I think to truly critique any work with fairness and clarity, you must be able to see its positives as well as its negatives. Even if the only positive you can find is "it has a pretty cover" 😂 being able to say "it was a fun time, but-" will always be a much more intelligent conversation than "this is a blight upon humanity because i didn't like it"
This I could stomach, but people praising books I HATED I can't stand. I automatically assume the person is stupid, whereas I think most criticism of books I love is valid😂
That's an interesting take.. books you hated could just be not for you.. literature is subjective and there's no definitive metric for what makes a good book..obvious grammar issues or other issues aside.
honestly looking at the one star review of products I intend to buy is my go-to strategy. It is way more common to bot good reviews than bad and if I read criticisms that either bother me aswell or don't bother me at all it helps me make a decision. Like if a book has negative reviews about how slow the romance is that is a positive for me because I think most romances are too fast paced
Yeah same. Because my taste is books is very personal. So I know not everyone is going to like the same books. But people loving a book I hate?? Hello? Did we read the same book?? Apparently not. And I also I'm judging their intellect and reading comprehension skills 😂😂
The best 1 star review I ever read was for Nathaniel Hawthorn's The House of the Seven Gables, and it just read, "I am sure there is a good story in here somewhere, if you can find it amongst all the words." I think about this review at least once every few days. Best summation of that book EVER.
2:30 The Night Circus 5:45 1984 8:05 The picture of dorian gray 9:00 Parfum 10:25 Uprooted 12:55 Juniper and Thorn 15:02 The secret History 17:01 The fifth season *Pause for dramatic effect* 18:40 Six of Crows 20:31 Jane Eyre 23:06 A psalm for the wild built 24:22 Beautiful World where are you 26:04 Bunny 28:32 The Tao of Pooh Alr now since I've done that whole ordeal WHO F*CKING DARES CALL MY BABIES (KAZ, INEJ, JASPER, WYLAN, AND THE GANG) BLAND?! also mysogonistic? Like girl, have you read the damn book? Do you understand words? Like I dont wanan be mean right, but I sure do love to break my own moral code at times
okay to defend my girl jane, she DOES get gone! I mean spoilers for Jane Eyre but when she finds out Rochester has a wife she fully bounces because she knows she deserves better. She only goes back to that wretched man (insert historical nuance and context for rochester as a character here that most people don't feel like bringing to their readings of classics le sigh) when she's rich, she's got family, she's got different options for her life path, and he's essentially been smited by god and humbled into dirt like the pathetic man he is and he's alone and simping for jane and she chooses to return to him because she wants the life with the most possible love and happiness and for her that's being with him. like, who cares about him. she's the empowered one who gets to say no or yes. there's a reason it's called jane eyre and NOT rochester /end rant sorry but simplistic reviews that amount to "rochester sucks" really get to me because like where did the book say he didn't
The way book settled the massive power imbalance is (aside from inheritance) by literally making rochester disabled in the end and i dont know how i feel about that
Okay, but what about the wife? 😂 where does her death fall in the complex matrix of Jane Eyre's emancipation and empowerment? 🤔 when all things are considered, is getting some good dick matters more in the moral equation than sisterhood?
I feel you because I have to supress my CONSTANT urge to bring up the historical nuance and context of Jane Eyre in everyday conversation because I'm just sitting here like: it's so fascinating, can I please have a long discussion on how one of the more unexplored conflicts with Jane and Rochester is letter vs spirit of the law because Rochester's marriage to Bertha Mason was, even for the time, illegal (one of the few reasons you could legitemately get divorced even in Jane Austen's England (and earlier) is if you could prove one of the parties was mentally unstable at the time of the marriage- modern readers often think that there was no divorce and that's not true! It was RARE and DIFFICULT but there WERE divorces) and the whole thing hinged on him being unable to prove it's illegality due to his own family's betrayal of him and the Mason's family (and the society of the time)'s horrific sexism over wanting to get rid of their mentally unstable daughter in a way that made her not their financial burden? HOW DOES THIS NOT INTEREST YOU?
