Bad Words

Selena's Review: An ostensibly provocative exploration of literary ambition and critical discourse, ultimately undermined by its own narrative redundancy, overwrought psychological introspection, and conspicuous lack of substantive character development. Karen's Review: In other words, I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. I love books about books, especially those that take us behind the scenes of the publishing world, and the premise here was terrific. Parker Navarro is a young (handsome) author whose debut novel, with a huge advance and a bidding war, is destroyed by one scathing review from Selena Chan, a brilliant and ruthless literary critic. Years later, when Parker finds the courage to publish his second novel, Selena does it again. What follows is a very public war of words that takes on a life of its own on social media, where everyone has an opinion, whether they've read the books or not. I enjoyed the publishing world, the chemistry between Parker and Selena, and especially the interesting question of what separates a critic from a reader who simply loves and reviews books. But somewhere along the way, the story lost me. Both characters are intelligent, talented, and seemingly confident, yet their insecurities and personal issues became so repetitive that I found them difficult to believe. The story seemed to go in circles, and despite the drama, very little actually happened. If you enjoy books about books, this one may be for you. For me, it was disappointing, not because it was bad, but because it could have been much better.