My Book Review Blog is About to Get More Love

Plus, book review and an excerpt!

In the past, I have left reviews of books read on Amazon. This is something I especially wanted to do for the books which I was able to download for free through Kindle Unlimited. I figured that in return for a book to read for free, I would leave a nice review of the book.

When it came to my book review blog, however, I hardly ever shared reviews of books I read through Kindle Unlimited on there. Sometimes I would also post on Goodreads, but very rarely my book review blog. The blog’s book reviews were pretty much for books I was asked to write reviews for. Yes, there is the occasional review on there of a book I read through Kindle Unlimited, but that was not normally where I posted my reviews of these books. Those mostly were just posted on Amazon.com.

But that’s about to change.

Earlier this year, I reviewed the book, Stitched Together by Juliet Rose. I downloaded it through Kindle Unlimited and, after I finished reading the book, I wrote the following review:

““Nazis. I hate these guys.” I actually said this when the horrifying appearance of a Nazi ghost was in this story. I mean, a swastika can only mean one thing, right? And Nazism is NOT a good thing! Which is why the teenagers in this story are taking action when they see such a symbol on the sign of a business. Most people are familiar with the atrocities the Nazis inflicted upon the Jews, the Romani, the disabled, the homosexuals and the Blacks during the Holocaust, but some people have stories to tell about just such atrocities. Elie Wiesel is one such person, and I liked how a quote from them was included in this story: “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.” It’s a good reminder of the current times we are going through, when we must take action against evil people in power who are trying to oppress minorities and take away their rights. I really enjoyed reading this book and felt it was a well-told story.”

After I sent it in to be posted, I moved on to read the next book.

Soon, however, I received the following notification from Amazon:

“We couldn't post your review because it doesn't meet our guidelines for one or more of these reasons:

· Profanity

· Harassment

· Hate speech

· Sexual content

· Illegal activity

· Private information

Please edit and resubmit your review. Before you do, make sure it meets all of our community guidelines.”

The only thing I can think of that caused this review to be flagged would be the “Nazi” word – which, in some cases, can be a part of hate speech, but not when you are IDENTIFYING characters in a fictional book that are ACTUAL Nazis.

Well, before I could do anything about it, I received a follow-up notification from the Amazon Overlords:

“You have repeatedly posted content that violates our Community Guidelines (available at https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLHXEX85MENUE4XF) or Conditions of Use (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLSBYFE9MGKKQXXM)

An initial warning was sent to you. Please note that your ability to participate in Community features has been removed.

If you would like to contact us about this decision, please follow the steps below:

1. Visit Customer Service: https://www.amazon.com/hz/contact-us

2. Select Help with something else (if this button is displayed).

3. Select Something else.

4. Select Amazon Community.

5. Select the most appropriate option from the list of Amazon Community features.

Thanks for choosing Amazon.”

I soon discovered that ALL of my reviews posted on Amazon had been deleted. I have heard of this happening to other people, but they never said why.

Well, if you are an author whose book I have reviewed on Amazon and want to know where that review went, this is why!

It really bothered me because there were some books I had reviewed where mine was the only review it had. Seriously, I felt more bad than I did for myself. I apologized to a lot of authors whose books I had reviewed when this happened, explaining what was up. All of them understood and were not angry at me.

Most of the anger was directed at Amazon for deleting those reviews!

I think the whole kerfuffle over my review was really stupid. It didn’t contain hate speech or that other stuff. The story contained CHARACTERS WHO WERE NAZIS. But, oh! They couldn’t have that.

The whole thing makes me wonder if it’s an attempt to keep people misinformed about Nazism only because a website SO HIGH AND MIGHTY like amazon refuses to allow any mention of that “N” word.

Personally, I don’t care where my reviews are posted. I just know that authors rely on reviews on Amazon. They WANT to have reviews on amazon. But amazon doesn’t care about that.

Not very author-friendly, are you, ‘Zonny??

Well, I still have my book review blog. And because of this incident, I have decided that, moving forward, I will post ALL of my kindle Unlimited reviews on there. And if the book is on Goodreads, I will post my review on there, as well. And, if the book is horror, I can post my review of it on my horror blog.

So, that works out for me. I don’t know WHY I didn’t think about doing this before, but I’m just glad it’s an option.

I will see if I can get my old reviews back up on Amazon, but even if I succeed, I still won’t bother posting reviews on there anymore. I REALLY don’t want to have to deal with that disappointment again. And at least on my blog, I am not being censored!

What’s New This Week

I have an article up on Weird Wide Web: “Celebrating Women in Horror Movies During Women in Horror Month.” Many thanks to Lindsey Goddard for publishing it! You can read it here.

Book Updates

ANOTHER poetry book is in the works!

After I realized I have another set of poems I’ve written which fall under one theme, I decided to put them into a book! I’ll send it off once I feel it has a good number of poems included.

Meanwhile, my poetry book, 3 A.M. Poetry, is slated for release in April! It will be a good National Poetry Month indeed.

Book Review

I recently reviewed the poetry book The Sins of God by Benjamin B. White at Dawn Reviews Books. The review is at this link.

What’s New at SPARREW?

Check out my interview with author Mia Dalia, which appeared in the February 2025 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter! Read it here.

This Week’s Book Promo

The following is an excerpt from my poetry book, Watch This Space.

Watch This Space

Copyright © 2024 by Dawn Colclasure

Essential 
 
 
I'm an "essential" employee 
meaning I still have to 
go into work, 
despite COVID-19 and lockdown. 
 
So I get up in the morning, 
and I take my shower, knowing 
I will have to take one again 
after returning home. 
 
I can't forget my badge; 
I must show it if I'm stopped 
by some police officer wondering why 
I am not sheltering in place. 
 
All "essential employees" 
still must be allowed to work. 
How important my job must be 
that I must still show up eve if it kills me. 
 
We take all the precautions -- 
say we're not sick, wash hands, wear a mask-- 
and the precautions keep changing 
even as COVID-19 keeps changing.

Thanks for reading! See you next week.