Reviews, good and bad

More nice reviews for FlashWired, and one so scathing and painful it’s still making me wince two days later. FlashWired appears to be provoking extremes of reaction with nothing in between.

Odd how it’s the harsh, unforgiving review that’s staying with me. I get that the reviewer really did not like FlashWired and she has every right to say so but it stings like fury to be told that my writing is ‘atrocious’.  Atrocious and painful.  My writing is so bad, in her opinion, that it can only be likened to the worst evils that humans can visit on each other.  My mind keeps wiping the word out, and I woke up at 2am this morning with my thoughts a repetitive “what did she say?  how badly did she say I wrote?” but being totally unable to remember the word.  I could remember nothing about it, other than it began with an ‘a’ and was not good.  I ended up having to get out of bed to look at the review again. Atrocious. Right. That’s the word. And only then, when I’d sat and thought about it all again, the jab as painful as the first time, could I eventually still the thoughts and get back to sleep.

Not everyone is going to like what I write and that’s fine.  I don’t like every book or story I’ve read either.  And now I’ve discovered that sometimes people will be deliberately hurtful about saying how much they don’t like it.  

I think I’m just taken aback by the extremity of the review.  I don’t mind at all someone saying it wasn’t their cup of tea, and they didn’t like the writing style or couldn’t get into the characters – the reader’s in Cal’s head after all, and he can be pretty shallow and self centred. I get that for some people, that’s off-putting. But to use the word ‘atrocious’ is so vicious,  so demeaning, I have no words.  I have, however, lost 1lb since I read the review.  There may be some side benefits.

Memo to self: grow a thicker skin.