Im seeing a common thread among these reviews, and i just want to say that if you're not enjoying a book, don't finish it! You dont have to. Being happy that the book is over just so you can escape the boring characters is somwthing you dont need to struggle to achieve. If its not a good time, just stop. If anything, pushing through a bad book will only put you in a reading slump
While that is sensible advice, there are some books that you feel compelled to keep reading and can't stop. Maybe there's just enough to intrigue you and make you overlook other aspects you dislike or you expect something exciting to happen. Sometimes the rest of the book is actually good but the ending completely loses you. Sometimes the story is good but the characters are more irritating than boring. There are so many reasons people try to push through a book.
The thing that got me with Uprooted (and the reason I DNF'd) was the COMPLETELY INACCURATE portrayal of period clothing. Honey, your corset does NOT work like that (like that: slashing it with a knife makes it so you can breathe. Girl, if you can't breathe your corset is too tight and what kind of knife cuts through BONING??? )
@@lilacfields wild takes you all have. You dnf because of maybe it will annoy me more later? I always wonder how people like you go through their lives
@@TheOriginalDogLP i go through my life peacefully because i don’t waste my time with things i don’t like. dnfing a book is not a major offense nor does it affect me in any way 🤷🏽♀️
THIS! young people can be just as capable for good and bad. also like sure, is he a normal 17 year old ? maybe not, but most 17 year olds aren't gang leaders either lol. jokes aside, people are all varying levels of traits, so in his circumstances in that world, it's not that crazy. it's not like everyone else in the book is immature and he stands out as a black sheep bc he's the only hardened one, like clearly just how they live idk. and aside from that, if you pick up any fantasy book, and particularly YA, like duh most of them aren't like regular people
Hear me out: when a book sells you an idea, a concept, you want it to be good. And sometimes, you get disappointed at what the book should be the best at. Don't know if it makes a lot of sense...
@@yatshie8717 photography! I was a lawyer and hated it and now I’m a part time photographer (@romavera_photography) and I have my own brand. I learned all my photography skills on Skillshare, so much more complete than what I found on RU-vid
I'm moving in a month for the first time ever and am so stressed about it and have no idea where to start, so seeing your moving vlogs would be so helpful ❤❤ lovely video as always!
also i constantly feel like the only person in the world who loves beautiful world where are you so its always a nice reminder im not alone when you talk about loving it too
The one star for it being misogynistic makes total sense. What's weird is that women are so used to ignoring misogyny just to enjoy a book that we just dismiss it immediately. That we're used to it doesn't make it fine, and the person who rated it 1 star was being 100% reasonable.
sure, dismissing a WHOLE novel, which objectively is one of the greatest dystopian novels out there, and trashing everything there’s to learn from it concerning totalitarianism and human psychology, for traces of misogyny makes total sense. Sure !
@@tarnim80plus the fact that i myself saw this EXACT review and in the replies the OP admitted to using it as rage bait to "piss off the men" (not direct quote) that hold it in high regard. I honestly felt such disappointment from that because even though it IS a valid criticism and flaw of the book, it absolutely does not warrant the low rating🤷🏻♀️
I totally agree with you, I don’t watch movies from like before the year 2000 if I can avoid it because the casual misogyny is unbearable, and I feel similarly about books. I don’t leave them 1 star reviews unless misogyny (or another form of bigotry) is fundamental to the plot though, but I have never left a 5 star review on a book where the author shows bigotry, even if it is just in the undertones. A book can’t be 5 stars if it doesn’t consider part of its cast fully human.
I screamed when you showed Bunny by Mona Awad, because I haven’t seen NO ONE talking about that book 🧍🏻 like it’s soooo good, it deserves more recognition
it's always funny to me that your favorite books are not always my favorite (uprooted, night circus) but i seem to come back to your content again haha this was a fun video !
brooo the hate on Six of Crows and A Psalm for the Wild-Built are so uncalled for wtf😭😭 Leonie was so strong for this. I've tried reading 1 star reviews of my favorites and I had to rage quit. not as rough as the time I begged my book club to read Piranesi and then the people who managed to finish it... hated it😬
I do think the hate comments on SoC was WILD and seemed inaccurate, but Imma be honest: I'm never gonna read it because it just screams "edgy grimdark with no real larger point." Or in other words: boring as shit.
To cheer you up a little, out of the books in this video I've read Bunny and The Secret History because of your recommendation and absolutely loved both of them (just wish the chapters in TSH were a little shorter, the book took me months to read because of that lol) and am currently reading The Night Circus because of you as well.
