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As an author, I prefer to have the feedback even if the review stings a little. How am I going to get better if no one ever tells me what they didn't like?
That said, there are a couple of things to consider when handing out reviews.
1) The number of reviews the book already has
If the book only has one or two reviews, a negative review will pull the average way down. That's a pretty harsh hammer to hit an indie author with. If the book has in excess of ten reviews, then a negative or mediocre review becomes less of a blow.
2) The number of books the author has published
If the author has only published one book (and especially if the book was published a long time ago) AND if the book is filled with horrible typos and grammatical errors, then there's a good chance this person isn't headed towards a full-time writing career. That one book may be all he or she ever writes and, being a beginning author, he or she probably has not yet developed a thick skin.
In this case, a negative review isn't going to influence or strengthen later works, and really may crush the heart and soul of the author whose baby you've insulted. Unless you feel an urgent need to protect other buyers from wasting their money, I'd say let it be.
Whether you're the target audience.
I confess, I wouldn't want an avid opponent of science fiction to drive by and slap a 1-star review on my work because s/he felt it was stupid genre trash. If you're not in the book's target audience, don't review it.
But if you ARE in the target audience... if you saw the cover and LOVED it and read the blurb and LOVED it and were then horribly, hideously disappointed to discover that the book you got is not the one you thought you were downloading... then yeah, a negative review is fair game.
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