Potiphar’s Wife – Bad Review Blues

Let me begin this post by assuring you that after twelve novels, “bad” reviews aren’t nearly as discouraging as they were in the early days. Also, I’m fairly certain I would have gotten a few MORE “bad” reviews on Potiphar’s Wife if it were my first or second novel instead of my twelfth. Why? Most of the folks who review my books now know what to expect from me and want to read what I’m writing. They pick up my books hoping to give a good review.

Authors don’t enjoy bad reviews any more than athletes like being benched by their coach or an employee looks forward to a sub-par review from his/her boss. Any true disciple of Jesus Christ also knows the sting of discipline from our loving Heavenly Father. Hard lessons are . . . well, hard!

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11

Reviews As Training

I’m going to share a few actual “bad” reviews I’ve received on Potiphar’s Wife. Though I appreciate your encouragement, please don’t criticize the folks I quote in this post. They’ve bravely expressed their opinions, which is difficult for some. My hope in sharing this post isn’t to change reader opinions in book reviews but to hone how you share your opinions into helpful critique.

When a reader writes a review, the goal is likely to help other readers decide if they’ll read the book–or not. Do you realize the author will likely read the review as well? The author has worked for months to create a story he or she deeply cares about.

Anything lower than a 5-star review will offend a few sensitive authors. They won’t last long in this business. The HUGE majority of authors–at least in the Christian market–want to learn from their readers’ reviews. We want to know what you like and don’t like about our books.

But we’d like to hear it gently. 😉

The Most Common Negative Comment:

As of the time I’m writing this post, I don’t yet have any 1-star reviews (than You, Jesus! LOL) None of my 2-star reviews left any reasons for the low ranking.

The most common negative comment from my 3-star, 4-star, beta readers, substantive edit, line edit, copy edit, and even my proofreaders was: Zully simply isn’t likable. I get it. I didn’t particularly like writing about her.

The main character wasn’t likable to me, which brought it down a notch.
While I sympathized with Zully, I never did come to like her as a character, and that influenced the liking of the book for me.
So we know Potiphar’s wife was an evil woman as described by Scripture, so she’s not going to be a very likeable character from the get-go. But her obsession with Crete, and her refusal to be content and make the best of her situation with a kind husband was an annoyance for me.
This was a difficult book for me to read, for I felt like Zuleika (Zully) was spoiled.
Not my favourite of Ms Andrews’ books. I hope she will focus on someone more likeable in the future.
I found myself annoyed by rather than sympathizing with the main character.

Sometimes an author knows the main character isn’t LIKABLE, so we must try–as best we can–to make that MC relatable. Can you sympathize with her? At least understand the reasons she does what she does?

I felt called to write Joseph’s life in three books, and Zully was the biblical female character who impacted his life most during that mid-point when the Lord did that humbling work in his life. Ugh. 🙄

Wrong Time, Wrong Book

Sometimes the state of our world or the state of a reader’s private world makes a particular book especially difficult for them to read. In a post-covid, media-hyped culture, my action-packed style of writing may be difficult for some…

I am a fan of your books. Yet after reading your latest book, I found myself wondering about the style of crisis after crisis after crisis which was exhausting. Somewhat like reading mainstream media “constant crisis” news these days, which I prefer not to do . . . Current culture makes every day life pretty challenging with the state of The USA and the world of today. Reading what feels like contrived-constant-crisis is not what I look for in today’s Historical Biblical Fiction.

My books tend to be complex with lots of characters and intricate details. I hope to challenge readers, send them to the Bible for exciting new insights. One woman posted this on a Goodreads message board:

You who do NetGalley if you read a book that is not good what do you do? Do you have to continue reading it or can you say you DNF a book. I can’t believe I feel this way about a Mesu Andrews book but for me its not good. The character aren’t explained and I am totally lost no matter how fair I read?

This tells me I made it TOO challenging! If I only saw this feedback once, I might think it was just this reader–but check out the next review and its comments about the long-winded conspiracies…

Fantastic Feedback:

Here’s an outstanding critique–a review that helped train me as an author:

I did remove a star because at times, I felt the talk of conspiracies against Kyran and the intricacies of who was who at court got a bit long-winded. I actually felt the novel would have been much stronger had Mesu focused mainly on the relationship between Zully and Ahira, with maybe a bit of Joseph’s story alluded to. As it is, Potiphar’s wife is supposed to be a main character, but she feels like a secondary voice in her own story. She’s victimized, gaslit, and tormented so often that sometimes, Mesu skirts the line of *almost* making her behavior excusable.

What will I make clearer in the sequel: In Feast or Famine?

The conspiracy details will be CRYSTAL clear and less involved!
Focus less on subplots and more on relationship between main characters.
Choose future characters that are easier to make likable!

An Opposite Opinion

It’s always funny to read ALL of the reviews and find those that offer completely opposite opinions. One reader thinks I wrote Zully as flat and cartoonish, while another believes I wrote her as the most three-dimensional character ever! Here’s a review that thought “unlikable Zully” was a good idea. Go figure!

This book was different than other books I’ve read by Mesu Andrews. I can’t quite put my finger on why- but I think it’s because other books that I have read are more focused on the main characters following God while the world around them has evil and sin that influence their lives greatly. We the reader are brought into a journey of faith in the characters we invest in.

But this book is probably more realistic fiction and perhaps as a reader, we see ourselves in the choices made by several main characters that reflect the sin nature and the struggle it brings. I think other reviewers have said that Zully the Princess and Potipher’s wife was a struggle for them, and I sensed that while in most of the book she was not likable, she likely might meet Elohim herself personally. But I think the fact that throughout most of the book we faced sin head-on in the lives of the main characters makes this book harder to process

Reading reviews is tricky. If they all gave the same feedback, we authors could simply follow the yellow-brick road to instant bestseller status! But it doesn’t work that way. There’s no secret formula to pleasing readers nor a perfect biblical novel that will ever be written.

Truly “BAD” Reviews:

I’ve tried to focus on negative reviews that are still helpful to me as a writer. However, the following are situations that should NEVER influence a book review:

shipping issues
release date
length of time between an author’s book releases
publisher issues (unless author-published)

Really, truly, unequivocally BAD reviews are ones that berate authors or lower their overall ratings for issues beyond control.

Have YOU Reviewed Potiphar’s Wife?

THANK YOU for your feedback–here in the comments, on my social media accounts, in emails, and through your reviews with online retailers. PLEASE keep reviewing my books!

If you’ve read Potiphar’s Wife, but haven’t yet reviewed it, please CLICK HERE (my Amazon aff link) to do so. A star rating and a few simple words that express your honest opinion helps me and other readers immensely!