Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. It’s supposed to be posted on Friday, but being on time is hard and it’s better late than never.
This week’s topic is: What do you look for in a review?
It may not come as a surprise that I read a lot of reviews. After all, what’s the point of being a book blogger if you aren’t constantly adding more books to your TBR than you can ever hope to read? One for every time you’ve contemplated whether the secret to immortality is really human souls, and just how many human souls? Because are we talking about wasting a weekend or wasting a whole year or, even worse, a decade on this endeavor? I’m … pretty sure I’m doing this whole blogging thing right, yeah?
Without any further ado … here are things I look for in reviews! I’d love to hear what you all look for reviews, too, so drop your thoughts in the comments.
Personality
This is the #1 thing I look for, and this can come across in sooo many different forms! Humor is obviously one thing I love, especially tongue-in-cheek or dark humor, but it’s so much more than that! If a reader loves a book, I want to love the book with them, but the only way that happens is if I feel like I can hear their “voice” through the post. I’ve talked to bloggers who think they don’t have a voice, and they totally do! If I read a review, and I feel like I could be chatting with you in person, that’s a voice! Not everyone will be funny, and that doesn’t make your voice any less valid. Some of my favorite reviews have very thoughtful or insightful voices, and I love them just as much!
TL;DR: I follow a lot of bloggers who write reviews in various ways, but you don’t have to be different for me to love your review. You just have to be you!
Which, I guess, technically is different (from everyone else, at least) because you’re an individual. Wow this went off the rails fast …
Chunking
I confess: I’m intimidated by large bits of text. Which is unfortunate that reading became my go-to hobby because wow, talk about torture, and not just the emotional kind. I love reading reviews that are chunked, regardless of how they’re chunked. GIFs? Cool. Dividers? Great. Bolded text and headings? Wonderful. Give me something I can skim to find the pertinent information without having to read everything if I’m not in the mood to.
TL;DR: Words are scary. I need safe spaces to hide here and there, just like in video games when you’re trying to creep along and have to ninja stealth in a hidey hole to not be seen.
A Rating or Qualifier
This may be a little controversial, but I’m so much less likely to read reviews without some sort of rating or qualifier. I mean, sure, I could, like, actually read your review and see whether you like it or not, but … gosh, that’s so much work. Maybe it’s just me, but I think knowing how you feel going in really sets up my expectations for the review and prepares me for what I’m going to read so I’m not, like, blindsided by unbridled rage and fury.
TL;DR: Life is short. I want to be able to tell at a glance whether you loved it, hated it, or are inhabiting neutral territory.
Depth
Look, I know some people like short reviews, but what about me would lead anyone to think that? Other than the fact that I’m short. I love reviews that give me things to think about, whether it be positive or negative! Trigger warnings, themes, things that work and don’t work, why things don’t work. I want to be able to walk away from a review feeling like I can make a solid decision on whether I’m interested in this book or not (you know, since that’s my goal with reading a review).
TL;DR: Decisions are hard, so I love reviews that arm me with a sword and shield and maybe some really fierce-looking armor so I’m more prepared to do battle with my TBR when I inevitably decide to add the book to it.
Since we’ve talked about what I look for in reviews, I thought this would be a great time to mention some things that turn me off of reviews all together. None of these are deal-breakers, especially since a lot of people whose reviews I love do this. But if I’ve never read a review by someone and I open it to see one of these things, I’m much less likely to read it.
- A page absolutely full of GIFs. All good things in moderation, right? My computer straight-up goes on strike until I remedy the situation whenever I stumble across one of these.
- Little information other than the blurb. The point of a review is to give me an idea of what the book is about! What does it do right? What does it do wrong? If I want to know just the surface-level things, I’d just read the blurb that professionals so carefully crafted. Tell me more!
- Attacks on the author. I’m not here for that. You can hate the book without dragging the author. I’m just saying. Some people love reading these reviews, but that’s just not me.
- A straight wall of normal text. Look, I’m a reader and writer, and words follow me absolutely everywhere. When they group all together like that, I panic, because that’s obviously how the revolution starts, right? I’m much less likely to read a review that’s just a bunch of paragraphs together in regular font with nothing to break it up.
Right there with you. Sammie! I agree with all of these. And I don’t care for reviews with gifs either, although I guess you could say that’s their personality😁
Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy recently posted…Buffy’s Corner – Looking at the Week Ahead 6/28/20
That’s true, and if I really like the person’s personality, I’ll put up with tons of GIFs. xD So it’s not a cut-and-dry list, either.
