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I feel like I'm not reading the same book.
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The reason the book stinks is because all the 5-star reviews here on Goodreads are phony reviews, most likely posted by the author, or friends of the author.
First review by Noelle: she just joined Goodreads in May, listed 21 books on her profile, but the only book she wrote an actual review on was this one, and she says "you MUST read Torn."
Second review by Jim: he also just joined in May, and this is the ONLY book on his shelves. Yep, he has read NO OTHER BOOKS. But he gives this one a glowing, 5 star review.
Third review by Michael: he also joined in May, has 4 books listed, and the only one with a written review is Torn, with a glowing 5-star review.
Fourth review by Tuckykerbs: profile is private, but you can see on the link that this person only has rated one book, which would be the glowing review of Torn.
Fifth review by Alison: she also joined in May, only one book listed, Torn with a 5-star glowing review.
Sixth review by Andrea: she joined in April, but again, only one book on her profile, Torn with a glowing 5-star review.
SO ALL THESE REVIEWS are fake reviews posted by the author or the authors friends. Unfortunatly this happens alot here on Goodreads and also on Amazon. SO if you ever see a book with glowing 5 star reviews, take a closer look at the profiles of the people who posted these reviews. It will help you decide if they are real reviews from actual readers who have read and reviewed alot of books, or if they are fake reviews by fake people who have reviewed no other books.
Ooooooh. I see. Thanks for digging into that for me! Sometimes I can pick up on similar situations on Amazon reviews, but I totally didn't see anything obvious on this one. Of course I didn't do the detective work either.Thanks for clearing that up - I was feeling a little neurotic. haha. I only wish I could get my $6.99 back! (I see Amazon has dropped the price though.)
If I can ever bring myself to finish it, I'll write a real review. In both places.
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I am not nearly suspicious enough of people - I take them at face value. If I were more suspicious, I would still have my $6.99. haha.
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Or if they are super tricky they are friends with all of their alter egos and each of them say the same thing.
It shows you who bad of an author they are when they cant even create believeable fake goodreads members.
I think part of the reason that I'm not suspcious of these things is that I can't imagine spending the time to make fake accounts and fake reviews so it doesn't occur to me that anyone else would.Lesson learned!
I don't usually buy new release books from authors I've never heard of, so this is the first time I've run across this. I'm pretty sure.
The fact that so many "men" reviewed it should probably have been a hint too.I feel kind of like an idiot. But it's not an unfamiliar feeling. lol.
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I just went and looked at the "mens" reviews after your last comment. The review by Jim cracks me up:
"Poignant and yet humorous at times, this is not 'just a woman's' read but one that should be read by male executives[half the labor force is female] and do something.....Give this book to your daughter, your husband, your boss and your governmant legislator for a summer read."
Yes, sure "Jim". I'm going to rush out a buy a bunch of copies of this and give them to my government legislators for their summer read! LOL
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Fascinating! I try always to read both positive and negative reviews of a book before I buy it--but I don't know that trusting lil ole me would think to question all-5-star reviews! I'll definitely be more careful in the future.
Great idea, Sheila! I love a good conspiracy. I posted my review here as well as on Amazon.http://www.amazon.com/Torn-Stories-Co...
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http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
and I voted "helpful" on your review on Amazon.
:o)
One of the contributors to Torn commented on my review and called me spiteful and offensive. (I think she was also insinutating that I broke Amazon's rules about "profane or obscene, inflammatory or spiteful comments" and "messages that abuse, denigrate or threaten others,")
Well I think it's offensive and obscene that they padded the ratings with fake reviews. lol.
Also, what does she mean by accepting "the transparency" of my review?
Mary wrote: "One of the contributors to Torn commented on my review and called me spiteful and offensive. (I think she was also insinutating that I broke Amazon's rules about "profane or obscene, inflammator..."
I saw that too! I think she's a friend of the Author apparently and maybe trying to buffer your review. Id be interested to see if she's Even read the book..
I really find it hard to believe that people would fake reviews. That is really low. Book suggestions and reviews are the main reason I joined Goodreads. Do the people who have faked these reviews get deleted from Goodreads?
