THE THIRD DEGREE
BOOK REVIEWS
There are as many different styles of book reviews as colors in the big Crayola crayon box. I like that because it would be really boring if we all wrote our reviews in the same style. I like reading reviews that are like mine, but even better, I like reading reviews that are NOT like mine.
LONG OR SHORT
I see reviews that are a few short paragraphs and others with many long paragraphs. I like both. The short reviews get right to the point and say what the reviewer liked or didn’t like about the book. The long reviews get into the juicy details and sometimes they even have quotes from the book.
I will read a review that is 100 paragraphs if it feels like the reviewer is sitting here talking to me.
I looked back at my reviews and they tend to have four or five shortish paragraphs. I guess that would put me somewhere in the middle for length. Sometimes I have more to say than other times.
TO GUSH OR NOT
There are no two ways about the fact that I gush about books and authors that I love. If a book is THAT good, I am going to gush and I don’t feel embarrassed about it. I’ve seen a few reviewers who apologize when they gush. I say, open the floodgates and gush away!
SPOILERS
Big no-no. This is the ONLY thing that I feel really strongly about for every review I read. I do NOT want to read spoilers in a review. In fact, if there is a book I am hoping to read, I try to only read the reviews of my trusted reviewers. There’s no way I will blindly go to Amazon or goodreads to read random reviews. That’s too risky. I try very hard to keep spoilers out of the reviews I write and I hope I am doing a good job.
NITTY GRITTY
Besides the title and author, there are a whole bunch of other nitty gritty facts that reviewers include in their reviews. I keep mine pretty simple, but I’ve seen some reviewers including lots more. Some reviewers include links to the author’s web site, places where you can buy the book, the book trailer, and more. I’m too lazy to do all that, but I think it’s great that some of y’all include all that.
RATINGS
Most reviewers include a number rating in their review, but some do not. I do. I started out with a semi-complicated system with five rating categories and then an overall rating. I got bored with it and moved to just an overall rating from two to five.
I like number ratings because they give a quick snapshot of what the reviewer thought of the book. I like the cute little pictures that some reviewers use for their ratings. I also respect the choice some reviewers have made to not include a number rating, no matter what their reasoning is.
SUMMARY
It seems like most of us reviewers are using goodreads for our summaries. Did you know that I actually wrote my own summaries back at the very beginning? Uh huh. I didn’t know about the magic of goodreads back then and I wrote my own. Then, I started using the cover flap and eventually goodreads.
Back to the topic.
I think it’s pretty universal to include a summary with a review. Sometimes I see reviews that become summaries of their own. I am guilty of doing this sometimes too, although I try my best not to. I may get a whole paragraph typed out and then I’m like “that’s just a summary – where’s the review? Ahhh!”
How do you like your reviews?
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