Review policy reviewed

Now that I'm back, hopefully for the duration, here's how it works if you want my opinion.


Email me at Cryselle C AT gmail DOT com with a MOBI file, a cover art pic, the blurb, and a buy link or two, and let me know anything special about the book, like if it's your first or it's up for an award, stuff like that. I'm willing to look at m/m, m/m/m, and m/m/f.

Now that I'm not reviewing at Jessewave's, I can go back to my previous policy of the occasional ladybits among all the guybits. Anyone who doesn't like ladybits can hold their noses if they like. My blog, my rules. I'm still not reviewing het, but half the world's people are women, I'm a woman, and I refuse to act like women have cooties. A huge number of gay men have had relationships with women, been married, fathered children, might even still be friends with the ex, and all that might be in the story. I want to read that story. Women are part of gay men's lives as something besides Obligatory Pushy Best Friend. Get over it.


Because I think it takes a certain amount of courage to send me a review request, I've gone back to my previous policy. When I was at Dark Divas and Jessewave's, if I touched it, I had to complete it, no matter what. Given my druthers, I won't reward an author's risk taking with a low mark that they don't see coming. I will give an author the option to post or not if I can't give the book at least a 3. I did this before, and some folks have taken me up on that, and others have said post. If I can't honestly say 3 or better, and 3 is "I liked it", I will contact you first.

I could review on a publisher's request, in which case it's buffet rules. I touched it, I take it. They pubbed it, they can stand behind it. The rating, whatever it may be, gets posted.  No confidence? Don't ask me, cause I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I have given out ones. I have a symbol for ACK!

I also give 5s and everything in between.

A story that pleases me will have a couple of well developed characters, a relationship, and something plotwise outside the relationship. I like plot, that's the point of a book. I like sex, too, but sex has to drive the plot. The daily drivel of the character's lives in between sex scenes is not plot -- plot has conflict and resolution, and it needs to make sense. Logic fail will get noticed out loud and if I can't find the plot beyond "hawt guys fuck" you can call me Cryssy Crankypants.

Things that stop me in my tracks:

•  Rape, unless it's a past trauma and offstage
•  Incest, especially twincest. A survivor is fine, but current relationship -- NO
•  Non-con -- don't kid yourself, the right name is rape. 
•  All the squicky stuff that epublishers put in their 'don't submit to us' list
•  Most BDSM. Personal preference, no apologies. Please don't offer it. Absolutely no pain play, blood play, flogging, bondage, humiliation, gagging, CBT. If it requires implements, I don't want to read it, I don't have to explain why, and I don't want to be wheedled for exceptions. Wheedle or push, and I will review, using boilerplate. "Book, DNF, author, TSTL."*
• Het. Really, people. I'm not the right reviewer for that.*

Iffy stuff:

• Dub-con. We might not agree about where the line is. I'm likely to be more restrictive in my definition than you are.
• If it turns out to be "rape him til he likes it" you will suffer the consequences.I don't read het romance for a reason and I utterly rejected the genre for the prevalence of this trope.
• Soul mates -- this one hits the gag reflex, no matter what the writing looks like, 99 times out of a hundred, and the hundredth one is probably involving a non-human. A deep bonding after personalities get explored is fine, just no "only one personnnnnn in the universssssse for meeeeeeeee!" 
• BDSM of the non-implement variety. Psychological aspects might be okay, but know you're taking a risk.

 I'm good with most genres, you've already seen the exclusions. Contemporary, paranormal, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, whatever, bring it on.

My qualifications as a reviewer, well nothing academic, but would you really want someone doing lit-crit on your romance? I offer a habit of devouring words and some critical thinking skills**. My page at Goodreads should tell you something, that's maybe half of what I've read in my life.

I really do open every file hoping to love what I'm reading. 

*Yes, someone tried. Learn from their error.
**If you have plot holes and know it, you might not like that about me. 

I didn't get to go to GayRomLit but...

