The best negative review you’ll ever read!

Before we talk about the nature of reviews (and reviewers) let’s take a few quotes from a review over at FantasyLiterature.com where King Maker is under the spotlight:

The premise of King Maker is simply awesome

Maurice Broaddus’ writing creates a dangerous and authentic mood. The language is fierce and evokes the gritty realism of life on the streets. When the supernatural elements are introduced, they drift through the novel like smoke, leaving the reader gradually horrified as the end game is reached.

the dialogue is very effectively written

all of [the characters] are written in shades of grey

For some, King Maker is going to be the best read of 2010.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the reviewer adores this book as much as we do, but she doesn’t. As she is someone as far removed from Indianapolis gangland life as you can possibly get, she found the dialogue difficult to get through at times, and there are a few “extremely gruesome scenes” that she had difficulty in reading, but the interesting thing about this review is that, although the reviewer didn’t particularly enjoy the read, she acknowledged that “sometimes you just don’t ‘fit’ with a book” and that she has “the sneaking suspicion that other readers will love this book.”

She’s right. As a former book reviewer for several magazines, I know how important it is for the right person to read a book for review – no point, for instance,  in giving a visceral horror to a paranormal romance aficionado, no matter how great the title, they won’t enjoy the ride.

So, it’s refreshing to find a review from someone who didn’t particuarly gel with a title, and find that they don’t blame the book, nor themselves, but the synergy between the two.

And for what it’s worth, we’ll take a negative – but well-rounded –  review such as the one above, over an overtly positive but nothing-to-say review, all the time.

Oh, and King Maker is in the shops this Thursday – but before you go buy a copy, just re-read the comments quoted above, from a reviewer who didn’t fit with the book. Yeah, you want a copy…