Tales of a Book Critic. Or Not.

by Stephanie Black

Well, I guess I’d better face the fact that no publication is going to hire me as a reviewer anytime soon. I do have very strong opinions on what I do and don’t like in books. But when it comes to LDS fiction, I can’t bring myself to be publicly candid--if candor includes criticism. I can rant in private if something irritates me in a book, but when it comes to posting a not-so-glowing review of a book or even posting a lukewarm comment on LDS Publisher’s new fiction blog, I just can’t do it. I shrink from the thought of even rating the book on the one-to-five star scale, unless I thought it was at least a four.

If I really like a book, I’ll feel free to say so. If I liked a book overall and could live with what I didn’t like, I’ll feel free to praise the book. Once I did go so far as to (gasp) publicly express the opinion that a writer-who-must-not-be-named shouldn’t have ended his book with a dang cliffhanger (You know who you are, bud). But I only feel free to mention that because that writer guy is such an outstanding author and the book was superb overall. If I feel a book was disappointing overall, I’ll probably just keep my mouth shut in public rather than state that I didn't like it. If you want to know what I think, you can e-mail me privately, and if I trust you, I might tell you my candid opinion, using a series of symbols, codes and cryptic quotes from The Princess Bride.

Okay, I’m not that bad. Under certain circumstances, I can be frank. I had to be, when I was on the Whitney committee and we were discussing books, but we had an ironclad policy that our deliberations would remain private, so I didn’t have to worry that my less-than-stellar opinion of a book would become public knowledge.

Why am I such a wimp when it comes to reviewing other books? I think it’s because I identify too strongly with other LDS-market authors. I know how it stings to get criticized, and I just can’t bring myself to do that to another author. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not suggesting that reviewers should only praise books and avoid all criticism. That’s absurd and useless. I'm just saying that I can't write the reviews.

Believe it or not, I tend to be picky about what I do and don't like in books, and I feel that my candid opinion of some novels would be a lot harsher than the majority of opinions on that work. I recently purchased an LDS novel that I thought I might enjoy. It was in a genre I like, and I’d read a very glowing review of the book. I read the book and was disappointed. The story was fun overall, but I felt some scary scenes were too melodramatic, infodumps bugged me, and I wasn’t keen on the author’s handling of viewpoint. On a five-star scale, I’d give the book three stars. But I haven’t. And I won’t. I ain’t saying nothing.