Gee that sounded like a good time. All the posts and pics, stories from the lucky ones. Maybe I can go next year! The best part is that I have reading privileges in that stack of books Pam brought back.

But I do have some news of my own! We'll see what I've let myself in for in trying to shift styles, but I will be doing a couple of guest reviews for Jessewave! Maybe she'll keep me!

I will still be doing reviews for Dark Divas, and there won't be any overlap; the books that are offered are not necessarily the same ones. Anything with girlbits at all is definitely Dark Diva material. Wave has been agreeable about cross-posting to here as well, and it looks like it's going to be interesting. I already have a couple of books, so I'm going to run off and read now!

I've finally lost my marbles!

Actually, I'm giving them away. If other sites can have divas and nymphs, or some other fun rating symbol, I want one, too.

Marbles, for a crazy woman, seem about right. Once I twisted the arm of a handy fifteen-year-old boy with Photoshop, I have some to share. You might get five if I love your story.

I might have a slightly different opinion:I have this one, just in case, , but I hope I never need to use it.

Hmm. looks like it's running away. Maybe:or if the story has fallen and can't get up.

Anyway, I now have a full suite of handy graphics for a more finely tuned opinion visual than just the whole numbers I've been using. Previous reviews will get their marbles edited in as I have time, and future reviews will have them from the start.

Different Reviewing Style

I always come away from Jenre's Well Read blog with a story that I have to read. Here is a reviewer in the more classical model, who recaps the story a bit, but not ad nauseum, and then dives into the analysis. She really thinks about what she's reading, and can accurately explain what makes the story tick thematically and in a way that doesn't spoil the read. She has character analysis, motivation analysis, and action analysis, all of which make her reviews a pretty good indicator of the book being worth the time, or not.

Jenre's rankings are of the Excellent, Very Good, Good, Poor, and Terrible, variety, which tells me something useful, allowing for some differences in tastes. She's only trotted out the Poor and Terrible a few times, but she can articulate exactly what about the story earned that designation. I really appreciate that about Jenre, and that's what makes her one of my favorite reviewers. She's also had the guts to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes on, when reviewing some big names. That's earned her some hate from the twufans but only respect from me.

Her reviews frequently cross-post to Jessewave's, where they get a different ranking, since that site assigns a numerical rating.

Not sure about the wisdom of not naming the reviewer/authors/stories if I don't much like it. I don't want to harsh on anyone, and my mama did teach me about saying something nice or nothing at all, but this may not be the time and place for it. Thoughts?

Vampires

I just read a vampire novel, m/m which I had mixed feelings about. "The Vampire Fred" by Vaughn Demont. Now, that's a title to cheer; it sets up expectations and tells you there's going to be something...offbeat about it. Kewl.

I LOVED the first half of the story, all how did Fred (FRED! HAHAHAHAHA) become a vampire and WTF is going on here anyway? In a good way. Sexycutefunny and offbeat. I still don't know why Daniel was comatose for 85 years, but okay...

And then... eveyone is inhabiting everyone's head and jumpjumpjump POVs and WTF is going on here in a not so good way. Darn. It probably made sense to the author but if I have to read the same scene three times to figure out WTF is going on and decide that I don't care enough to do it a fourth time and really understand it, then...

No wonder the last 12 pages had to wait a week to get read.

It's not a review like a review site. I'm a reader and don't claim to be anything else. But this wasn't as much fun at the end as the beginning promised.

More here, including buy link. If I'm gonna review, I ought do it like the big kids, huh. Well, next time, maybe.

Witterings on reviews again

Just swung back by that site I mentioned in the last post, and realized something else. This is on LJ, where you can pick the avatar for each post, to suit your mood. Her avatar today had a stabbed voodoo doll today, though she has others, and I just realized that's a big fat signal, too. I almost didn't check the text, knowing that she was gonna skewer the book and the only real question was 'why.' Turns out that she had a valid reason, but ow, ow, ow, for the writer.

