Time and time again we’ve established that an important part of being a book blogger is reviewing books (you don’t need to do it though, read this post about what it means to be a book blogger). However, the thing is, to make people read them, there are so many things to consider:
- The book’s popularity
- The book’s age
- Whether it’s a known author
- If the cover looks amateurish
- And then, the we actually review
Aside from not writing a review altogether, there’s only one thing we can control, and that is the way we review.
Essay-like
With headings and subheadings to break up paragraphs, and talking about different ideas and notes referring to the story.
Five reasons why…
Similar to the first format but this is very focused on there being a determined number of bullet points to tackle and that’s it.
Characters/setting/plot
Analyzing the story from these angles is also very popular. I used to it this way, and it works marvelously because it’s easy and straight to the point.
Ramblings
Reviews with no structure whatsoever and are just a recount of the feelings one experienced and everything you thought about the book. Give or take a few gifs.
Chronological order
I’ve seen some like this in Goodreads, and they were so hilarious. Popular with extremely good, or extremely bad books. The reviewer writers about their thoughts on the book as they read and so we discover what they experienced at each time.
Do you prefer reviews long and informative or short and concise?
At the end of the day, I think different reviewing styles can vary from book to book as much as it can vary from person to person. I’ve noticed that some of us do prefer either to write a lot, or stick to short reviews.
I can’t write long reviews. I swear I’ve tried, but I just run out of things to say, and as much I can hate or love a book, I don’t want to sound repetitive, so I just end it when I can’t write anymore.
I’m a rambler. I personally only read reviews after I’ve read the book, so I don’t need summaries. I just want to know how that reviewer responded, so that’s how I write mine as well. I know it’s not “the right way,” but as your earlier post notes, there is no “right way,” so I’m golden!
Of course there is no only one way of doing it! YOU ARE GOLDEN And I’m like that too. I don’t usually go seeking reviews on blogs of books I haven’t read before. In Goodreads, I check the rating, and then do a quick scroll down the reviews to get a feeling of what people are saying and get me excited about a book.
I tend to mix how I review my books up a little bit, simply because that’s how I like to read reviews. If I’m interested in a singular book, then I find different points of view as well as different formats highly interesting due to the variation! Although having said that, the ‘top five reasons why you should read this’ is a good way to discover new books – because I generally don’t spend a long time reading about a book that I haven’t got a clue about.
I would describe my style as “rambling.” I don’t have a set format, just whatever comes up for me at the time. However, I do appreciate reviews that are more organized with subheadings. I think I ‘m just too lazy to do that!
Lol, I used to do it this way but then slowly my ramblings started having an order so they became less rambling-ish on their own. On the other hand, I write reviews with subheadings but actually have more fun reading ‘rambling’ reviews!
I do enjoy reading reviews when they are short and concise. I feel like if it’s concise and coherent, it wastes less time, and gives a good gist of the story without giving away the plot!
Totally less chance of spoilers. Especially when there are details that aren’t easily perceived as spoilers for the reviewer, but might be for the one reading the review.
I try to write the good and the bad in my review. Every book I have read has both and it usually helps me sort out my thoughts enough to rate the book. I don’t usually list out the characters or go over each aspect (world building, character development, etc..), but I have tried both styles of reviews. I depends on what mood I am in I guess. Most of my reviews are about 5 paragraphs. Sometimes I have more to say, but usually that is my sweet spot. Great topic!
I used to talk about the book per aspect but it quickly became a bit dull to me. I don’t mind reading reviews like that but writing them was no longer fun, so I discovered my thing is much more flexible than that! And super short sometimes is what people look for! Thanks for stopping by!
Most of the time, I like reading reviews that are longer. I like when a reviewer summarizes the book in a paragraph because I think sometimes readers get the “feeling” of a book better than the Goodreads summary.
I usually write my reviews the same way. I include a quick summary, maybe a quote from the book, and then the things I thought about the book. (Without spoilers, though, of course.) Sometimes I worry that my reviews are too long and no one will care to read them, but oh well. Hopefully other people also read longer reviews!
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I tend to use the bullet point approach unless I’m writing a bite-sized review. I find that listing the good and the bad helps me organize my thoughts enough to get them down.
i like short and concise reviews! some long reviews are really well written, but with most I feel like it’s a waste of time…if i’m going to spend this much time thinking about a book, why not just read it, you know? 🙂
I get what you mean XD I think some books really do need the long reviews, but most of the time it’s unnecessary.
I guess it really doesn’t matter to me. I like all forms of reviews. I admit that I may skip to just the parts I want to know, and not read through every bit of the longer ones. I’ve seen some bashing lately of different types of reviews, one which I used to do a lot. I don’t like that. I DO like your post here though. How you mention that everyone has their own review style. And I feel that is how it should be. I know when I started blogging, and really still, I blog because I want to talk about books. And so I talk in my reviews the way I would talk to anyone in person about a book. I have trouble like you do with really long ones. Something I would love to happen one day is to have my review quoted on a book’s blurbs. But I don’t think my writing is polished enough for that. But I’m okay, I just like talking about books! Great post!
Thanks! I think I big part of being a book blogger is discovering our review style, or voice, just like any other type of writer. And like them, I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way to go about it! It just has to work for each of us.