Recently a story I have been working on for some time got two very negative reviews (1/10). Those reviews were quite at variance with most of the others.

What made me feel a little out of sorts about these particular reviews was the reviewers' rationale.

One based his score on the fact that the story has a quasi-religious theme and he felt that I was making fun of religion. He even went so far as to send me a highly critical email. Since I had indicated in the summary that it had a religious theme I feel like he should have not read a story he found objectionable.

The other reviewer was much less forthcoming but attributed the low score to 'bad taste." I never understood that "good taste" was an objective of fictional BDSM writing. I suspect it was the religious theme of the story that engendered the bad taste remark.

My point is that religion with sexual overtones is the "fetish" of this story. Some people found this objectionable and chose to punish the story that I have worked hard to make as good as I possibly can.

While I read a good number of stories on the site, I take a pass at those that do not appeal to me for whatever reason. I would never consider giving a story a low rating or negative review because it's content is not my thing.

Reviewers are free to do as they wish but that does not make their reviews fair and balanced.