Browser Extensions 



Close

Why is ReviewMeta.com a Must-Have for Amazon Shoppers?


Free Phone Apps

Free Browser Extensions




The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War (the Civil War in the West)
More product info From Shaara, Jeff

Amazon Reviews for  The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War (the Civil War in the West)
Rating:
686 Ratings
686 Reviews
("Ratings" vs. "Reviews")
49% of potentially unnatural reviews removed (why?)
Adjusted:
View/Edit Adjustment
Jump to Report Card

Report Card

Fail Overall Grade
FAIL Reviewer Ease
FAIL Word Count Comparison
WARN Rating Trend
WARN Suspicious Reviewers
WARN Reviewer Participation
PASS Unverified Purchases
PASS Phrase Repetition
PASS Overlapping Review History
PASS Brand Repeats
PASS Incentivized Reviews
PASS Deleted Reviews

Most Trusted Reviews

This is the third novel in a series that follows ... [Go to full review]
Jul 8, 2014      
100% TRUST
  • Unverified Purchaser
  • Take-Back Reviewer (3 deleted Reviews; avg. rating: 3.7)
  • Brand Repeater (2 of 249 reviews for this brand; avg rating: 4.5)
  • Overlapping Review History: reviewed 3 of 9 top products
  • Critical Reviewer (avg. rating: 4.0)


Least Trusted Reviews

One of his best. Great read for folks who love ... [Go to full review]
Jul 7, 2014      
0% TRUST
  • Verified Purchaser
  • Created on a high volume day
  • Overrepresented word count (13 words)
  • Contains repetitive phrases (show)
  • Overrepresented Participation (posted 14 Reviews)
  • Easy Grader (avg. rating: 4.6)


Analysis Details

Fail Reviewer Ease
The ease score is the average rating for all reviews that a given reviewer submits. The average ease score for reviewers of this product is 4.4, while the average ease score for reviewers in this category is 4.3. Based on our statistical modeling, the discrepancy in average rating between these two groups is significant enough to believe that the difference is not due to random chance, and may indicate that there are unnatural reviews.

4.4 Product's Average Ease Score

4.3 Category's Average Ease Score


4.4
4.3


Read more about our Reviewer Ease test.


Fail Word Count Comparison

  • 40%
  • Have an overrepresented word count

In the graph above, we can see the distribution of review word counts for this product and the expected distribution for this category. We see the following 2 groups with a statistically significant greater concentration than what we'd expect to see:In total, we found that 271 reviews (or 40%) are within an overrepresented word count group. These reviews have rated this product an average of 4.7, while all other reviews have rated this product an average of 4.6. Based on our statistical modeling, the discrepancy in average rating between these two groups is significant enough to believe that the difference is not due to random chance, and may indicate that there are unnatural reviews.

from reviews with an overrepresented word count

from reviews with a properly represented word count


4.7
4.6


Read more about our Word Count Comparison test.

Warn Rating Trend

  • 29%
  • Created over 30 days

We counted 686 reviews for this product over the span of 1,190 days, an average of 0.6 reviews per day. If these reviews were created randomly, there would be a 99.9% chance that we would see 4 or fewer reviews on any given day.

However, we see the following 30 days exceeding this threshold:In total, we found that 201 reviews were created on just 30 days. This is an excessively high number of reviews submitted on these high volume days.

from reviews created on high volume days

from reviews created on normal volume days


4.6
4.6


Read more about our Rating Trend test.

Warn Suspicious Reviewers

Take-Back Reviewers


29 of the 686 reviewers have had at least one of their past reviews for another product deleted. While this is more Take-Back Reviewers than we'd expect to see, the discrepancy in ratings between the Take-Back Reviewers and reviewers who don't have any deleted reviews in their history isn't significant enough to rule out the possibility of it being due to random chance.

from take-back reviewers

from reviewers without previously deleted reviews


4.7
4.6


Read more about our Suspicious Reviewers test.

Warn Reviewer Participation

  • 72%
  • From reviewers with an overrepresented participation

We see the following 2 participation groups with a statistically significant greater concentration than what we'd expect to see:In total, we found that 494 reviewers (or 72%) are within an overrepresented participation group. This is an excessively high number of reviewers in overrepresented participation groups.

From reviewers with an overrepresented participation

From reviewers with a properly represented participation


4.6
4.7


Read more about our Reviewer Participation test.

Pass Unverified Purchases

144 of the 686 total reviews for this product are unverified purchases. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.

from unverified purchasers

from verified purchases


4.4
4.7


Unverified purchases may be the result of Kindle Unlimited readers, buyers who didn't pay full price, or reviewers who did not purchase the product at Amazon. Read more about our Unverified Purchases test.

Pass Phrase Repetition
Reviews that contain one of these phrases are NOT necessarily devalued; read more about how this test works here.

Common Phrases in Reviews:
11 reviews
11 reviews
18 reviews
16 reviews
17 reviews
12 reviews
Show MoreShow Less
Common Phrases in Titles:
41 reviews
10 reviews
24 reviews
29 reviews
Show MoreShow Less


96 of the 686 total reviews for this product use substantial repetitive phrases between them. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.

from reviews with substantial repetitive phrases

from reviews without substantial repetitive phrases


4.7
4.6


Read more about our Phrase Repetition test.

Pass Overlapping Review History
Reviewers of this product have ALSO reviewed the following products:

Does not include products
from the same brand


194 of the 686 reviewers have substantial overlapping product review history. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.

from reviewers with substantial overlapping history

from reviewers without a substantial overlapping history


4.7
4.6


Read more about our Overlapping Review History test.

Pass Brand Repeats

Brand Repeaters


38 of the 686 reviewers have reviewed other products for this brand. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.

from Brand Repeaters

from Non-Repeaters


4.8
4.6


Read more about our Brand Repeats test.

Pass Incentivized Reviews
On Oct 3, 2016, Amazon prohibited incentivized reviews, however we still test for them since there are still millions in our dataset.

  • 0%
  • Admitted to receiving an incentive
We didn't detect any reviews that used language indicating they were incentivized.
Read more about our Incentivized Reviews test. Check out our study showing that Incentivized Reviewers are much more likely to leave a positive review.

Pass Deleted Reviews
  • 0
  • Reviews have been deleted
We have not discovered any deleted reviews for this product.

There are a few limitations to keep in mind regarding the Deleted Reviews test:
  1. We don't have a magic ability to collect every single deleted review; we can only identify reviews as deleted if we collect them on one date and then notice they are no longer visible on a subsequent date.
  2. We have no information on reviews that were never published in the first place.
  3. We also don't know why these reviews were removed. It could be action from the platform, personal decision by the review author, part of an entire account closure, even some data error on our part, etc.
Read more about our Deleted Reviews test.