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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10206
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have just been through the experience of having obtained a Kirkus Review. I paid for the expedited version. I feel violated. The review was worse than disappointing. The review gave an introductory somewhat inaccurate plot summary, and then added some comments that were so damaging that they would guarantee that no-one would want to read the book. The comments were distorted. For example, the book was a memoir and I describe a legendary London folk club where many famous singer-songwriter musicians were discovered. The reviewer states that the people that I met in this place were "increasingly notorious." I wrote to Kirkus to complain that this was very inaccurate and I got a response that it was the subjective view of their qualified reviewer. This changes the entire thrust of the book from a young girl finding mentors and role models to a young girl being corrupted by disreputable people. Basically, the review was a joke, and you could almost hear the staff at Kirkus laughing as they took my money and gave me a handful of beans in return. There should be laws against this. What I experienced was fraud. I would have understood if the review had been legitimately critical of real flaws -- but it was more along the lines of being insulted, and they refused to change the insulting wording, stating that it was in their contract that it was subjective. My view is this: if a company promises to help a writer get all kinds of amazing offers and they cannot deliver - they will invent a reason to pan the work.

Original score: 4