Reviewing Reviews with Subpar Parks

You can file this under “why didn’t we think of doing this first?”

If the image above didn’t clue you in enough, Subpar Parks is a book by Amber Share, which features - if you’d believe it - whimsical reviews of National Parks. What really makes the reviews pop, however, is how Amber pairs each uninspired review with a finely designed graphic, showing the relevant national park in all its glory.

I won’t go posting any more images from her book without permission, but you can see plenty on any bookselling website, or on her Instagram account, the place where this all began.

All this blog post is serving as is a salute, to Amber and her craft. To her adoration of design, typography, and the outdoors.

But also. You’re selling yourself short, sister!

I get it, the gimmick is that the people are unimpressed. We’ve featured unimpressed national parks visitors ourselves. Here’s a favorite from Theodore Roosevelt National Park:

That’s classic, and it’s just in the style of Amber’s reviews. Someone is unimpressed because their expectations were above and beyond what’s really possible. I mean, what did you expect wild horses to look like? With extra facial hair or something?

Anyway, I’m getting off point. The point I’m going for is that there is just as much that’s ripe for the picking in positive reviews, and we should know!

Let’s try a few on for size, see how they feel, huh?

There’s nothing that warms this Chicagolanders’s heart more than a mutual disdain for the St. Louis Cardinals. Just try telling me a picture of the arch wouldn’t look GREAT with the words “Cardinals are aight” at the bottom. Can’t do it!

Here’s another:

Now this is a bit of a longer one, but if I had to guess, I’d say Amber probably condenses where appropriate. You gotta edit it down to the punchiest bits (and to get rid of typos). But man, does this one end with a bang!

See, we can be surprised and guffaw at people saying things like “It’s just sand,” as we slap our thighs and say “boy, they don’t get it at all.” Or we can be surprised that someone throws shade at the Cardinals, or is hyped about a-bomb testing.

There’s value in all these reviews, entertainment value and informational value. And maybe it’s up to us to make AbovePar Parks. And if we get sued in the process, hey, we’ll take the publicity.