Are book reviews really that influential?

This remains one of the best book reviews I’ve ever received for one of my books:

“Wow! (5-stars)

OK, here is the thing that is amazing about this book. There were several instances of what? – that’s-not-possible situations, such as doing a space walk with no spacesuit, just an oxygen mask. But the book is so good you don’t care! It’s as if the author asks the reader to just be child-like occasionally and accept that dogs fly and cats talk, forgetting how physically impossible both are. I don’t know how he pulled it off, writer’s magic? However, he did it. I wasn’t sure about the book in the early beginning, but before I could decide NOT to like it, I LIKED it! Kudos and good job!”

It joins three more four and five star reviews, all on Barnes and Noble

But the last of these was ten years ago.

10 years of no reviews, despite an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

I’ve sold copies of the book in the intervening decade, but none of those sales has resulted in a review, good or bad.

That seems a bit strange. On a personal level, it’s halted the impact this novel has had on the book reading public. But on a more general level, does it show that reviews aren’t that influential, and certainly don’t attract other readers to share their opinions of a book? Maybe these reviews have put people off the idea of reading the book in question?

I’m interested to discover whether other self-published authors have a similar experience of a book attracting a handful of good reviews early doors, only for interest in the work to fall off a cliff and land headfirst in the sand where it’s been stuck for over a decade?