How?

We shall review here atrocious stories, underlining without any mercy all the plot holes, the wrong messages, the crimes apologies and the violations of the Content Guidelines of Wattpad, all of this with ferocious sarcasm or real anger, according to the gravity of the topic.

This shall be done following the rules of this website, naturally, otherwise we would immediately fall into contradictions. For this purpose, I quote here the part of the Content Guidelines concerning the reviews of other users’ fanfictions:

“Talking about Others:

Sharing opinions on stories and the quality or style of writing is ok.

We aim to create a safe community for everyone on Wattpad, so be kind, respectful, and please treat others as you would want to be treated, so don’t post any content that:

– bashes a user purely for personal reasons;

– reveals any personally identifying information about other people, including private messages, photographs/videos;

[Due to the fictional nature of stories and the chances of real names being used coincidentally, we are unable to remove a work for having the same or similar name to a real person. Only if there is additional identifying information, such as the city you reside or your work/school, is there a violation of our content guidelines.]

– actively promotes violence or hatred. The promotion of hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, content that is intended to bully, threaten, or harass others, is also strictly prohibited.

[General expressions of opinions are allowed, but they cannot be violent in nature or encourage others to attack Wattpad community members.]”

https://support.wattpad.com/hc/en-us/articles/200774334-Content-Guidelines

Thus, it is plain to see that our activity as critical reviewers is compatible with the rules of Wattpad, as long as we are respectful and do not insult other authors (keeping in mind that criticizing a story is not an insult to the author).

For this reason I turn to you with trust, dear readers: here we are neither willing nor allowed to insult anyone. It is legit to communicate to the authors our opinion on their story, and to list all inconsistencies, logic fallacies, plot holes, negative messages, stereotypes and so on. And that’s exactly what we want to do.

On the other hand, we do not permit to insult the authors in any way: it is not only a wrong behaviour, but also totally useless and counterproductive. We do not want to be virtual bullies, but to oppose ourselves to those junk fanfictions: the only way to do it is not to lower ourselves to their level, but to be precise and relentless. This rule also applies to the comments of you readers, naturally.

Therefore, our other main tools shall be reason and good manners: with the former we demolish the stories, with the latter we do not lower ourselves to their level.

Why?

This question has two meanings.

On the one hand, it means: why to start to review such horrible stories? The answer is simple: in order to find allies in the fight against that ugliness. Indeed, many of those stories are commented only by diehard fans and often there is no one who dares to mention the absurdities or the atrocities (let alone to report them when necessary). We think that stories that diminish women dignity or the severity of rape should not exist because they are dangerous for social life. Without exaggerating, such real issues require seriousness and deep understanding. This has nothing to do with black humour, which indeed plays on the tragedy of such topics, without denying or underestimating them. Therefore, we want to be as many as possible to fight all of this more successfully.

On the other hand, I have been always asking myself why such wretched stories are written: what do the authors think? Are they really convinced that rape is the natural beginning of a love story? Or that the positive model for boys should be the asshole pimp, and the naïve and defenceless maid for girls? If it is so, we are in trouble, because this way of thinking brings us decades back in time. It is true that they may not realize the issue with the messages, which, maybe involuntarily, transpire from their stories: then they have to be warned.

All in all, I believe we shall see some action here. And we shall have fun, if also you readers are to some extent trash lovers!

So long,

Evgenij