I think I like some 1⭐ reviews because they point out aspects of the novels that often go unnoticed and/or are simply poorly done. One of my favorite novels is At the End of the World and A Cruel Wonderland by Haruki Murakami. Sometimes the author is not very good at understanding women? It shows. Is it really necessary to spend an entire chapter describing the protagonist counting his coins inside an elevator? No. The ending was bad or felt unfinished? Absolutely. Is that going to stop me from continuing to read his books? No, It will only make me aware that the author is not perfect, is often boring, but has a lot to offer, especially if you are interested in becoming a Sci-Fi writer.
I love it when people criticise dark things in books but say nothing when the same shows up in real life. Other than that, 1 star reviews are useless if not outright comedic. Also, always read what you want and not what everybody else wants. I never read reviews simply because they rarely ever give actual feedback.
I love when a book has like a super toxic character and thats the whole point of the character like example Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl books. Or more common Magnolia Parks characters (which I havent read but heard theyre toxic) that they’re like maybe like a bitch or really unreasonable and then someone’s like I don’t like them. They’re so toxic and I’m like that’s the whole point.
I devoured ‘Bunny’ within a day. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but I definitely do not think it’s dumb or shallow. I honestly admire how calm you are reading one star reviews on your favourite books, I would’ve started calling these reviewers all kinds of names like two minutes in 😅
Your taste in books couldnt be more different than mine so I have to agree with most of the 1 stars, theyre just not my type of genre or plot 😭 (except dorian gray I looove it), especially six of crows, i actually hate that books bc i bought it thinking id love it but it was boring as hell 😭😭😭 finishing it felt like a punishment but did it bc i thought it got better :( worst is that i bought the sequel too bc again i thought id love both... but anyway, i do respect your taste, its interesting how people can be so different
Not being your genre doesn't make it a 1 star lmao.. just don't read it if you're not into it..imo 1 stars should be about actual flaws in a book...not if it just isn't your genre..
@@CaptainThugRdx I am talking about my experience and how I agree with them but I guess I didnt make it clear, I agree with the 1 stars because they do make good points. Also, if I dont like it of course it would be a 1star, not necessarily due to the genre, but its a bunch of reasons, sometimes a book can not be your preferred genre and you still love it. But if a book with a genre I dont like didnt make me like it nor the plot then yes, it is a 1star to me, could not be for you but reviews are personal after all
Despite always enjoying reading, I didn't like being forced to read certain books in high school and automatically disliked them, so now I'm going back and reading them as an adult with no homework assignments lol. So far I've read To Kill a Mockingbird again. I remember HATING it in HS...probably because I had to read it over the summer. Reading it as an adult I loved it. Sorry Harper Lee :/ . I remember I didn't dislike 1984 per se but I don't think I really appreciated it, so that's on my "reread as an adult instead of an angsty high schooler" list as well.
Leonie, I fully support you with your opinion on The Secret History, I have been arguing the same thing !!! Tends to happen with dark academia books a lot but I read reviews on the books I love that disagree with it and I'm like THAT'S LITERALLY THE POINT !!!
16:30 uuuhhh... having not read the book, I'm getting the impression that a large percentage of the dark academia people on tumblr either also haven't read it, or didn't get the point. Going purely off of tumblr posts I've seen about this book, I would have sworn the point was how romantic studying at a british elite school would be 😂
It really makes me angry when people forget or not keep in mind THE ERA in which a book was written and its characteristics when reading a book. Like "Omggg The Picture of Dorian Grey puts so much focus on the beauty, eternal life and moral degeneration..." No shit, that's Aestheticism😂😂
I've been reading "the night circus" in it's german translation and it was sooooo badly written which made me sad since it was absolutely my taste in it's world building/story Maybe i should give it another read in english & it was just badly translated...
24:13 I mean I learned that in English classes too, but honestly it can still be confusing. My first instinct is always that they/them signifies multiple people and I have to “correct it” in my brain. Not because I intend to be a bigot, but I have to actively think about the use of the word instead of the meaning coming to me naturally
So what have we learnt? One star reviews are almost always a result of a reader judging a book despite not knowing what they were getting into. A book written decades ago sounding misogynistic? What are the odds. A book about a sick mind obsessed with virgins too obsessed with virgins? Well, yeah, obviously! I hate horror so let me read horror and then complain that the book sucks 😅😅 Do these people rate graphic novels as juvenile because they have pictures 🙄
some of these have some valid points but my god what is up with all these immature people who think all stories should have black and white simplistic moral lessons and all characters should be role models and only depict wholesome parent-approved conflict free stories ??? i get that for books that aimed at younger audiences you'd want a certain level of thinking about the impact but when it comes to books for adults it's honestly really scary how many people seem to think like that these days. it feels a lot like religious fundamentalism like do you think you're going to invite in the devil by reading (and thinking) impure things or sth. bad people are often very entertaining !!! also please that guy who has a problem with they as a pronoun is such a baby it's been in use since shakespeare. anyway this was a funny video great concept i do love reading bad reviews of books i love because it helps me sharpen my sense of my own tastes and opinions but also sometimes you just feel called out lmfao
The 1 star review that stuck to me to this day was from ‘All thats Left in the World’ by Erik J Brown which is a young-adult post-apocalyptic romance book and it said “The world is literally ending and you’re worried about homophobia?!?!!” 😭
You know most of these are kinda valid 😂 like some 1 star revews can be so insightful and sumarize the books so well! (Albeit with a different perspective). And then we get just transphobic people whinning about the use of they/them pronouns 🙄 I hate people sometimes.
When people read a book inspired by Slavic folk lore and then get disappointed that a character is given a Slavic name (Dragan) 😂 and is not in fact a dragon
Honestly, Juniper and Thorn ended up on my DNF. I couldn't get past the repetition of the main characters plainness. I am so over the self deprecating, she's so uninteresting and naive but there's just something special about her that only this extraordinary man can see. Maybe if she wasn't constantly talking about how dull she is I could have looked past it, but I was over it about 50 pages in.
Calling soc s3xual is so crazy. First of all have these ppl read other ya books?? Second of all have these ppl pay attention to kanej at all?? A relationship in which trust and knowing each other and holding hands is so much more intense than anything s3xual. And I mean there aren't big intimate things written with any characters in soc
6:46 PLEASE at some point make a whole video about 1984!! I remember reading it for a class and HATING the misogynistic vibes I was getting, so much that I absolutely could not pick it up again, and that any topic around it simply led me into a rant. I am so interested to see what quality a truly analytic reader sees within it, and what you think about the accusations of misogyny in the book. You must have a lot to say on the topic and I at least would absolutely love getting to hear your thoughts, whether I agree with them or not 🩷
Okay, this one will be a rather controversial, and I'm really sorry in advance if I offend anyone with this, but I have to mention it: One thing that I definitely don't like about Six of Crows (or at least find hypocritical) is the hype around its progressiveness about Nina being plus-sized and still being able to be atractive and sexy (or at least this is how many fans interpret it based on opinions and reviews I read). Then there is also Matthias, who is appearance-wise pretty much an extremely convencionally attractive specimen for a lot of people attracted to males (and whose physical attractiveness probably contributed to the development of their relationship). Am I the only one who sees a discrepancy here?
I've always found the they/them and it/is push back once it's used for a singular person to be weird bc it is taught (I'm from the u.s so that's what I know) in English speaking schools that both they/them and it/is can be used to refer to a person. It's just that homophobia overrides a lot of common sense 😔.
I'm kind of scared to look up my favorites. I've been liking some not popular books here lately (not so much not liked, but books I never hear people talk about).
books are subjective, it would be crazy if all of us liked the same books! I let people like what they like and I will like what I like. I don't get people who want to spread hate over a book and hate on an individual for their book taste. This was a lovely video Leonie, as always ❤
As someone who studies greek and latin I can assure you half of my classmates are that pretentious and elitist and reading the Secret History made me really want to recommend it to them before they make it to university
Idk. I hated 1984 cause it's like torture porn but for muddy gritty molasses like pessimistic narrative about how everything sucks. There're genuinely interesting ideas inside, so 2 stars. But I hoped all this depression and last day on earth aesthetic would at least make a point that isn't boring
im so sorry, i really dont like six of crows☹ i tried so hard bc she's my favourite booktuber but it just feels like those boring books you get assigned to read for english. i could not get immersed into the story, which is the only reason i read
