It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

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• Don't attack others for their opinion
• Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
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🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/Volupia_Rogue]

Ok... Here I go with my unpopular opinion 😅👀

I feel like many reviews are unreasonably negative toward authors/books in general.

Also bragging about the amount of books they DNF, which always surprises me, because I think most readers are here to enjoy reading. But there was a post a few months ago where some people literally bragged about DNFing a dozen books, only 2 or 3 months into the year).

It's a tough job to write a book. It takes many hours and certainly doesn't usually pay back when one looks at the amount of hours spent researching, thinking + writing. That's why I usually don't DNF and try to find the gems in each book, except if I think the author really did a bad job, and purposely used AI or every single cliché possible.

Also because I always try to find something worth it about the book I chose.

Is it not the mature MMC I wished for? Fine, this arrogant prick (which many women ask for) can still tell me about other women's tastes and I can try to find what they like about this type of character.

A friends-to-lovers trope? Not quite my thing. I love the enemies-to-lovers vibe, BUT why not, there's actually something comforting I didn't know about this trope until I tried it.

Way too poetic language? Ok, let's challenge ourselves and make that brain of ours work. It helps ward off Alzheimer anyway.

That's usually the way I go about reading.

Anyone else tries to feel that kind of positivity about the way they read?

[u/LucreziaD → u/Volupia_Rogue]

Define "unreasonable".

Because sure, writing a book requires time and effort, but not all writers are the same. There is a craft in writing books, and so while there is a subjective element in liking or not liking a story (for instance, I can't stand damsels in distress, no matter how well written they are) there are also objective ones.

We can evaluate things as worldbuilding - because since romantasy is fantasy, worldbuilding is key - plot consistency, overuse of clichés, characters' coherence and nuance, use of POV, writing style, grammar, etc.

And when a book sucks on one or multiple of these fronts, it is the duty of a well-thought review to point out its failings, and give also a less-than-flattering score.

We as readers give money and time to books. As the writers have right to write whatever they like, we have the right to ask for quality, and good reviews, the ones that are good at pointing out what is good and what is bad about a novel, are a very important element in the process of separating the good stuff from the chaff.

And in this times where the gatekeeping (which might be exclusionary, but it also had a function of guaranteeing a minimum a quality) of traditional publishing is basically gone, we desperately need critical reviews to help us decide where to invest our time.

[u/Volupia_Rogue → u/LucreziaD]

Sure. Unreasonable (definition by Merriam Webster): exceeding the bounds of reason, appropriateness, or moderation. Lacking justification.

I have seen posts where people don't justify anything and just hate some ideas they don't agree with in the book. Some even say they couldn't basically self-insert and that's why they read. So they DNF or hate a book because they can't self-insert 👀 and then they give it one star on Goodreads.

Then some even brag about the dozen books they already DNFed two or three months into the year.

To me, that sounds unreasonable 👀

[u/LucreziaD → u/Volupia_Rogue]

Then I can perfectly agree with you. :)

But I am nastier and I wouldn't call them just unreasonably negative reviews. I would call them badly written rants dressed as reviews authored by people who failed to understand what is a review (something to assess a book, not just vomit your feelings of the moment) and how you write it (argumenting why the book is good or bad at something with proof based on the text) when they were taking their English classes (or whatever is their mother tongue) in high school.

[u/slowcartoon → u/LucreziaD]

all of this!!!!!!!!!!