"The one star reviewer". ⭐

Submitted into Contest #141 in response to: Start your story with someone receiving a one-star review.... view prompt

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Fiction

CW: contains some abusive words.


Notice: This story doesn't aim to portray "critics" as bad reviewers. In some cases if necessary, Critics are very important to any writer who wishes to publish a book. They can serve as a guiding light to a writer's piece of work for the best interest of his readers.


-----

The Laptop beeps twice. A new message has come in. It's certainly a feedback from one of my readers, about my recent online story.- I thought. I sprinted out of the bathroom, wrapped around in a white towel and with a tooth brush in my mouth (still in the process of trying to get my teeth whitened). I landed heavily like a bomb being released from a warplane, and down to earth, on my fluffy bed which has now suffered the huge impact of the landing, and forcefully throwing out the two pillows set on two ends of the bed onto the ground, also having a side of the mattress being torn at one end. I scrolled down to see who it was. Not surprisingly, it was "he". And Only "he". My worse Nightmare, who could've done this.


👇👇


Ratings. ⭐


Comments: "Not captivating. This story made no sense to me!!. Your reasons are not sensible at all. It's more like a waste of time and effort.

This is a poor work.- Michael Cohen - reviewer.


" Michael Cohen again!!"- I said angrily.


" Who's this guy?".- I asked. Shortly after reading his comment.


------


At the Beginning...


Reading positive reviews on my blog post, and getting a five star rating on it from active readers, was a good sign that my stories were making a positive impact on them, and interested them even more. For this reason. My joy knew no bounds since I started this blogsite.

Nevertheless, in all of this good moments. All, but "one" of this active readers, failed to acknowledge my writing prowess since I started receiving his feedbacks on my every post.


Since he became an active commentator on my blogging site, prolly a year ago. - i guess. I had sometimes dared not to read his feedbacks, for fear of risking my heart to over-beat, and then, likely to pop out of my mouth all of a sudden. He had always sought a way to disparage my work, and was ever static to rating it with one golden star emoji.(a reason I'm yet to find out).


Sometimes, I wondered why he hated my posts so much, no matter how beautifully written i think the story might have been.


I started blogging at age 20. Now I am 25, and yet, was still not a very much accomplished writer to some critic readers like " Michael Cohen"- I couldn't agree more. I am known to manage the popular blogging site " the scope", for years now.

Usually, I write and post on political issues, or sometimes a piece of information regarding human rights and freedom. But this time around, I had decided to write a Non-fictional short story which I titled " the more they say...", relating it to an experience a girl friend of mine(Linda), once told me concerning her sad relationship with her fellow work mates.


I started this blogpage five years ago. And ever since then until now, I had not gotten a two star rating or more, or even a positive comment on any of my posts , but only for this 👉 👎 and the usual "one star" ⭐ from One " Michael Cohen" - My worse Nightmare - I always thought.


I searched through the site to read through all of Michael's reviews on my works and this was all I could find there.


👇👇👇


On

Feb 16th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " poorly written Dave".👎👎

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

Feb 20th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Not inspiring".

Michael Cohen- reviewer


On

April 4th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: "I noticed some errors in your spellings".

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

April 25th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Your idea wasn't explicit enough".

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

May 1st.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Your story seemed to incite violence".👎👎

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

May 24th.

Ratings. ⭐.

Comments: "You don't have any idea of how the government operates!!".😠

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

July 10th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: "Are you in anyway trying to suggest that all women should seek political power??!!".😠😠

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

July 20th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " You have to take down this post Dave!!. It's so unnecessary.😠😠

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

August 15th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " I had to stop reading and take some fresh air. I just couldn't continue with such piece of nonsense!!".👎👎

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

August 25th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " This story is all garbage!!.🤮🤮.

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

September 18th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: "Correction Dave!!🤚🤚. I noticed you wrongly misinterpreted a quote".

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

October 19th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Are you trying to suggest that we all should revolt against the government!!?". You had better not be!!.

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

Nov 18th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Dave, this post made me sick". 🤒 🤮 🤮

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

Nov 24th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " Bullshit!! Dave.😠😠

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


On

Nov 30th.

Ratings. ⭐

Comments: " I wouldn't recommend this to anyone".👎👎

Michael Cohen- reviewer.


----

Later...


Dec 3rd.


At Sunrise. I sat on my bed with a tooth brush stuck in my mouth. Scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling on my laptop to read some reviews. And then, when I get to the just sent message, which is from Michael. I get sickened at what he has to say.



👇👇


Ratings. ⭐


Comments: " Not captivating. This story made no sense to me!!. Your reasons are not sensible at all. It's more like a waste of time and effort.

This is a poor work.- he typed.



I walked into the kitchen to make coffee in my favorite red mug. Taking a sip out of it, i stared for a while at the laptop, thinking of a very-very really very bad word to say to him, at least it would help do a little relieve from the burning rage that has now engulfed my inner body.


"Such a well satisfied f**ckin fool!!, Michael Cohen!!"- I cursed aloud. Not knowing what it meant.


I decided to briefly search through his profile page to know more about him. But only discovered that he was a writer too just like me (majorly on writing articles). A professor of philosophy at Rutgers University and a father of two kids also.

His pics seemed to suggest that he might be of a mixed racial background.


"He would probably be a blend of Indian and American heritage"- I presummed quickly.


Still going through his page. I begged to ask him, "why he always saw my every posts as offensive, and going further to rating it with just a star ⭐ ( signifying a lack of interest or disapproval for the story).- A review I find offensive too.

So I quickly typed down some words in form of a letter while he was online.


" Dear, Michael Cohen.



I have noticed that your every comments on my blog post was always of the negative kind. And for this reason. I beg to ask. "What do you always find disturbing or unpleasant in my posts??. Do well to kindly explain to me, your hurts.



Dave.



I sent it to him waiting for his response, with my heart already beating heavily and repeatedly.

He took a few minutes, before replying to my question.


Dear Dave.



" Young Dave. I have read tons and tons of your post over the time. And I don't expect you to be anyhow pleased with my remarks. But i think it's important to let you know that there are other "critics" like myself who reads a writers work. And give feedbacks, based on our findings. Usually, we search for errors or mistakes or things unrelated to the post and give a negative remark based on our observations. It's how we work. It's why we're critics."



Michael.



I still couldn't wrap my head around all this "critic" stuff and its meaning. Worse more, this whole explanation made no sense to me at all, that i so wished to fully understand it. So i decided to look it up on my goggles app, and found the meaning of the word.


Critic: " A person who expresses an unfavorable opinion of something".- I read it aloud.


I thought for a while. And after a few minutes, I made up my mind not to care anymore about Michael's comments, since it should now matter less to me.


" Well, atleast I'm able to get other readers to highly rate and comment positively on my posts. Not to mind some stupid- dumb readers like " Michael Cohen" who give silly excuses to disapprove of it"- I said to console myself.


Then i started typing a new post on the site, on the theme "Reasons why critics should be made to hold back their thoughts, and not be allowed to rate a writers work". A brilliant idea that was birthed from my conversation with " Michael Cohen".- My one star ⭐ reviewer.


April 09, 2022 03:48

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