A Word About Writing Low-Star Reviews

Your fingers fly across the keyboard until, finally, you click that post button. A few seconds later, your review is available for all to see. In this review, you eagerly detailed your staunch dislike–or, perhaps, your deep hatred–for the book, it’s characters, plot, settings, and even, perhaps, the author. Now all you need to do is await the likes, comments of agreement, and the, “Oh! I’m never reading this book because of your review!” remarks.

Makes you feel good, doesn’t it? Your low-star review has just docked the author’s overall rating and it definitely lowered the book’s rating.

Here’s the thing. It may make you feel good, powerful, but that review? It’s poison.

An author’s heart and soul went into writing that book. They labored through dry spells, physical ailments, emotional trials, and nights of exhaustion that proved detrimental to their health. They know not everyone will like their book–it’s a given, and authors accept that.

You possess every right to dislike a book. You absolutely do not have the right to expel written vitriol. There is a code of ethics for writing reviews, and especially low-star reviews, though many have forgotten that code. You can express your displeasure in a Christlike, gentle manner. It will still sting the author, but it will not shred their heart and soul.

As Christians, we are called to be lights in this dark world. Low-star reviews like the one mentioned above? Those don’t reflect our light. They embrace the world’s standards: cruelty, hatred, and the pleasure derived from tearing someone down.

The Bible has plenty to say about words.

There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. – Proverbs 12:18

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. – Ephesians 4:29

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. – Proverbs 15:4

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! – James 3:5

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person. – Matthew 15:11

We live in an age of technology where almost everything can be accomplished behind a screen. This is creating an atmosphere of emboldened ruthlessness, where we can say what we please without reaping the consequences. Gone are the days of duking it out via fistfights and recognizing words have the power to heal or destroy. Here are the days of gleeful grins and smug sneers as we post our latest demolishing review.

Those harsh reviews don’t make you look good. They make you look immature and emotionally weak. Are you so incapable of wrangling your emotions into order that you go on a rampage under the guise of a review?

Like I said, you have every right to dislike a book. What you do not have the right to do is use your words to cause harm.

And I’m seeing a lot of reviewers, professing “Christians” included, use their reviews to cause harm.

Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, this should not be.

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