To have given my opinion?

[madeittheway]

I’ve recently read a book I was looking forward to it being released. It was baaaad, very disappointing.

I looked up reviews on TikTok to see if it’s just me. I commented on one review with my opinion and the poster went crazy. Said it’s not “booktok” etiquette to disagree with a review and I wasn’t being kind.

Aibu? Surely if you post a review on a public forum then you need to accept people will comment?

Oh dear, you were mobbed by the be kind brigade which means you can't have an opinion! You might be best on a dedicated book group forum for proper book critique.

Was it Intermezzo?

I don't have TikTok but generally I'd say you'd be better off posting your own solo review, rather than posting what might be taken as a critique of another person's review.

‘I wasn’t being kind’ 🤢 to be honest I think it could be taken that you were criticising the review more than perhaps the book, as above, but equally I think if you’re posting a public opinion on something so open to interpretation as a book, you have to expect that’ll draw other opinions. Booktok is such an echo chamber sometimes, I read a lotttt and some of it is more on the booktok/trashy side and some of the most hyped books have been the most disappointing!

Booktok is unreal, I don’t engage with it much anymore and I LOVE books and reading.

The videos are mostly about book collections, pretty covers and ‘tropes’ and what most people don’t realise is you can’t reduce a book to just one trope - unless it’s a book just centred around that and then it’s not a great book really!

Think this hinges on how you worded your commentmostly. Tbf is a bit weird that you thought a good place for your negative review was the comment section of someone's video giving a positive review. It does a tiny bit seem like you're targeting the person who made a good review, rather than the book, by doing that.

Honestly, it’s pretty strange to decide the place for your negative review is someone else’s positive one (on social media rather than a newspaper write up). Not sure about Booktok etiquette as I generally avoid it, but if someone gave a book 5 stars on Goodreads, I wouldn’t reply to that review saying I thought the book was tripe. If I wanted to comment I’d start my own review or reply to a 1/2 star review. I see it as similar to as if a friend loves a book I hated, I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk about it, and I’d just make a vague comment about how it wasn’t my cup of tea, than start about everything the book did wrong in my opinion.

'Be kind' now means you're not allowed to have an opinion that might hurt someone else's feelings or 'invalidate' them in some way by being different to theirs 🙄

It's tedious.

In your shoes, I would have a) left a separate review so someone with a fragile ego didn't take a difference of opinion as a personal attack or b) not left a review at all. Not everything needs to go onto SM.

I have no idea about 'booktok' etiquette. Until this thread, I was completely unaware of the existence of 'booktok'.

Never heard of booktok but imo a review posted online is an invitation to comment. Otherwise they might as well keep their opinion in their own head.

No, I just used search on tiktok for “a review” - good, bad or a mixture of both.

I didn’t say - you are wrong and I am right, I just commented that personally I didn’t like it for xyz. I didn’t think it would particularly offend anyone because I didn’t say they were wrong or rip apart what they said and they didn’t write the book.

It sounds like one of this 'be kind' places, where nobody has to be kind to you.
I can't see that you've done anything wrong - if someone is so delicate, they can't take hearing an alternative opinion, they've no business being on line. You weren't rude or personally attacking them or anything.

I still would have found a negative or mixed review of the book to comment on than a positive one. I’m not on booktok, but more channels will be like peer to peer book recommendations than a traditional write up. When my friend said ‘I just read Lessons in Chemistry and loved it, have you read it?’ I didn’t respond saying it was the worst book I’d read that year and what I thought was wrong with it, because that’s just going to make her feel bad. I see a lot of Booktok as similar in vibe to that, than leaving a comment on a Guardian (or even someone’s Goodreads review) write-up. You can comment wherever, but people can also say that your comment isn’t welcome.

I’ve been watching Think Again reviews which come onto my feed, because I was underwhelmed and want to see that conversation. I’ve only seen people rave though, which I scroll past because it’s not my vibe and I don’t want to piss on the their chips.

I agree a comments section is a place for discussion about how far you agree or not with the review. But then, I wouldn’t go any where near tik took so …