The Power of a Review

I’ve often wondered if any of my reviews make a bit of difference. I like writing them, so it’s never really slowed me down, but that nagging question is always there in the back of my head. Do they matter at all?

Well, in a way, I kind of answered that question today.

I stumbled upon Zombies!: Tales of the Walking Dead on Amazon. As you can probably guess, it’s an anthology of zombie stories. My first thought was ‘AWESOME!’ I’m a sucker for zombie stories. No matter how many zombie movies/shows are out there, I watch ‘em!

But then I took a step back. I wasn’t familiar with too many of the authors. Of course I knew Barker, Poe, and Lovecraft, but the others I didn’t really know. Something about the author selection also made it feel kind of dated. An older book isn’t a bad thing but, for some reason, my subconscious put that as a negative. I was seconds away from closing that window and moving on with my day.

Then I noticed it had a review. Only one, but a ‘verified purchase’ review. The reviewer was only known as Weedwacker.

Weedwacker revealed that Zombies!: Tales of the Walking Dead was actually a reprint of a now out of print anthology called The Mammoth Book of Zombies with one added story. WW went on to say:

What you will get with this book is more sophisticated writing and higher caliber story-telling than what is typically compiled in modern zombie anthologies. Some of these stories are kind of funny, some are creepy, some are bizarre and sometimes sad. All of them are entertaining.

I was sold. Bought a copy that moment. I owe thanks to Weedwacker (whoever you are) and so does the book’s publisher!

Reviews matter.

Fun fact about this book: I still don’t really know if MY reviews matter, but still, it’s a good little story.