Why do readers love to read negative reviews?

I can't say that a recent negative review for Redemption came as a surprise since a while back as the reviewer was reading it she said in a weekly update that I had lifted entire bits of plot from an author and series that, in fact, I've never read and know nothing about.

But it's an interesting thing about reviews (and the reviewer has every right to not like the book, by the way--we all don't have the same tastes, and this reviewer's comments were thoughtful and well-reasoned and not in the...