Readers give EW’s “C” review of Catching Fire an “F”

Apparently, if you didn’t like Catching Fire, you didn’t read the book.

EW.com just posted a review of the high anticipated second Hunger Games novel. The reviewer had some negative things to say about the book (she gave it a C grade) and the readers of EW.com had some very negative things to say about the reviewer.

I haven’t read all of Catching Fire yet, so I’m going to hold off most of my judgment on the book itself, but I do think the fervor that readers respond to a non-rave review of the book is interesting. Most of the early reviews I read from bloggers were really positive but Jennifer Reese, Ew.com’s reviewer, has a decidedly different opinion: she says it’s “a story that's been stretched to gossamer thinness” with “none of the erotic energy that makes Twilight, for instance, so creepily alluring.”

The readers’ response to this lukewarm review? Not good. “Investigate this woman, please. Your reputation is in question,” reader Julie commands. Most people accused her of not reading the books she reviewed and (horror of all horrors) being a Twilight fan: “Ms. Reese, clearly you have no appreciation for a book with substance that gives teenage girls more to think about than sparkly vampire sex resulting in mutant babies” says MeMe.

So did Ms. Reese actually read the book? I am guessing some of the vitriolic comments come from her inaccurate description of the previous book: “In between romantic daydreams, Katniss shot strange beasts, dodged force fields, and battled murderous zombie werewolves — usually while wearing fabulous glitzy outfits.” Taken piece by piece, this is all wrong: Katniss didn’t really like Peeta but pretended to for the cameras, the werewolves were odd mutations created by the Capitol, not zombies, and she wore fabulous glitzy outfits, but not during the actual Games.

Still, I do think the reviewer read the book, and I’m guessing that most of the anger is simply because the review isn’t positive. It seems like there is this weird thing going on online right now with some series (Harry Potter, Twilight, etc) where it’s not okay to critique the series at all. Or where they are so mired in the series that they think everyone else knows absolutely every little detail about it. Or where they don’t think it’s okay to say they hate any books (you know, those blogs where like every review is positive).

I totally get the anger when someone who clearly has never read any YA or fantasy writes a review of a genre book that completely misses the point, but in this case (despite a few misconceptions) I don’t think the anger is justified. I’ve read enough of the book to agree the write raises some valid points and you can find evidence in the text for a romance-based reading of the series. So, Ew.com commenters, why not lay off all the complaining? It’s like those girls with the Twilight tattoos: you’re giving all the fans a bad name.