I’ve taken some time in the past couple of weeks to talk about negative reviews, and why I’m all for them as both a reader and a reviewer.  In light of my recent thinking on the topic, I was pleased to see this post from Sarah at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books show up in my feed reader yesterday.  She (as usual) perfectly spells out a couple of ideas that I couldn’t concisely articulate in my posts:

This is what happens when readers read books: we get irate sometimes and giddy other times. Now we interact more about the giddy and the irate, and that interaction, positive or negative, is valuable. More importantly, it’s normal.

Reviews, positive or negative, are essential. Reviews are part of social media. Reviews are part of everything. They aren’t going anywhere.

Seriously, just read the whole thing.  And don’t skip over the comments; some of them are gems as well!