After I stepped into the writing world, I learned a huge number of things about the industry, the authors, Amazon and… reviews. I spent hours browsing for my peers’ work, reading review after review, and honestly, most of the time, I felt kind of confused and with a single question dancing in my head:
Why do you summarize the story in the review?
Do you think that’s how it’s done?
Why?
I do love every person who spent time writing a review of my books. But this is not from an author point of view, it’s more me talking to the world as a reader who sometimes uses reviews to decide whether to buy an indie book and let me illustrate what I’ve been constantly encountering, especially under indie titles, or books exchanged for an honest review:
“Well, this is a story about a girl who loses her job, her friends, her cat and she also likes apple juice. Also, when she was young she had a pet turtle named Robespierre but little did she know that Robespierre was actually an enchanted beast who’s an enchanted prince. Also no spoilers, but I wanna know, those two people no one ever guessed would end up together, will they get married? No spoilers though!’
For the love of God, stop. That’s NOT a review. What happened to “Enchanting and captivating, the story encompasses so many things, I found my whole life in there” or “Mellow and boring, but that’s forgivable if i think about how many times I laughed out loud“, or even “This is bad writing and the story is rather predictable, but I guess two stars will suffice“?
Why do you feel the need to retell the story, tip-toeing around spoilers?
There are certain rules when writing a review, and they’re certainly not invented by me. We’ve seen it done in renowned magazines, papers and media in general. Maybe do the following:
1. Say how it made you feel.
Did you cry? Did you laugh? Were you bored like hell? Does the book practically scream that the writer is stupid? Or is it the best book you’ve read in the past ten years? See, this won’t let you say that Laurie and Robespierre the ex-turtle ended up together.
2. How would you describe the main character?
Is she/he so you? Deep? Shallow? Believable? Astonishingly crafted? Annoyingly predictable? Because, if you say ‘Awesome’, it would be nice to say why. Unless the book is so super-awesome, no other word can describe it.
3. Why should we read the book?
Yeah, really, why? Tell us! We shouldn’t? Why shouldn’t we? Do you know that you can change someone’s life by recommending a book? You can. Because books teach you stuff, and you can tell us what it taught you.
4. Are the supporting characters strong enough?
Do they enrich the story? Do they make the story? Do you want to know more about them? Do we?
5. How is it (not) different from others in its genre?
Unique and unexpected, or same old-same old? True, it seems like most of the characters and situations are used over and over in every genre, but why was this one special? Or, did it bother you at all that it was the same like the last 17 mystery-thrillers you’ve read?
I’m just saying, don’t tell people that Robespierre is a prince. Tell us how you felt about it.
Love,
J.
P.S. The book about Robespierre the turtle is of non-existent nature.
After I stepped into the writing world, I learned a huge number of things about the industry, the authors, Amazon and… reviews. I spent hours browsing for my peers’ work, reading review after review, and honestly, most of the time, I felt kind of confused and with a single question dancing in my head:
Almost Parisian 
5 responses to “Writing A Good Review”
I’ve often thought it was odd how reviewers feel the need to recap the story. I mean, I actually kind of like hearing the paraphrased shortened versions of my own books, but they don’t really seem to fit the idea of a review. The only place in which I’ve really understood it is when people are copying things over from their blogs, as if you’re doing a review piece on a blog, there might be good reason to give a bit of a blurb to give people reason to read outside of just saying, “I liked this book because it made me feel all smooshy inside”.
All the same, some great thoughts here to craft a review that would make any author happy to see pop up on Amazon.
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Of course, I agree that it’s okay to say something about it, especially if you’re giving a thorough review on your personal blog. But reviews can be detailed and explanatory without recapping the whole story, right? Besides, the author already has a blurb, where he/she reveals all the details they think are necessary to capture the reader’s attention.
Anyways, thank you for your thoughts 🙂
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Totally with you on that, just giving an example of why some folks might have the recap there, not necessarily saying they’re doing a good job of it by any means. I’d prefer my reviews to be more like “I absolutely loved it!” or “This thing sucks harder than my Dyson!” 😉
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We’re on the same page there 😀
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Actually, I take that back, I just prefer the loved it one…
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