Faith ‘n Fiction Saturday: Reviewing

Today’s “Faith ‘n Fiction Saturdays” post asks:

Do you receive review copies of Christian books? If so, do you review them honestly? How do you handle it when you don’t like a book but are obligated to provide a review? Who do you see your first commitment being to in book reviewing (besides God)? Yourself? The author? Your readers? Does your review change based on the spiritual content of the book or is it solely based on technical or artistic merit? Have you ever had a negative experience with an author after giving them a negative review? (please don’t name names)

I do receive review copies of Christian books — through FIRST Blog Alliances, mainly. But, I’ve also received some from the authors, themselves, too.

Just because they’re Christian books doesn’t mean I’m going to treat them any different, from a reviewer’s stance, than I would any secular book. Nor would I treat the author any differently — I try to treat all people with respect and courtesy, Christian or not.

My first committment in reviewing lies with God, of course, but then with the author. It’s my “job” to give the author a fair review of this book they’ve worked so hard to create. They want to know what their readers think of what they’ve written, and they want –I’m sure– to learn from those reviews for future writing.

At least, being an aspiring author myself, this is what my take on things is.   And, I have to say that it makes it much harder –wanting to BE an author– to give a negative review of a book. I have had one incidence, so far, where I truly did not like the book I was sent from a Christian author… the writing was amateurish, and I felt that the characters were very “flat”. Because I couldn’t find much “nice” to say about the book, I chickened out and didn’t bother to send my review. I should’ve written something, but instead I just wrote and thanked the author for sending me the book. I didn’t say whether I liked it or not. Not a great way to do things. But, I learned from that… I learned that I should be willing to be honest, but pray for God to help out while I’m doing so, both so that I’m gentle, and so that the author doesn’t get hurt.

I think, as a reviewer, I also have a committment to my readers… to those who will read my reviews. They want to know what the books are about, and whether or not they’ll enjoy them for themselves. It’s my responsibility to provide enough information (without spoiling the plot, of course!) that they can make an informed decision. Goodness knows, I’ve been helped out by fellow reviewers countless times! I rely very heavily on my blogging friends’ reviews of books for whether or not to add them to my TBR (to be read) lists! ;o)

Lastly, my reviews are always based on several aspects: whether or not the book was written well enough, whether or not I could care for the characters, whether the plot moved along nicely, and –for Christian books– what the spiritual aspect did for me, as a reader.

One thing I’ve loved about independent reviewing is that I can write my reviews how I want to… I don’t have to follow any particular format, and I can just write what I feel. That has been a real blessing, and I feel it gives more to my reviews. They’re not “cookie-cutter” reviews. While there’s nothing wrong with those formatted reviews, of course (they’ve helped me out many times, as a reader!), I just don’t like them for how I review.