Let’s just say I had an interesting week as a writer.

At the beginning of the week, one of the major book review sites - Kirkus (in the US) published their review of ‘The Brussels Connection’. The reviewer made some positive notes on my 5 year project, but he didn’t really enjoy the ‘too grand’ narrative - that the things that we share in common are greater than the ideologies that the power-hungry use to control and divide us. The other aspect was the reviewer’s dislike of my collage and juxtaposition of seven characters - they got confused and distracted by the subplots and found it difficult to sustain their interest to the end of the book: To be a bestseller (which is all they seem to review…), thrillers should be simpler, it seems.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...


Contrast Kirkus bombing me out on Monday with onlinebookclub.org’s amazing review published last night. They have been around for nearly 2 decades, writing honest reviews of new releases and authors and are one of the prime professional reviewers.

https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/vie...

They gave Connection 5 stars and a glowing review, appreciating the grand narrative of the project, enjoying the richness of well-drawn characters and twisting complexity of the subplots. The reviewer said she read the work in 2 days and could not put it down.

For me it just shows how subjective writing and reading a book are: One person’s taste is not the same as another’s, and we should celebrate the diversity. And as a writer, one should be authentic, stick to your voice and express your ideas. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Nor should you. Write for yourself, and if others enjoy it, that’s a bonus!