Frustrated with Book Reviews

This week I thought I would step up my presence in the writing world and review a few books. However, I found myself to be slightly irritated by the mass number of reviews already given by readers, providing generic responses such as, "Best book I've ever read!" 

Look, I'm not saying it's not possible that you read the best book ever. As a matter of a fact, I hope you did. Truly! But when I read a book that takes three chapters to tell me about a school setting, and a second book that describes a woman getting attacked by the same man, suffering the same injuries, in three different locations spread out over three chapters, and they're getting 5-star reviews I have to wonder who is writing the reviews. Friends? Parents? Other authors that don't want to crush your dreams? 

Whoever you are, please stop. What you are doing is having a serious impact on authors. Statistics show that there are less and less readers every year and I believe poorly self-published books and false reviews are partially to blame. 

Our readers are smart! Give them credit where credit is due. Don't try to help someone sell a bad book just to spare their feelings. Readers stop trusting reviews once they get through the first chapter to learn that a false review robbed them of their time and money.