Revenge Reviews: When You Get a Ridiculous Bad Book Review for No Reason, The Word Obese IS a Slur and Why We shouldn't Use It, Ryan Field Books

Revenge Reviews: When You Get a Ridiculous Bad Book Review for No Reason

I have always allowed reviewers to say and write whatever they want. I never say a single word. If I get a bad review and I know it’s sincere, I keep my mouth shut. It’s someone’s opinion and that’s all that matters. I’ve left a few bad reviews myself at times. I don’t even go to Goodreads and see what my reviews are. That’s up to readers.

However, every now and then a book review comes along that is not only a bad book review, but it makes no sense. And when I see this happen I always wonder if it’s a nasty author who has read my opinions on the cultural appropriation of gay fiction who decided to get even with me. Oh, make no mistake. Revenge reviews happen all the time. And there is nothing an author can do about it.

One review for my book, How to Be a Good Gay Bottom, is a good example of this. All ratings are five stars. Except there is one bad review that doesn’t even sound as though reader read the book. It’s empty and lacking substance.

They talk about clichés, and I can promise you I have never, ever added a cliché to a novel in my entire life. I’ve been getting published by gay presses since the 90’s and I write from a gay man’s POV. I don’t write gay fiction or gay romance from a straight woman’s POV. And sometimes readers get confused about this. The gay romances you get from a real gay male author will be markedly different than the gay romances you’ll get from a woman.

I can’t totally blame the reader for not knowing the difference. And frankly, I have always said any review is better than no review at all. I just think that reviews that don’t make much sense are questionable. And many times a questionable review is a revenge review.

Another example is once a reviewer with a book review website got mad at something I posted here on the blog, and he bombed me with one star reviews in as many places as he could. I blocked him everywhere and ignored him. There’s not much more you can do with a bully.

Here’s a link the Amazon page.

The Word Obese IS a Slur and Why We shouldn’t Use It

I have spent the majority of my gay life watching my weight and doing special diets. I’ve been on the Atkins/Keto diet since 2000…I’m really not joking…and I balance that with working out on a daily basis. It’s been my routine since I was in my teens. I’ve always had a tendency to gain weight and I never let that happen. I refuse to let that happen.

With that said, the word obese was trending on Twitter yesterday because a young woman posted that she believes it is a slur and it’s a way to shame people. And I agree with her. The biggest argument I saw was that obese is a medical term. But I looked it up and doctors now usually say bariatric patient.

I’m linking to a great article right now that talks about how people find the word obese insulting and they don’t believe doctors, or anyone, should use it. They go into a lot more detail. They say it shames and insults people. And I agree. I would never use that word, nor would I ever call attention to someone’s weight.

Here’s the link.