The Joy and Struggle of Reviewing

Hello there fellow bookworm, welcome to another discussion post! ♥

Book reviews are probably my best friend! I seek them out every time, I write one all the time. I think I can’t read books without automatically thinking up a review. I forgot the last time I read books without reviewing, honestly. And since we book bloggers are all reviewers as well, today I’m going to discuss the joy and struggle of reviewing! 😀 

As usual, I’m breaking down all my points into a list of pros and cons 😛

1) Non-reviewers might not know this but writing a proper review is NOT AS EASY AS IT SEEMS. There are a lot of things to talk about from a book but writing them down in a coherent way is hard! I’m just going to quote Dave and Anna here.

“Why do you need to practice? It’s not like it’s hard or something.”

“Yeah? I’d like to see you write a six-hundred-word review about one. ‘I liked it. It was cool. There were explosions.'”

“Five stars for explosions.”

Sure they were talking about movie review, but same difference.

2) Having to write a review of a very emotional book because SO. MUCH. FEELS!  Sometimes all I wanna do is just scream and shout and fangirl (which I do) but I also have to sit down and talk about technical aspects. I mean… where are my words?! :’)

3) HOW DO I AVOID THIS SPOILER? I try to keep my reviews spoiler free because I hate being spoiled but sometimes a book is so full of twists that it’s hard not to spoil anything at all! Let’s say… I can’t say that a certain book has an unnatural, super forced, and unnecessary love triangle without revealing the existence of the love triangle in the first place. The struggle is real guys!! 😦

4) Being objective. Remember that bad books you just want to rant away about? I used to do that all the time. But, come to think of it, writing a book is an achievement itself and talking all negative about it is a bit unfair to the authors. So I’ve been trying to look at the bright side and find something positive to say about it. Most of the time, there are ALWAYS something positive from a book, let it be the writing, the setting, the tiny little details, or that snarky, slightly creepy magical creature that just showed up on the second half of the book. Yes I’m talking about Kamala the horse from The Star Touched Queen.

5) Saying bad things in the best way possible. Related to point 4 above.

6) Getting that unpopular opinion out there. The internet is a scary place 😦

7) Sometimes, I just don’t feel like it. Sure I can’t read a book without criticizing the book in my head and all, but sometimes I’m just too lazy to actually write them down. I’m also not a fan of reviewing books I don’t intend to read. Like that e-ARC I got from netgalley… 😦 (I will get to them soon I promise!)

1) FANGIRL ALL YOU LIKE ♥♥♥♥♥ Seriously, it’s your review, you can talk about absolutely anything! Although, ahem… if you write a 2000-word-review about a book, I most likely will skip through it 😛

2) Finding another bookworm who shares your thoughts. I love it when people who already read the book, read my review, and agree with what I said. I love being accurate 😛

3) Getting people to read the book! We’re like free marketers! I’m stoked every time someone reads my reviews and says they’re going to read the books or they’re buying it right away, or when they previously aren’t interested in the book but my review makes them want to give it a chance. The true joy! ♥♥

4) It’s liberating. Every time I read a really good book, I HAVE to write a review. I have to let the world know how great this book is and how much I love it 😉

5) It’s a FUN thing to do ♥ It just is 😛

Okay now it looks like there are more struggle than joy in this whole reviewing process!! Sure it’s hard but it’s SO FUN and I guess fun & fan girl all you like overthrow all the struggles 😛

I didn’t realize this before writing this post but I’ve been reviewing books for over 4 years now. Wow! I know a lot of people who have done it a lot longer, but still, I’m proud 😛 yet I’m still exploring the best way to write a proper review. But first let me take you the first review I ever wrote 😉

Warning: do not see the picture below if you haven’t read or plan to read Delirium trilogy anytime soon. If you don’t intend to, go ahead, there’s spoiler in it.

Jeez, SPOILER MUCH??

Why did I have to give away the last page of the book? What was I thinking? I guess it didn’t even occur to me that I might be spoiling some important information by then. And you see, all I did right then was talk about the characters, how they made me feel, and my expectations. It’s sooo feelsy!

In fact, ALL my reviews used to be based on feels. Sometimes it works, but most of the time it’s not enough. I personally want to know more from a review than just how it makes the reviewer feels. I want to know about the pace, the plot, the characters, the writing, the good and the bad. And all of them are missing from the review above :’) I know, I know, but I improved though? 😛 See my latest review of The Archived by Victoria Schwab.

Basically, I always try to keep my review spoiler free, balance between the good and the bad, the feels and the technical aspects, and I try my best not to attack the authors no matter how bad I think their books are.

I’ve also tried several review style, a full-on narrations, breaking them down based on the technical aspects, a list of pros and cons, you name it. I still haven’t decided which format works best for me. Okay, it’s probably the breaking down into aspects one because it’s easier and more comprehensive, but sometimes, I just want to list down what I like and dislike because THAT’S EVEN EASIER. 😛 I wonder if that inconsistency is a bad thing?

Some additional facts about my reviewing process

• You might have known it by now that I don’t take notes while reading
• Actually sometimes I do, only to end up not looking at it while reviewing because I remember what I want to write on my review
• Though I snap quick photos of the parts that I want to talk about 😉
• I review books right after I finish reading it. Sometimes I sleep it off first when I pull an all nighter and do the review in the morning because tired!
• I try to avoid reading other people’s reviews of the book before reviewing it on my own because I don’t want to get my thoughts tangled with those of others

So that my friends are the joy and struggle I feel from reviewing books. Do you share any of them, or do you want to add more to it? PLEASE DO! And I have questions : 

(1) Do you think reviewers should stick to one particular review style or could we switch style as we pleased? Also, (2) What’s your favorite review format to read?

Drop some comments because I’d like to hear your thoughts! ♥ 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Find more of me on my social media ♦

Instagram • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Pinterest • Linkedin