Discussion: Reviews and my PET PEEVES

Hi Munchworms!

I’ve seen some people talk about it a bit lately, sometimes in comments and sometimes in an actual post, and I felt like giving a bit of a rant about this as well.

Prepare yourselves because my rants.. are.. epic!
No, they’re not.

It’s a simple and plain fact that we all have our own voice and style when it comes to writing reviews. There are a lot of ways to write one and that’s perfectly fine. There are, however, also a lot of things that can go wrong since not everybody likes every type of review and that’s okay. It’s personal. It’s taste. You can’t do anything about that.

Seriously, do not take anything I’m going to say personally because it is my opinion. Others will probably think differently about it!

BLURBS

I love it when people include the blurb of a book in their review. Simply because I might have heard of the book, might have seen the cover around but haven’t looked up what it’s about exactly. It’s the perfect moment to actually discover exactly that when I’m about to read a review!

HOWEVER. This does not mean that I like people pretty much summarizing the entire book themselves. Blurbs already give away so much and can contain spoilers as it is. Reviewers with a tendency of retelling the entire book? No, thank you. I do not need any more spoilers than those the blurb gave me. I’d like to read the book myself; not read your summarize and feel like picking it up myself is pointless since I know everything already.

NO RATINGS

This is a really personal one since I know there are plenty of reviewers who don’t give ratings when they write a review. That’s okay. But I, personally, really like it when you do. Especially if I read a lot of your reviews. It gives me a way to compare the books you loved to the books you liked pretty easily. That automatically gives me more insight into how much I’d like the book if I’ve read any of the others you reviewed.

Say you give book x four stars and I know I absolutely loved it, then you go ahead and give book y in the same genre five stars, I’ll know I definitely have to check it out!

See what I mean?

SPOILERS

Now, here’s the obvious one. You don’t need to summarize the entire book to still spoil a story. Sometimes it’s the simple mention of a certain subject that’s part of the book. That’s all it needs to be a spoiler.

“Oh, and the fact that x has that past definitely makes it more interesting!”

No. I did not want to know that. I wanted to find that out myself if I’d decide to pick up the book. Since, now I know, I’ll definitely remember it while reading and that might simply make other events so much more predictable?!

This, however, does not count when it comes towards triggers. I know I don’t do this enough myself, but I love people who actually mention the triggers present in a story. Sure, these can be spoilers. These are spoilers. But these are the spoilers a lot of us need to be able to cope with a story. Mental preparation is key when you’re sensitive to certain subjects.

GIF OVERLOAD

This simply hurts my eyes and distracts me from the actual review. I can’t help it. I’m no fan of gif’s and I never will be. They’re so.. slap-in-the-face and, to me, completely unnecessary. I can do without them. Really, I can. I see how it helps people convey certain emotions they had towards a novel but… Don’t go overboard? Please?

Again, these are my thoughts. Not everyone likes and dislikes the same things I do so don’t take this personally!

What are some peeves you have when it comes to reviews? What are things you absolutely love to see in them? Let’s talk about it!