Recently on barnesandnoble.com, I have been the victim of unwarranted censorship. Two reviews I wrote on the same day were taken down because I used inappropriate language. The thing is? I didn't. There was nothing in either of my reviews that could have been misconstrued as a swear word or a vulgarity. My reviews were not, however, positive ones of the books. One book I reviewed, A Game of Thrones, I gave two stars and I expressed my dissatisfaction with the novel. In my other review I wrote about how I was disappointed with the novel The Night Strangers. I gave this book one star. Now, we all know there are negative reviews along with the positive on bn.com. But have you ever noticed that there are ALWAYS more positive reviews than negative reviews? And even for books you would deem really bad? Well, this is because Barnes and Noble has resorted to removing one and two star reviews. There are one star reviews for the books I just mentioned. But the website must have a limit for the negative book reviews it will accept per book. I understand that Barnes and Noble is trying to sell books. They don't want reviews discouraging their customers from purchasing their merchandise. I myself have been a loyal Barnes and Noble customer for years. But the books I reviewed? Both are bestsellers and Game of Thrones has been made into a TV show. I hardly think that my honest expression of my opionion is going to ruin any author's reputation. The thing that really gets me is that after they took down my review, they turned my rating of the two books to FIVE STAR RATINGS. I'm not even allowed to assign my own amount of stars. If any of you have experience with this kind of censorship, I'd love to have your input. And to any monitors on here, I'd love to hear the website's side of events. But this whole thing has made me feel like no longer writing reviews for bn.com.
