A friendly person from an online book group emailed me with some ire, though not directed at us (always nice!). Seems she’s teed off because earlier last week, the fourteenth installment of the Stephanie Plum series, which hits stores 17 June, had a three-star ranking on BN.com, with a large portion of the 29 individuals who read an advance copy discussing how disappointed they are in the latest Plum installment.
But as of Friday, there are 11 ratings, all of them four to five stars, with more than a few from people who slapped that puppy with a fiver merely to indicate how excited they are that the book is coming out, omg, wow!!!11! According to the person who contacted me, there were 30 reviews up on Tuesday 20 May. Wednesday 21 May there were 9. 2 more glowing reviews have been added since. 1 negative review was posted on Thursday 22 May and removed on Friday 23 May. Scroll through the reviews posted and look at the dates. They’re a jumbled mess, in no order whatsoever. Never seen that before.
BN.com is one of the few places where you can review a book online prior to its release date. Amazon.com’s listing for the book indicates a five-star rating as well, but there are no reviews of the book listed on the book’s page on Amazon. (Where are those stars coming from anyway?)
However, there is a customer discussion that is less than impressed with the book, which echoes discussions on Shelfari and on Powell’s.
Can I just say I am so absurdly amused by the “How can you hate this book you are a moronnnnnn!” shreiking that comes along like a sidecar of idiocy in threads like those? It’s like the creature opposite of the squeeing fangirl: the shrieking fangirl. How dare you dislike her favorite author! Fangirl powers, activate - form SHREIKING HARPY BANSHEE!
Which is why my eyebrow is raised at the email from the bookclub miss. On Monday, there were 29 comments. Today: only 11, all of them five stars, or four.
Google Cache powers, activate!
What I find fascinating about the entire concept of disappearing negative reviews is that some, if not most, of the negative reviews, as I understand it, were written by members of a book club, an online group that exists and was founded based on a complete and utter adoration of all things Evanovich and Plum. According to one of the group’s founders, they are by invitation only, and they read all kinds of books, but a special amount of anticipation and attention is paid to the Plum series. They discuss the books before they come out, and if they get an ARC they pass it around to each member so they can all read and enjoy it. They love the series, they love the characters, and they love reading.
I can relate to that. I also got into a nice healthy “Nuh UH” debate with one of them about Morelli vs. Ranger. I can attest from my own interaction - these fans are some hard core lovers of this series.
So it’s all the more disappointing for them, not only that they didn’t like Fearless Fourteen but that their reviews which stated their opinions were removed from BN.com without explanation. It’s not like these are drive-by reviewers who flipped open the cover, maybe read the dust jacket, put it back and wrote a review, or even people who haven’t read the series who feel the need to trash the genre. Sure, that happens, but these folks, these are fans. Big fans. Huge fans. I bet the potential thread of Morelli v. Ranger goes on for hundreds and hundreds of comments.
So who better to discuss why and how they were disappointed? And whose opinions, for that matter, might carry a bit more weight than, “Omg I am SO ExCITeD?!!?11”? And thus, whose opinions are going to be deleted if, as they allege, their comments dropped the sales figures of the book for a time, only to have that elusive sales rank restored to a higher number once the negatives were removed?
I’m sure some of you are going to roll your eyes and be like, “Dude, Bitch, take a Xanax and let it go already.” Me? Like a terrier! A terrier with screen caps!
Behold, the reviews that were taken down, should you be interested in reviews of Fearless Fourteen that did, but now don’t, appear on your local BN.com. While some of the reviews delve into an area that makes me feel squidgy in which the writer presumes Evanovich’s motivation in writing Fearless Fourteen, most of them make perfectly adequate points as to why the reader/reviewer didn’t like the book. There are thirteen reviews in all below the fold, all in pop-up images.
My grandmother, who passed away when I was 18, used to watch The Golden Girls with me all the time. I loved Estelle Getty like damn and whoa. I think I have a weakness for anyone who used to be a Catskills comedian, because I also rock a total crush on Fyvush Finkel like you have no idea.
Anyway, I can’t tell you how bummed I am that Getty passed away yesterday at 82. I used to picture Getty when I read the early Stephanie Plum novels as a sort of model for Grandma Mazur. For that reason, if you say the words “pesto” or “gumpy” to me, I will giggle like a fool.
ETA: Note to self - set the DVR for Friday, as Lifetime (which is normally “Television that Makes Sarah Screech") will air a Golden Girls marathon with the best of Sofia. I hope the pesto sauce makes it into the lineup.
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