute but not consistent– the main character (an animal) was sometimes drawn with gray-scaled features and at other times just the outline. The author of this fiction book took a few liberties with the character–not that the average reader would be aware of that.
For a number of reasons, it was not a good idea to write such a review–hence an artificial dilemma.
- If I did not write the review, nothing would matter or be changed.
- If I wrote the honest review, feelings would be hurt and people would be upset.
- If I wrote a positive review, only I would know it was not what I meant to write.
Given what is going on in the world, it is ironically nice to have such a simple, even stupid dilemma to waste time on.
Have you ever had an artificial dilemma?
Similar – a friend wanting me to review a book
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They want an affirmation that the work may not have earned. Not the end of t world but not easy either. Thanks for commenting.
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I try not to review something that will get a bad review.
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Good goal, sometimes harder to achieve. Thanks for commenting.
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I tend to be somewhat direct, it might hurt but better to be honest.
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Normally, I would too
There are institutional complications involved.
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Ah, not so simple, that is a very different scenario, commiserations.
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Thanks, Paul. Appreciate it .
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Very welcome Pat 🙂
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Depending on your relationship with the author, it might be best not to review. Otherwise, an honest review helps both the author and potential readers.
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That’s the reason I didn’t review it because I couldn’t review honestly. This blog was a personal way to talk around the issue. Thanks for commenting.
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Good Luck with your tricky decision making! As Audrey says, it all depends a bit on your relationship with the author but I have said no to books I felt unable to review with a positive feeling. For indie published books I review honestly but if I have negative feelings I will just leave it.
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Wise decision Annika.
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I like this… I’ve just had the same dilemma. And this can even happen with minutae. I visited the blog of a friend who’d just been kind enough to comment on one of my pieces. I couldn’t much relate to one of her latest pieces but wasn’t sure what or if I should say anything. Someone had left a good comment that was fun and astute and kind, and I liked the comment in agreement, but couldn’t bring myself to honestly like the post. Then I realized that alerting the person with a like notification like that when I hadn’t “liked” the post might likely be hurtful, so I immediately withdrew my likes on the comments too in hopes they would not see any notifications for it at all. Which likely failed to accomplish anything positive or useful. Argh. Massive overthinking lol. The path of good intentions…
Anway, I can relate to this!! :)) Thanks for the visit. ;))
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The articial burdens we lay upon ourselves are more complicated than they should be.
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Absolutely!!
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