Tell me how you really feel . . .

Here's an unexpected wrinkle in the life of a reviews editor. I gave a book to a reviewer some months back, and they just messaged me hoping to beg off from finishing the review -- apparently, they thought the book so execrable that, in their view, putting their candid opinion into print wouldn't do anyone any good at all. I admit that I'm now burning with curiosity to hear the (former) reviewer's critiques. The book's outside my academic field per se but has a fascinating title, so I read it when the publisher first sent it to me. While its survey-like treatment of the subject matter was disappointingly lacking in ambition, I didn't think the volume that bad. Our (now former) reviewer, however, has quite a bit of experience, so I'm just itching here.

UPDATE: The reviewer's now going to give the review the good ole' college try, which fortunately saves me the trouble of figuring out what to do with the book, thank goodness.

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