Devon Ellington, who's done the reviewing thing himself, asks two questions:
Have you ever been assigned a book to review written by someone you loathed, and what did you do about it?
What do you do if you read a book by someone you know and genuinely like as a person, but the book is just awful?
The first thing has never happened to me. I don't review that many books on assignment, and I don't loathe that many people, so the two have never come together. Obviously, I would turn down the assignment, though, if the situation ever came up. It's unethical to review a book by someone towards whom you have a strong personal animosity.
The second is tougher, as I have been there. I know a lot of writers and occasionally they write lousy books. That definitely puts me in an awkward position. I don't like to write negative reviews in the first place, and I would be reluctant to pan the book of someone whom I know or like.
Still, if you can't be at least reasonably objective about the books you're reviewing, you shouldn't be doing it. Despite whatever personal feelings I might have, I would treat the work of the author I know the same way as that of any author. I would write a fair and honest appraisal of the book, mentioning both its positive and negative qualities as I saw them.
Granted, it's a little harder to do if you're friendly with the author, and it risks hurting their feelings. If I can't tell a friend that their book had some problems, though, they aren't much of a friend.
I very seldom write wholly negative reviews anyway. Generally speaking, if I don't like a book to at least some extent, I don't review it. Mixed reviews, sure, but rarely outright pans. If the book truly were awful, I probably wouldn't write about it.
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