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Went to both links and liked/found it helpful. There is another one star review on the book's GR page that I liked too. When I went to the link for the book on Amazon, yours was the first review, so hopefully people will see that first. I generally only read the first 2-3 reviews and skim the ones on the sidebar.
Mary wrote: "One of the contributors to Torn commented on my review and called me spiteful and offensive. (I think she was also insinutating that I broke Amazon's rules about "profane or obscene, inflammator..."
If there is a comment to your review here on Goodreads that you find offensive, you can delete it.
It was on Amazon. I'm fine with it. (Being in the business I am, I'm not easily offended. lol.) She just made herself look small.
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I think it's hard to prove.
Truly though I don't think this happens often with most books. I've seen it happen the most from books by first time authors that are often self published and I imagine they are trying to generate word of mouth.
If I see a new book from an author I've never heard of that wasn't recommended by someone I know and all the reviews are 5 stars it's a red flag.
Once I even saw all 5 stars, all of the people were brand new to GR, none of them had any other books on their list, and they were all "friends" with each other and no one else. If the authors storyline was that obvious no wonder they need to go to such extremes.
@Tera, I hope it wasn't a mystery author! lol.
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I will NEVER buy this book!
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"You really need to finish a book before you review it. Read the whole thing, then get back to us."
And they also posted a similar rude comment on the review of the other girl who gave the book 1-star here on Goodreads.
Sheila wrote: "First review by Noelle: she just joined Goodreads in May, listed 21 books on her profile, but the only book she wrote an actual review on was this one, and she says "you MUST read Torn."Noelle Henderson is a writer herself. From her blog, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she's a contributor to this book.
Sheila wrote: "Third review by Michael: he also joined in May, has 4 books listed, and the only one with a written review is Torn, with a glowing 5-star review."
Michael is Michael Parent, and he is the author's brother.
Sheila wrote: "I see one of the 5-star reviewers here on Goodreads also commented on Mary's review here:
"You really need to finish a book before you review it. Read the whole thing, then get back to us."
And they also posted a similar rude comment on the review of the other girl who gave the book 1-star here on Goodreads."
"Nosuperwoman", who wrote both comments, is very likely the book author. She uses the same username on her Facebook page (notice the username in the web address).
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We offer no salary, but we have fun while we sleuth out false and phony reviews. LOL
This author/editor, Samantha Parent Walravens, aka Nosuperwoman, is a real piece of work I would say!
Sheila wrote: "Well the editor is the same person listed here on Goodreads as the author of this book. I "had to" post a reply to her on Amazon. :o)I will NEVER buy this book!"
I read your post on Amazon. Your point and how your expressed it made me say Wow. Very well said
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This is a great topic I think we have all seen this before.
Speaking of detective agencies. You guys should read the No ! Ladies Detective Agency series. I liked it. I know, tangent but that's what I thought of when I was Chick Lit Detective Agency.
Holy cow! This author's unbelievable!! Good job to all of you for calling her out and not backing down!!
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http://www.amazon.com/Torn-Stories-Co...
they are also voting up their 5-star reviews to boost them up the main page. But I guess since this book has 47 contributors, there are plenty of them to do this.
I really feel bad for the unsuspecting Goodreads memeber, Ali, who also posted a 1-star review about this book.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
They jumped all over her too, and now
Nosuperwoman is calling our thoughts on this issue a "conspiracy theory".
This is just unbelievable! The "honest" reviews and discussions on Goodreads is what I enjoy about this site. Hard to believe that someone would spend that much time and effort into tricking people into buying their book. Sounds like they should have invested that time into writing the book. Thanks for the heads up ladies! KUDOS!
I left my two cents on there too.
For the record, my reviews on Amazon tends towards 1 or 5 stars because I usually only make the effort to review something if I really love it and want everyone to buy it or really hate it and don't want them to waste their money. Also, they aren't ALL 1 or 5 stars. Just most of them and that is why.
Eh oh el to the hot mess over at this book's amazon page. As someone who hasn't read the book I didn't want to get involved, but as someone who writes and posts reviews, the editor and contributors responding to Mary's post like that made my blood boil. So I threw in my two cents. I really am in disbelief at their audacity.
One of the contributors did actually write something nice on Amazon (Shelby Hogan).
Mary wrote: "One of the contributors did actually write something nice on Amazon (Shelby Hogan)."I saw that not all of the contributors were negative towards your review but my point is I really think it's inappropriate for authors to reply to reviews like that in general. When I write reviews (and read others' reviews) I do so with the reasonable assumption that the reviews were freely written without fear of dealing with a mess of hurt feelings and hostile responses from the author(s). If I had to be concerned with authors responding to every review I wrote, I probably would stop writing reviews for anything other than 5 star books. I don't enter First Reads giveaways on this site listed by the author anymore for precisely that reason-I feel compelled to review it favorably even if the book was a real stinker.
Also, all their responses really show that most (if not all) of those glowing amazon reviews are written by contributors. If I were in their place and had all of those positive reviews and ONE negative one, I would shrug the negative one off and take satisfaction in all the positive things the majority says. The fact that they feel it is their place at all to respond strongly suggests to me that they all know that the other reviews are written by themselves or friends and that yours is the first "real" review written by an unaffiliated reader.
Mary wrote: "One of the contributors did actually write something nice on Amazon (Shelby Hogan)."That's great Mary what would be better is if they would take the fake reviews down and let the book stand on it's own.
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Exactly, Dimity! They are jumping all over Mary's review, and posting all their comments there, but they are not commenting at all on all the glowing 5-star reviews.
As an example, the quotes below I just copied from some of the 5-star Amazon reviews:
"Finding this book was a godsend."
"The stories in "Torn" really resonated with my own experience."
"Thank goodness for books like, "Torn.""
"This book addresses the emotional, social and professional challenges that so many women face when raising kids in a way that is masterful, smart, emotional and funny."
"Samantha Walravens has put together a fabulous compellation of stories from across the country and across lifestyles."
"I read a handful of stories during each of the past few nights and I LOVED them."
"God bless the moms in this book, whose love for their children never fails to beam through gripping stories of mothering and living."
"Despite their different viewpoints, I felt like I could relate to each and every one of them."
Now if these comments were made by REAL readers who truly loved the book this much, wouldn't all the contributors who are all over Mary's review also be posting "Thank you very much" and "we are so glad you loved it!" comments on these reviews?
Their lack of response to these comments suggests they know all these comments were written by themselves or their friends.
This whole thing just stinks all around, and it is getting smellier by the day. I think there are 3 or 4 new glowing 5 star reviews on Amazon just from today. I've never seen any authors go off the deep end quite like this. Amazing!
This one was worse The Greek Seaman / Jacqueline Howett
http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011...
It went on for days everyone was busting up
Good point, Sheila! If this author is a goodreads author, can something be done to boot her off our site for this behaviour?
Dianne wrote: "This one was worse The Greek Seaman / Jacqueline Howett
http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011...
It went on for days everyone was busting up"
Dianne, I am literally LOLing over here reading that discussion. The most amusing part is that the author's responses are riddled with grammatical errors ;). Are these authors a sign of entitlement run amok or what.
Dimitry; I totally agree with everything you said. I just meant to say it doesn't appear that Shelby Hogan has gone off the deep end - she seems able to take these things in stride. She also comes across as literate and thoughtful and I appreciate her response. If someone wants to review his or her friend's book, he should say, "In the interest of full disclosure, I am the author's brother."
Wow. I just followed the Books and Pals link. Oh my gosh. I'm only 6 comments in ... I'm going to stop because I know I'll get sucked in and in 4 hours, I will still be reading that. lol.Ms. Howett appears to be a little unhinged. I like how she says there's nothing wrong with her writing and then mis-spells several words!
Chicks On Lit
Books mentioned in this topic
Riven (other topics)Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood (other topics)
What the heck is going on? I can't even hardly bring myself to finish this book it's so awful. All it is is basically essay after essay of whiney women saying, "Wah wah wah. I wanted it all and I got it all. But it's so hard to have it all! And my husband is never around. Wah wah wah."
I really really don't understand all the Amazon reviewers who claim to laugh out loud all the way through it. I haven't even cracked a smile. Blech.
I mean I understand that not everyone feels the same about every book. But every single review I saw on this thing had 4 or 5 stars! Maybe there was a mix up at the publisher and I got the wrong one.