Let’s Talk Bookish: Does Having a Positive Message Automatically Make a Book Good?

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. Sorry I’ve been a bit absent this past week. My schedule’s been really busy and I haven’t had a lot of time or energy to complete posts or read anyone else’s. I’m hoping to have a bit more time this next week, it probably won’t happen, but I’ll try. Also, very unrelated, but WordPress updated and its new format for writing posts is kind of throwing me off. Anyways, today I have a Let’s Talk Bookish post and I think this is an interesting topic, so let’s get into it!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and is hosted by Rukky and Dani @ Literary Lion where we discuss various topics and share our opinions. Today’s topic is Does Having a Positive Message Automatically Make a Book Good? (suggested by Rukky).

When I think of a positive message, I think of an important lesson that can be taught or a minority group being represented in an empowering way, or something like that. My most simple is no–a book having a positive message doesn’t automatically make it good. Having a good message does help in deciding whether a book is good or not, but that’s not the only factor. A book being good depends on whether the writing was good, or if the characters were realistic, or if the plot kept the reader interested. Those are at least some of the things I think about when deciding if I liked the book or not. If the plot is boring, I’m not going to like as much. If the plot is really boring, I might even go as far as to DNF it. And now I’m getting off track. . .

If I read a book and the theme around it sends a positive message, but maybe the writing wasn’t my style, I’ll still consider it a good book. I may not be in love with it, but I’ll probably still recommend it to someone. Of course, if the book sends a positive message and the rest of it appealed to me as well, that’s great. But that’s not always the case.

I don’t think I really “deal” with a book I disliked. If I really want to talk about it, I’ll review it and talk about the things that I liked and didn’t like, which is what I do with most of my reviews, as well as talking about other aspects of the book as well. If it had an important theme, then I’ll mention that and discuss what I liked about it. And just because I didn’t like a book, it doesn’t mean someone else won’t like it either. Everyone has a different perspective on a book, so if I think the book was at least okay, I might recommend it to someone who I think will enjoy it more than me. On the other hand, if the book was absolutely horrible, and the important message was the only redeeming quality. . . ehh, I might not be so quick to recommend it.

I honestly don’t know what else to say on this topic. I feel like I’ve kind of been repeating myself. Sorry this post was shorter than usual. I’m working on some posts that I should have up in a few days, but we’ll see.

Do you think books with a positive message are automatically good?
Chat with me in the comments below!