Basic Trope: Some work has serious problems, which someone brings into relief by citing its minor aspects as "virtues".
- Straight: Critic Bob doesn't like Alice's novel, so he writes, "This book is good in that it features characters I have never seen before in this guise." Note he does not say whether she used Characterization Tropes well or not, and also that he left it open-ended as to whether they were very original.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob cites the fact that Alice's novel consists of words as its greatest virtue.
- Bob praises Alice for something completely unrelated to the novel he's reviewing.
- Bob praises the book using an Overly Narrow Superlative. For instance: "This is the finest book about an elderly cat's observations on life in Johannesburg just before the end of Apartheid that I've read this week."
- Bob praises the cover art of Alice's novel, but says nothing about its content.
- Downplayed: Bob calls Alice's novel a "good debut", implying she still needs improvement due to inexperience.
- Justified:
- Bob realizes that if he presents his unfiltered opinion, people might perceive him as a snob who dismisses Alice unfairly, the actual quality of her writing notwithstanding.
- Most of the time, when reviewing works he does not like, Bob can find some qualities that are able to mitigate the negative qualities, but in this case he can't find any and instead makes a snarky remark.
- Bob is required to praise at least one good thing about the books he reads and Bob couldn't find anything better to put in his review to get it published.
- Alice, who Can't Take Criticism, asks Bob for his opinion on her novel. Bob doesn't want to upset her, so he ends up saying that "it had some cool ideas" (without saying anything about whether the ideas were done well, or how many bad ideas the novel had).
- Inverted:
- A minor critique being used to show that something is actually very good; e.g. Bob loves Alice’s book and regrets only that it is shorter than he’d have liked.
- Bob really hates Alice and tries to critique her book more to insult her than constructive feedback, but the most damning flaw he could think of is that the book's ending had many readers with more questions than answers that they want to answered.
- Bob states that Alice's book is the worst she's ever written. This is only compared to her books, which are ALL amazing and unique stories. Compared to other works, this is still miles better than those produced by most writers.
- Bob favorably compares Alice’s novel to a well-loved classic, but Alice treats this as an insult, insisting hers is far better.
- Bob gives Alice's novel a glowing review, but she misinterprets the whole thing as sarcastic.
- Bob has such high standards that him describing Alice's novel as Not Bad is treated as a glowing review.
- Subverted:
- Bob writes, "What does this book do well?" ...and then praises its narrative structure as being "impressively original."
- Clara says that Bob's review implies that he dislikes Alice's novel. However, his review describes it as "better than Daniel's Novel", which is popular in-universe.
- Double Subverted:
- "...because nobody else in the history of literature has ever built a story so haphazardly!"
- The comparison turns out to be a Stealth Insult — Bob's fans know that he loathes Daniel's Novel.
- Parodied:
- Bob's review includes the phrase, "Clearly, aliens from a race that hasn't perfected the modern novel did not write this thing!"
- Bob says the novel's best aspect is that it is completely asbestos free.
- Bob says something like "At least it doesn't give you cancer" or "It's better than a kick to the face."
- Bob says "It's a book!"
- Zig-Zagged: Bob writes in complete honesty about how engaging the book's plot is, but awkwardly avoids talking about how flat the characters are.
- Averted: Bob always says exactly what he thinks of a book or elements thereof.
- Enforced: Bob works for a publication that’s heavy on the Four-Point Scale, and his editors mandate that all critics on their payroll say something kind about every work they review.
- Lampshaded: Alice meets Bob and thanks him for his good review of her book. Bob points out, "Every work of fiction has characters. If you had read the whole review, you would have gathered quite quickly that I didn't like that book."
- Invoked: Bob knows Alice is inordinately proud of herself and wants to Break the Haughty.
- Exploited: Just one way among many to Polish the Turd.
- Defied:
- To escape Executive Meddling, Bob quits his job and becomes an independent critic so he can present his opinions as he sees fit.
- Bob rereads the novel, hoping to find something he can praise sincerely.
- Discussed:Mike: You said Alice LaTropé wrote Being a Trope in a legible language. It's bad, isn't it?Bob: Mm-hmm.
- Conversed: "I hope we're not watching this show because it advertised itself the way its In-Universe crappy media do."
- Implied: When asked whether anyone gave her book a good review, Alice says only that Bob gave her a "sort of good" review.
- Deconstructed: Alice realizes the critics don't like her output and stops writing.
- Reconstructed: Alice strives to learn from her past inferior efforts and becomes a much better writer.
- Played for Laughs: In his review, Bob cracks joke after joke about how anyone could have done the basic story construction job Alice did.
Damned by Faint Praise lists examples of its appearances in media and real life. There. Are you satisfied?