Some books aren't all that great, and that raises another question. How to say so without turning it into a bash-fest. No one likes everything they read equally well, and honesty as a reviewer doesn't require expounding on it. I was going to say it did, and then recalled that Elisa Rolle doesn't bash on books, and I trust her judgment. There is opinion by silence, although that's hard to tell from just not having read something. Do you have to review everything you read? Some of the review sites get books from the publisher or the author, some review things they've purchased, some are a mix. If it's a gift, should you review it, even if you didn't care for it?

This came up a few weeks ago on one of the review sites, and I kind of thought there had to be a middle ground between yes and no. If there is a promise made explicitly, like 'yes, publisher X, I will review this book', do it. Even if it's not favorable. That's how publishers learn about handling acquisitions.

If an author has requested a review and sent the book, there might be the option of contacting the author and saying, "I read it, but I can't be enthusiastic about it and still be honest, do you want me to post anyway?" Some authors figure that any publicity is good publicity, others might be grateful to keep certain opinions under wraps.

It wouldn't work for Kirkus Reviews or the New York Review of Books, but most m/m reviewers are independent and have some leeway.

More reviews ponderings

There's another site for m/m romance reviews that I see from time to time. No ratings, but she does identify the people that she thinks will like this. Sometimes it's 'fans of the author' which is a kiss of death, or 'readers who appreciate *some genre*' which is a lot more inclusive. Or something in between. Sometimes she gets wildly enthusiastic, and that is so rare as to merit staring. She ships a lot more dislike.

There's a tag line to link to the read-more, and that tag line pretty much sums up her reaction, and quite a lot of the time, it's rather cutting. I've seen her review books dispassionately, and it seems to be objective, and other times, she has an awful lot of fun at the author's expense. Possibly it's legitimate criticism, but it sure looks like she's having a good time snarking.

Not sure that's a good way to review.

More ramblings about reviews

Some reviewers don't use any ratings. When I read one of Elisa Rolle's reviews, for example, I have to read between the lines, because I don't think she's ever come right out and said, "I don't like this." On the other hand, with close to a thousand books in her TBR pile, at least according to her
Goodreads list, if she hated it, the next one, possibly a better one, is to hand.

With a non rating reviewer, there is information about what is in there, more than 'what worked for her.' Content, rather than reaction to content, is the takeaway message, though Elisa, at least, is remarkably good about not doing spoil-y spoilers. She ponders the motivations of the characters, the author, and how that plays out, without actually discussing actions that would disturb the reading experience.

That's an art form right there.

Thinking about book reviews

I guess this blog really lost its focus once I finished Were Here. That story was a lot of fun, and the sequel is sort of in progress, although I’m not inspired to work on it all that much. I’d rather read.

My buddy, ‘ol PD Singer, (don’t tell her I called her that, or she’ll remind me that age and treachery defeat youth and enthusiasm) has gotten me reading m/m romances, a habit she picked up from Eden Winters. Fanfiction has a lot of slash, so these m/m stories are not a big surprise. Some of them are really good! And some are not so good. Even the not so good ones are better than the fan fiction, usually, and the sex doesn’t read like it’s been written by virgins who drank too much cough syrup.

Sometimes it would be nice to get more opinions about what the book will be like before I buy it, and there are some review sites out there that seem to know what they’re talking about. Others just confuse me, when they give a low rating and then get all glowy about it in the text. Goodreads is helpful sometimes, and sometimes I’m not sure we read the same book. I know, it’s readers’ opinions, I’ve left a few, but still…

I’ve been trying to think of things that would be helpful to include in a review. Books are subjective experiences, but there ought to be some kind of objective things that would help. Desert Island Keepers ratings tell you that someone fell in love with the story, sometimes in spite of flaws, that’s kind of nice to know, but I disagree with them sometimes. If someone can come up with a system for rating wine, you know, 91, nice nose, good finish with a hint of black currant, that sort of thing, maybe someone actually has an informative system for rating books.

And if they suggest the book would go well with a Pinot Noir but not a Chardonnay, so much the better.