I recently downloaded the book Torment from Amazon's unlimited book club. My download is the second time I have dropped the book onto my hard drive, although this time, my purpose isn't to read the book (I didn't make it past chapter 26 the first time); no, this time, I wanted to refresh my memory to the authors exact wording of his one-star reviews.
I like to read introductions, and Torment was no exception. You'll learn things about the book, timing, challenges, etc.; however, Mr. Robinson's introduction caught me off guard. Jeremy had initially penned the story under the name 'Jeremy Bishop' but felt it was time to bring it home and publish it under the Robinson name. Mr. Robinson's introduction states,
"While most people loved the story, and the horrors within, a subset of people were enraged by it - and not just because of the content, but because it resonated with them so profoundly that they responded to their fear with anger. This generated some of the most epic one-star reviews I've ever received." [1]
It was the "most epic one-star reviews I've ever received" portion of the introduction that I wanted to ensure I got right. "Gut rules the measurement" [2], as Mr. Bernstein remarks in his book Against the gods: The remarkable story of risk, and it makes me wonder just how effective the star ratings are in measuring how people feel about certain things.
It is, I suppose, like everything, subject to the bell distribution curve, also known as the "normal distribution." [3] The problem, however, is that, like risk, those larger than standard deviations can't simply be dismissed as "outliers" [4] because there are too many of them (us).
It depends, of course, on what is analyzed. Take Jeremy Robinsons' book Torment discussed above; the fact that a "subset of people were enraged by it" would also mean that the same material enthralled another subset of people. I didn't care for the book, and my time was too precious to waste on something I didn't enjoy, so I simply moved on (I've read many of Mr. Robinson's books that I thoroughly enjoyed). I mark those books I don't finish with DNF (did not finish) in my reading notes and move to the next book.
My all-time favorite one-star reviews come from Snowbird ski resort and the National Parks system. Snowbird made a marketing campaign based on the notorious one-star reviews. Using the things about the resort that avid big mountain skiers love about Snowbird, i.e., Deep Powder, Advanced Runs, the skiing world went ballistic over the ads. [5]
The same is true for the National Park system's one-star reviews. When places like Carlsbad Caverns receive the "cold, dark, damp and stinky" one-star review, my beloved Zion National Park gets a review where the "scenery is grand and huge and up in the air and distant and impersonal. I got bored fast." [6] However, apparently, our salmon cakes are good. Thanks, Bob.
I first realized that I might be an outlier early in life when a movie I loved the critics hated. I've since learned that when something receives a low star ranking doesn't mean I'll love it, but it doesn't necessarily mean I won't either, and that opens a whole new set of probabilities for me to explore.
Written August 7, 2022
References:
[1] Robinson, Jeremy. TORMENT - A Novel of Dark Horror (p. 9). Breakneck Media. Kindle Edition.
[2] Bernstein, P. L. (1998). Against the gods: The remarkable story of risk. New York, NY: Wiley. p.105.
[3] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bell-curve.asp
[4] A focus on the exceptions that prove the rule. Financial Times. The link was broken when I tried to verify the source. However, it was initially found at https://www.ft.com/content/5372968a-ba82-11da-980d-0000779e2340
[5] https://wasatchmag.com/snowbird-makes-most-of-one-star-review/
[6] https://backpackers.com/blog/20-hilarious-one-star-yelp-reviews-of-national-parks/