No Reviews Worse Than Bad Reviews?

This all refers back to the cyclical never-ending discussion of whether or not bloggers, nicest folks on the planet, should engage in negative reviews. Well Gail Gauthier probably wasn't thinking in those terms the other day when she wrote the following statement:

I'm not scared of bad reviews. I would prefer not to get them, but I'm willing to take a punch because a bad review means your book is important enough to discuss. You're still a contender. But no reviews? That is my big fear.

It got me to thinking. That makes sense, doesn't it? You tell yourself you're doing an author or illustrator a favor when you keep yourself from reviewing their book rather than give it a dressing down, but is that actually worse in the long run? If you don't say anything at all then how is the author/illustrator supposed to know what they did wrong? Silence leads to confusion leads to further books you don't review. Ugly cycle? Realistic one. Now I'm eyeing my "negative" pile warily. Maybe I'll get to one of them sometime this week. Ug.