Yes to all of these things!! I like that you included things you dislike as well 😅.
“If I want to know just the surface-level things, I’d just read the blurb that professionals so carefully crafted.” This is so accurate though 😂!
Belle recently posted…Books Based On My Favorite Karaoke Songs // a self-indulgent recommendation post
I’ve seen some reviews that totally just rehash that blurb, and it’s so frustrating. It tells me nothing! xD
Great discussion!
A rating in a review is so helpfull! Of course it is subjective, but a one or five star rating immediately gives you an idea of what direction the review is going to take!
I really do not like GIFs in reviews.. I nkow they can show your expression etc, but thwy ar so distracting!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Evelyn recently posted…June book haul!
It definitely is soooo subjective, but I love knowing where on the spectrum they’re falling for this particular book.
I don’t mind one or two, but when a review is just littered with them … my brain explodes haha.
That’s a great point about ratings. I’ve been debating a lot lately about how to use them. I decided to move them to the end of my reviews, but now that you mention it – they are handy for knowing what kind of review I’m about to read and I do like seeing them on other blogs. GIFS are a major turn off for me as well. I am not always good at breaking up my ‘wall of text’ reviews but it is something I am working on 😛
Jenna @ Falling Letters recently posted…My First Robin Hood Retelling [Review]
I honestly don’t care where the rating is in a review. I know a lot of reviewers who put them at the end, so I always scroll down to see the rating before I read the review. Look at me, cheating the system. xD
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I definitely agree with you about chunking. I’m much happier reading book reviews if they’re divided up in a way that’s aesthetically pleasing – sort of like what you’ve done with this post.
Your tone in this article is so fun, I love your voice. It’s been a long time since I had this much fun reading a blog post. Thank you so much for participating.
P.S. I LOVE YOUR BLOG THEME. It’s so cute.
Dani St-Onge recently posted…Because You Love to Hate Me | Book Review
Thank you so much! I had a lot of fun (and I love the Let’s Talk Bookish topics I’ve seen, this is just the first time I’ve actually jumped in! haha).
Thank youuuu. Dragons are always a winning strategy. And if someone doesn’t like them? Dragons also eat people. See? Win-win.
I’m 100% with you on the things you dislike in reviews. I guess I’m a lot less picky about the things that I do want in reviews, though, because I can’t think of anything that I really need to be in a review? Well. I mean. I does have to be readable, so huge sections of text with nothing to break it up isn’t a great idea. 🙂 I’ve been thinking lately about tweaking the layout of my book reviews, though, to move the rating & content up to the top of the review. This post has cemented that idea, so thanks for the nudge in that direction!
Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Sunday Sundry — Book Journals
To be fair, I definitely don’t NEED these things to be in reviews. But if someone’s taking my order for the perfect review I’d like to read, it would probably contain these things. I mean, heck, several of my favorite reviewers break these, so it’s definitely not sacred. xD
To be fair, it doesn’t really bother me exactly where the rating appears, because if it’s not at the top, I just kind of … scroll down to check it and then scroll back up. I’m not sure how many other people are so concerned about ratings. I’m just a weirdo. xD
I nodded along to this entire post. I sometimes skip reviews if there is no rating because I don’t want to have to decipher whether you loved the book or not. Just make it simple, please and thank you.
Exactly! I do definitely sometimes read reviews that don’t have ratings, but I feel like I spend half the review debating whether they liked it or not. xD
Totally agree with the page being full of Gifs being not useful. It makes the review hard to read and looks really unprofessional too.
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I do love GIFs when they’re used sparingly or used as emphasis, though!
Great post! The first thing I do when I come across a review is skim for the rating. If it’s a book I haven’t read yet, a lot of times I won’t read the review because I’m afraid of spoilers. But I do want to know how they felt about the book. I’ve come across several reviews recently without a rating and it threw me for a loop. 😉
Dedra @ A Book Wanderer recently posted…ARC Book Review | Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis
I’m the same way about books I haven’t read, unless I know the particular blogger specifically does spoiler-free reviews.
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YES I agree! I NEED a rating, I just do! And like- I will still read the review, don’t get me wrong, but I need to know what the bottom line is. Did we love it? Did we hate it? Do we feel completely “meh”? I need that knowledge! I am a HUGE GIF fan, though I find I’ve been putting them in reviews less but I think that is just laziness (and the fact that I spend wayyyy too much time making them for my The 100 posts and I am GIFed out). But yeah, big blocks of text are not my favorite review type either. Let’s go ahead and blame my attention span 😂
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