Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Just saying that if it ain't relevant to the work, don't bring it up, because you'll piss *somebody* off. If you have to mention it to write an effective review -- i.e., if the book is just flat out racist and the criticism needs to be made -- go for it.

Most of my experience is from writing Amazon reviews, and over there if you mention politics, religion, or race unnecessarily you'll pay a *huge* price in negative votes even for making generic, innocuous statements (see, e.g., the reviews of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue, here: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Rogue-American-Sarah-Palin/dp/0061939897 ). If it isn't directly relevant to the work, if you're not bringing it up for a reason, there's just no point -- you'll piss off readers and won't gain anything by it.