I was apt to read a piece about The Hunger Games anyway, since the trilogy is one of my favorites, but the review by Rosalie Barrette really caught my attention and shocked me.
First of all, I couldn’t tell if it was positive or negative. She seemed to be recommending the novel, but also frequently degraded Suzanne Collins’ writing style. There were many contradictions that only confused me. For example, “the plot is definitely good” is followed by “many plot holes.” She claims she cried while reading The Hunger Games, but not long after, she states that the characters weren’t realistic enough for her to feel sorry for them.
Besides telling the reader it was a good book and then rating it 6 out of 10, there was one thing the writer did that seriously vexed me. She insulted Stephanie Meyer by writing, “Oh, and apparently, Stephanie Meyer recommends this book. (No surprise there.)” Now, I’m no fan of the Twilight books, but what has the author of the popular vampire saga ever done to her? In my opinion, there was absolutely no reason to be that rude.
Despite all the problems I have with this piece, I actually agree with some of the writer’s points; I just wish her opinions were clearer. If this feedback sounds like I’m just ranting about the review, I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted to get two points across. The first: a review is meant to persuade a reader to either buy the book or stay away from it. This means it must be clearly positive or negative throughout without any contradictions (which only annoy the reader). The second point: a review should stay on topic to keep the attention of the reader. (And that includes not mentioning and/or insulting other authors.)