On Meeting Other People’s Expectations… [A Response]

Over on his website, Abhinav (a great fellow who I have got to know as a reviewer and friend these past couple of years) has written another good post about reviewing and being a part of the online book community. I agree with most of the piece. There was, however, one comment he made that I have long had issue with – he is by no means the only person to have articulated it, but he was the latest to use it. It is also something I think needs to be addressed (and, hopefully, purged from reviewers’ and prospective reviewers’ minds…)

The comment in question:

“You often have to meet people’s expectations of what you should and should not be reading, reviewing, discussing, and so on. I’ve gone through this several times, and is something I’ve blogged on about as well. Because we put ourselves on a pedestal, it gives people the license to call us out. I’ve seen plenty of cases, personally and second-hand, where these instances have gotten out of hand. Not a fun thing to deal with.” [Emphasis mine.]

The text in bold I disagree with. Not because bloggers and reviewers don’t think this, but because they really shouldn’t think this, or approach their blog through other people’s expectations.

See, Shakespeare knew what he was about.
[Image shamelessly pinched from Abhinav’s post…]

Reviewer Emotions: That Didn’t Work As Intended…

There comes a time in every reviewer and blogger’s tenure on the internets, I’m sure, when we try something a little different. An attempt to be “clever”, “provocative”, and/or “funny”. Often times, this won’t work. If we’re lucky, readers won’t notice that were trying to be “clever”, “provocative”, and/or “funny”, and just think of it as a normal, perhaps slightly off blog post. If we’re unlucky, we’ll come across like unabashed internet trolls. So far, I think I’ve managed to avoid the latter. Regardless, when this happens, the feeling is often akin to this:

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, R.I.P.

Sad to say, Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has come to an end.

GFBR was one of the first review sites I stumbled across, when I made my first forays into the realm of book blogging and the online SFF community. I enjoyed his reviews, and have read his blog as long as I’ve been working on my own. He was encouraging at the start of my blogging ‘career’, and was always good for a chat via Twitter (which was, for a very long time, my only real connection with the greater SFF blogging/fanatic community). We would often compare notes on Black Library releases, which we always seemed to review at roughly the same time…

I had the pleasure of meeting Graeme in August at the pub after the Fantasy Faction-Blackwell’s event, and he was a lovely fellow, and we weathered a very strange intrusion by a very drunk SFF fan who insisted that Pat Rothfuss’s Wise Man’s Fear was the best thing since words were created…

Great chap, great blog. Wish him all the best in the future and at whatever he turns his attention to next.

Zombie Journalism: A New Sub-Genre is Born?

While stumbling about on Amazon today, I discovered a novel that seems to be so transparently aimed at fans of another series. It was so transparent, that I thought I’d scribble down some comments and share them on here.

The novel in question is Madeleine Roux’s Allison Hewitt is Trapped, which seems to bear a strong resemblance to Mira Grant’s Newsflesh novels – in theme and elements of the premise, if not in content. Just take the style of the cover artwork, as an opening example…