Blurbs

My favorite blurbs are the ones where it's obvious that the book's publishers have done on a Frankenstein job on a book review - using ellipses to stitch together an enthusiastic-sounding blurb from a lukewarm review. Like "Joe Schmo's new novel...shows promise...with interesting characters...and an engaging plot", where it's obvious they've left out all the caveats and deprecating qualifiers.

My brother and I used to make a game of it. "This movie is . . . one of the best . . . of the year"

So many possibilities.

keep seeing a twitter ad touting that a certain show is 'the best in months'

tbh i respect the humility

"It's the best thing I've seen in the past 12 hours"

I get annoyed/amused when the back page blurb is taken from a review of one of the author's old books ("Tom Clancy is a master!") rather than the book it's printed on.

I get annoyed/amused when the back page blurb is taken from a review of one of the author's old books ("Tom Clancy is a master!") rather than the book it's printed on.

damn, didn't know the story of the word 'blurb' and the sexism therein

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-blurb-publishing

China Mieville on klein’s doppelganger: “as thrilling as a novel”

Only the most recent eg of this v bad cliche

That reminds me of (and is equally as annoying as) "transcends the genre"

Also IME "thrilling" and "hilarious" blurbs are always perfect guarantors of un-thrilling and non-hilarity.

One of the oddest I’ve seen recently:

Today in 'weird' and possibly 'badly' 'translated' blurbs. pic.twitter.com/n2uLmbjD7Y

— Caustic Cover Critic (@Unwise_Trousers) March 19, 2024