Guess That Rec Season 5: ONE-STAR REVIEWS!
It's time for our fifth season of Guess That Rec, and because 5 is a special number, this will be a special season! Ever wished you could be more of a hater in your recs? Can't be misleading enough about how much you love your favorite media? Want to describe one of the best works in all of fiction as forgettable problematic BookTok trash! Then this is the season for you!
For those new to Guess That Rec, the basic premise is this: submit a recommendation for a piece of media, and we'll vote on which ones we like best, BUT, here's the kicker: You may not mention anything about the actual plot of the story. Instead, we will be voting based on promo-post-style recommendations, which can include tropes, representation, setting, genre, very general theme, and anything else, as long as it doesn't describe anything that actually happens in the story. But for this round, we'll be doing something different: instead of telling everyone all the completely bullshit reasons why they SHOULD check out a certain work, we'll be telling everyone all the completely bullshit reasons why they SHOULDN'T! All the "recs" will instead be written as one-star reviews/anti-recommendations.
Ugh, do NOT read this book! It's so long that even most of its fans haven't read the whole thing, the plot is completely all over the place, there are way too many characters to keep track of (one chapter just lists all of their names, that's how many there are), and the protagonist literally DISOWNS HIS CHILDREN and KILLS ALL OF HUMANITY and is still treated like he can do no wrong! Plus, the fandom is so problematic.
(I am referring, of course, to the Bible.)
Each anti-rec will be assigned a random number and pitted against another anti-rec, and we'll vote for which work sounds less appealing/which one did a better job convincing us not to check out the media. At the end of each matchup, the winner will move onto the next round and the identity of the loser will be revealed.
The submission form is here. Submissions will close on Tuesday, August 11th, at 11am EST (though I may choose to extend the deadline if we don't have enough by then.)
All recs must be written as anti-recommendations or 1-star reviews. While there are plenty of fun ways to describe a work without actually mentioning its plot, the premise of Guess That Rec as a tournament is that we're not just writing bad descriptions, we're writing recommendations in the BookTok style. (and if you have a rec that takes a generally positive tone towards the work it's about, save it for season 6!)
Any type of media is permitted. Both fiction and nonfiction are allowed, but everything must be presented as if it's fiction.
You may NOT mention anything to do with the actual plot or premise of the story. Generally speaking, if your rec includes the phrase "this story is about...", unless it's VERY general, it does not belong in this tournament! You may, however, mention:
Tropes (ex. enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, unreliable narrator)
Representation (ex. disabled protagonist, gay side character), or lack thereof
Character dynamics and relationships (ex. dysfunctional siblings, grumpy x sunshine lesbians)
Setting (ex. in space, in the Old West)
Genre and subgenre (ex. historical fiction, whodunnit, workplace comedy)
Comparisons to other media (ex. if you liked Avengers you'll love this, it's Twilight meets Hunger Games)
General themes (ex. love, grief, family)
General elements (ex. murders, adventures, road trips)
Opinions on the technical skill/style of the work
Anything else that has NOTHING TO DO with what the story is actually about!
4. You may NOT make anything up: everything must be technically true, or at least up for interpretation. So, in my Catcher in the Rye example, I can't say that there are "canonically gay characters" because there aren't, but I CAN say that there are queer-coded characters. Similarly, if there's a character in your piece of media who exhibits autistic traits but has never been confirmed autistic, you can't call them "autistic", but you can call them "autistic-coded" or mention their specific traits. The use of weasel words (ex. describing a mentally ill serial killer stereotype as "neurodivergent", or a gay villain as a "major queer character") is allowed and encouraged. (Feel free to get creative: for example, last round we had someone describe the dystopian trilogy Divergent as having a "strong neurodivergent female protagonist", because her brain is... Divergent.)
4a. Here at Guess That Rec we encourage stretching and bending the truth until it breaks. If there is ANY way that something said in a rec could possibly be true, it's allowed, so unless you see something egregious - i.e, calling Of Mice and Men a feel-good teen romance with plenty of canonically queer characters - please do not come into my ask box telling me that something's inaccurate.
5. Do not include any identifying details (ex. title, character names, identifying place names) in your rec.
6. Funnier submissions will be given higher priority. Submissions are funnier if A) they're of media that most people have heard of, B) they are technically true while not at all capturing the vibe of the media, and C) they use the format cleverly - twists and turns are encouraged!
6a. Additionally, remember that this is meant to be BAD anti-recs: don't just use this as an excuse to shit on your least favorite media! If a Booktok-style anti-rec actually provides a good picture of what your media is, consider either rewriting or not submitting it.
7. Should the same media be submitted by two different people with different recs, priority will generally be given to the first submission, unless a later submission was significantly funnier by the guidelines stipulated in rule #6.
8. There is no banned media: go nuts!
9. Regarding whether or not you can call a piece of media offensive or problematic in your anti-rec: I've thought about it, and I've decided that I'm not going to put a blanket ban on it. GTR is a joke first and foremost, and it's understood that nothing said in the recs is 100% serious, so I have faith that we'll be able to use accusations of being offensive or problematic as part of the joke without devolving into discourse. However, I am going to set some guidelines, namely: A) when you accuse a work of being offensive in your rec, take extra care to make sure it's actually clever and/or funny, and B) do not try to start discourse in the submitter notes or in my notes. I reserve the right to change this rule if needed.
10. I feel like I shouldn't need this rule, but given the clientele that we've gotten on this blog in the past: I will not accept any anti-recs that frame representation of ANY marginalized group as a bad thing, or that use offensive language towards marginalized groups. (you can of course add "criticisms" of the work's representation, but nothing that boils down to "there are too many queer/disabled/racialized characters in this and That's Bad")
For this tournament, resubmissions of all media included in past tournaments will be allowed: I'm assuming that the premise of this tournament will ensure that anti-recs submitted will be significantly different from any past straight recs for the same media.
Tagging @tournament-announcer!
