First I'd like to mention that I already had two 5-star reviews on "Winter in July." Anyway, the first bad review (2 stars) was followed by two more bad reviews (a 2-star & 1-star) that evidently agreed with the first bad one. But, like I said in the first post, I can live and grow with criticism.
At the end of that post I listed the URL so that everybody could read it and make their own decisions. Well, hold onto your hats, folks, but just yesterday I got another 5-star review that not only answered the bad reviews but gave a really good long review of my novel.
In this post I will include a copy of my first post and the really good review received 5-5-12.
If you would like to read all 6 reviews here's the URL address to my author page at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GW465S.
Here's the copy of my first post:
April 11, 2012. Just received a really bad--I mean Bad!—review on one of my novels at Amazon: Winter in July, the second novel I wrote. He/she called my main character, Kirby Yates, the protagonist ‘pathetic’ (so 'pathetic' that he/she found it hard to keep reading) and later called him a 'cry baby.' He/she called my character laughable. He/she said he/she would deplete his/her own library and every public library for a radius of 200 miles before he/she would read this novel again. But it does sound like he/she would read it again.
Well, folks, that hurt.
Sure, at one point in the novel Kirby did cry, but also, he had just seen his girlfriend get blinded by the flash from a nuclear bomb blast, and that huge sliding three-feet-thick door had just closed, leaving her outside, and then there was a series of nuclear blasts that—in Kirby’s mind—must have destroyed the whole countryside. So, yes, he cried. Wouldn’t you have? And then later, Kirby breaks out of the bomb shelter. He finds his girlfriend blinded but still alive. In the distance he sees dozens of mushroom clouds rising and blotting out the sun, so, yes, he's scared. The future for himself and his girlfriend does not look good.
So, who is this Amazon reader who did me such a service? Well, like many people writing online, he/she goes by a profile name that is gender neutral. And, in respect for his/her privacy, I
won’t name the name. I mean, this person talks-the-talk, but, by not identifying himself/herself, he/she is not really walking-the-walk.
Also, his/her profile picture is just the outline of a head, which could be either male or female. I don’t take much stock in people like that, who give not a clue to their identity. He/she could even be someone I know.
The thing is, yes, I can take criticism; each of us can learn from a good critique, but this one just cut me deeply. He/she gave me a scathingly-bad review. It even hurt my feelings. I even feel that if he/she were to see this very first post on my blog that he/she would be happy to have hurt my feelings.
Enough, it could go either way. The bad review could make even more people want to read my novel, just to see if they agree. Or, I might find out that many, many, more, people think Kirby Yates is 'pathetic.'
There is a spot next to this harsh review where someone else can respond to that particular review. Here is my author page where one can go there instantly: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GW465S
Good or bad, I hope somebody does. Thanks for reading, folks!
And here's the copy of the really good review:
Buy! -- an unusual, introspective take on the apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic
tale, May 5, 2012
By
Kurt Stallings "Kurt Stallings -- Author, Law... (Fort
Worth , Texas
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Winter in July (Kindle Edition)
Kirby Yates lives in a part of the country where there are
almost as many nuclear missiles as there are people. The small little town he
calls home is filled with lonely people making their way through silent lives. They
would be mere numbers waiting to be dumped onto a casualty list if it wasn't
for the fact that their exact location is just beyond the range of total
destruction by any enemy missiles aimed at the American bases a short drive
across the prairie. Even so, Yates would be nothing among them in the eyes of
planners, but for the fact that he happens to have a combination of basic
military experience, a quiet competence for planting and managing landscapes,
and a bit more intelligence than most -- common enough throughout the world,
but rare in that particular spot. He's chosen to prepare for and participate in
any nuclear exchange without being informed of the fact until it's too late to
quit, although he is bright enough to realize it before. Ironically, he
realizes, he is preparing the stage for the tragedy that has given him
nightmares since discovering a secret stash of materials in his grandfather's
house. His artist's vision, which he keeps hidden from others, makes his sense
of what may be coming only more vivid.
The author achieves something rare, if not indeed unique,
with a work of fiction that not only broadens the reach of its particular sub-genre
but doubles as a commentary on that sub-genre in itself. Certainly, this is the
first of the A/PA novels I've read that explores the reason I am compelled to
read so many. The protagonist grew up with the same obsessive sense of
impending nuclear doom that vested in so many of us at a certain age, thanks to
countless drills at school, those ridiculous films in class, and any number of
black-and-white movies on TV. While some reviewers here are put off by Kirby
Yates' initial, relative immaturity -- brilliantly and incisively detailed for
him halfway through by a woman explaining why they can not be together -- readers
more accustomed to novels that aren't purely action-driven will enjoy following
his maturation, complete at the end of the book.
I'm not knocking action books, or those who enjoy them, I'm
simply making the distinction so you can choose whether you personally might
enjoy the book or not. I like action books; I also like this one. This is a
book about a man, not a war, albeit a man preparing for the most terrifying of
wars; and it's a book about a real man, not a caricature.
I recommend BUY as someone who enjoyed the tension as the
subtle shifts in his relationships, always driven by an artist's appreciation
for the insanity of nuclear war, was also balanced by an appreciation for the
need for "adults" (as Yates puts it in his musings) who deal with
insanity as something that is never going away. The struggle to achieve some
sort of mature balance within himself as between those two impulses are what
drive his decisions throughout the book. The ending is so satisfying because he
finds that balance under the most surprising of circumstances -- or perhaps the
only situation in which he might have stumbled onto it. In any event, it's his
decisive action that wins him his "adulthood," and brings the
security he's always sought to himself and those for whom he cares.
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