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Scathing book reviews are more common than you think

Are you fretting about receiving a bad review? You're in good company.

10 Apr 2025 9:00

Thuy On

A man's torso with a finger pointing towards the camera and one out of five stars on the screen.

Writing and Publishing

Photo: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay.

Bad reviews. If you’re a creator of any description, at some point you’re probably going to receive a less than flattering review for the work you’ve spent a goodly amount of time agonising over. It happens to all of us and even the most popular authors will cop a mealy-mouthed assessment. It’s bad enough when it’s from an anonymous or faked name amateur reviewer on inclusive, user-friendly platforms like Goodreads, but it stings even more when it’s from a professional critic in a well-regarded publication.

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Thuy On

Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy