on Fiction University:

Sometimes the problem is with the reviewer, not the book.

Not every book is for every reader. Readers have topics they dislike no matter how well written a book is, and nothing you do is going to change that. Sometimes, the problem with a book isn’t the quality—it’s just a “not for me” issue.

This is an important distinction in writing. I’ve read many a novel that was a “good novel,” even if it did things I don’t particularly care for as a reader. I didn’t like it, but I could see that others would.

For example, I’m not fond of distant narrators. It’s nearly impossible for me to connect with a distance third-person omniscient narrator, because I never feel like I’m in the protagonist’s head. I just can’t lose myself in the story.

This is not the fault of the author. This is the preference of the reader.

If I criticized a novel for this, I’d be doing the author a disservice. I know it’s a taste issue, and I can’t expect every novel to be written with my own personal preferences in mind. The novel wasn’t written badly, it just wasn’t for me.