Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In The Weeds

If you want a good laugh go to Amazon and read the reviews for Fifty Shades of Grey.  If you don't know about this book series, it began as fanfic based on the Twilight books, called Master of the Universe or something.  Apparently the similarities are obvious except that there are no vampires and lots of sex.  Abusive sex.  I'm not reading it to find out.  But the reviews are hilarious and fascinating in that either they're 5 star "These are the best books ever written!!11!!!! eleventy!" or 1 star "Was this written by a 16 year old girl?"

You can't read through all of them because there are about 5,000 but a sample will make you wonder how people can read the same book and have opinions 180 degrees in opposition.  Some of the people who really like it call themselves non-readers.  So what were they appreciating about this book?  There's no way to tell but to say it appeals to some and not to others whether it's because of background or past reading experience or life experience, expectation.  You don't know what a reader is bringing to the book and what about the book will either excite them or annoy them.

Update:  Unheard is live at both Amazon and BN now so that's good.  I also just laughed myself silly reading the new reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey.  I take comfort in knowing nothing I do can be that bad.  Also, it should be pointed out, nothing of mine will ever find the huge audience those books did.

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