For me reviews is just a way to check if there are any bad tropes that would kill my enjoyment of the story, so I don't waste my time with it. And I only check them in the first place if the description leaves me worried that there might really be things that will make me drop the story eventually. It doesn't matter if the reviews are actually positive or negative, just if they are informative.
Hell yeah. That's why I stopped reading them unless the description makes 0 sense. Because some books are so amazing and they get the worst possible review. For example for my favorite mistakenly saving the villain. It's an amazing book but i can understand that it has its dark themes and confusing moments (they get resolved as plot unfolds) but reviewers have made it seem like it is worst possible book to read with worst possible plot and 2d characters. And for some books the review made it seem as if it's something otherworldly but it was just not what was promised (for me at the very least). So yeah reviews affect a lot. Some are correct but some are just bullshit hate for sake of hating (not just MSTV but few others I have read and came to love despite the bad reviews). Perhaps we need more neutral reviews. Or perhaps if we could form a system where the reviews get like or dislike based in their correct information or at the very least a distinction between bad review and good review (as in nature of review whether it was bad book or good) and put mostvoted ones on top. Currently at first are either extremely good reviews made by fans or extremely bad reviews no in-between.
Oftentimes I like to take a look just because there can novels that are really good but have some change later on that ruin everything. I like to avoid stories where things are great but then the author decides to kill everyone in the end, and I appreciate the reviewers tipping me off beforehand.
Nah reviews like that aren't enough to deter me. But if the one who wrote the review said why I should do something as horrible as killing others... yeah I might just do that if I find his review to be believable enough
The only time I ever read reviews is when I dislike a novel so much that I want to see other people hate on it too (pretty immature, right?). Besides that, I rarely read reviews, especially of novels I really like. They just give me a poor impression of the novel and ruin my mood.