In a recent review, because I understood what an author was trying to do, because I thought he dared to experiment, I gave him a four star and a good analysis. But what I wanted to give him was three stars, as the novel got way too talky at times, and when action happened, there were problems with pace. I must add that this was part of a swap review deal.
The author thanked me for my review. He also asked me for advice as I mentioned that his use of language and punctuation might discourage the traditional mystery or thriller reader to move on with the reading. I gave him a few pointers, although I had loads to do before going to Denver to help my daughter who is now facing rather tough health challenges.
Later on, I proposed to do an interview with that author. Well, swap interviews. I thought it would clarify further what that author was trying to do. He immediately agreed.
Well, no good deed goes unpunished. I got a botched review probably written in five minutes for Chaisaw Jane, accompanied with three glorious stars. Was he macho man offended by my four-star review? After all, nearly all of his reviews were five-starred. (In hindsight, having seen that, I should have flown away from this author immediately. An all five-star average is not to be relied on, specially for debut authors. It just shows that only buddies and family, not serious reviewers, have reviewed the book.)
I told the author how I felt. Exploited, basically. I decided to remove my review of this author from amazon.com. Did I do the right thing? What do you think?
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