Official Review: 'The Composer' by Lee Olds

Eckhart Aurelius Hughes · Post by **Scott** » 20 Jan 2015, 00:12

When an author (or restaurant owner or other business person or artist) responds to a critical review with personal attacks against the reviewer--let alone even going so far as to personally attack those who merely comment on the review--I think it adds a ton of credibility to the poor rating. Those who take constructive criticism well, and who are just mature in general, tend by far to have the better product. I could say much more about that but I don't want to detract from the well-written review from one of our top reviewers.

I think this helps illustrate why the service we offer here with reviews is so incredibly valuable. It was in a post I have since deleted because it contained silly personal attacks, but the author mentioned positive Amazon reviews for the book as if those could trump our review team's reviews in believability. Indeed, many books that get bad ratings from our trusted reviewers have a few mostly positive Amazon ratings. We might be wise to take a guess that these are from family, friends or paid reviewers that lack the integrity of our review team. Amazon unfortunately seems not to have an effective way of providing reliable ratings for the millions of cheap or free ebooks available. That's very unfortunate because there are many hidden gems in all these books in this new world of easy, cheap publishing. That's why what we are doing here with our review team is so groundbreaking and valuable. Props to Skillian for this excellently written review.

As one more borderline off-topic note, when reading a review, you will notice that there is a link next to the reviewer's post to their Reviewer Page which lists all of the reviews that person has done with us, and a link to that person's Bookshelf to show that person's ratings of other books that person has read. If you find the person's review well-written with intriguing literary analysis, you can use those links to find the books that that excellent reviewer does recommend.

Keep up the good work, Skillian!

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 20 Jan 2015, 05:19

And this is pretty much why Scott runs this place.

On another note, I tend not to take reviews on Amazon seriously unless it says "verified purchase" next to the review. It might not necessarily mean that the review is honest, but at least I know that the reviewer bought the book directly from Amazon and isn't just making up the whole thing.

gali · Post by **gali** » 20 Jan 2015, 05:20

ALynnPowers wrote:And this is pretty much why Scott runs this place.

On another note, I tend not to take reviews on Amazon seriously unless it says "verified purchase" next to the review. It might not necessarily mean that the review is honest, but at least I know that the reviewer bought the book directly from Amazon and isn't just making up the whole thing.

Ditto!

Gravy · Post by **Gravy** » 20 Jan 2015, 05:37

I never even read reviews on amazon

I have some review sites that I trust.
Other than that...I look at the writing somewhere in the book.
That certainly helps me to see if I want to look any deeper.
A random amazon user is not a trusted voice in my opinion.

Skillian · Post by **Skillian** » 20 Jan 2015, 22:56

I am happy for everyone supporting me, but I am going to get over my pride here and say I was wrong. This book needed another read. I wont be reviewing anymore books. I want to build people up not break them down. I am going to reread it without a biased lens. And honestly I have a feeling it will be worth a 4. I understand that having such a drastic change in heart might jeopardize my position on the review team. But I would prefer to admit I was wrong. I am so sorry everyone. I didn't mean to mislead. I am ashamed. I hope you can forgive me.

gali · Post by **gali** » 20 Jan 2015, 23:36

Regardless of your opinion about the book, the author was way out of order personally attacking you and the commentators.

Post by **bookowlie** » 21 Jan 2015, 00:08

gali wrote:Regardless of your opinion about the book, the author was way out of order personally attacking you and the commentators.

I agree. The author acted unprofessionally and the personal attacks verge on cyber-bullying.
Skillian, you read the book and gave an honest review. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » 21 Jan 2015, 07:36

I seldom read Amazon reviews.
I have a small list of reviewers, including 4/5 here, whose recommendations I would take on board other than that I might read the synopsis just to make sure I'm not inadvertently getting landed with a 50 shades

type book but mainly random reviews either on the web or in person carry no weight with me and would never send me to purchase a book.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 22 Jan 2015, 08:16

Skillian wrote:I am happy for everyone supporting me, but I am going to get over my pride here and say I was wrong. This book needed another read. I wont be reviewing anymore books. I want to build people up not break them down. I am going to reread it without a biased lens. And honestly I have a feeling it will be worth a 4. I understand that having such a drastic change in heart might jeopardize my position on the review team. But I would prefer to admit I was wrong. I am so sorry everyone. I didn't mean to mislead. I am ashamed. I hope you can forgive me.

You seem so depressed in this post! I don't see how you mislead anyone!