Tell Me Something Tuesday was hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings, but she has (temporarily?) stopped blogging. So a group of us that had been doing posts (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Karen from For What It’s Worth, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About and me) decided to get together, come up with some more topics and keep the meme going.Michelle made us a logo and we’re off and running. For more details, check out this post where I reintroduced the meme.
I can be sporadic, but when I do join in I will always share next week’s topic at the end of the post. So, today is about…
What type of reviews do you find helpful in choosing (or avoiding) your next read?
For me, I want to know why you liked or didn’t like a book rather than what happened in it. I don’t need a synopsis (that’s already provided by the author/publisher). Tell me about the characters – were they likable or annoying? Tell me about the world – were you immersed, confused, or bogged down in info dumps? Tell me about the plot – did it compel you, bore you, lose you? If it was a mystery/suspense, were you tricked? So basically, I like reviews that are about how the book made you feel than what happened in it. That’s what I try to give in my reviews, though I do know that sometimes you have to talk about what happened to explain how you felt.
I really dislike spoilers (give me a warning at least). I really appreciate trigger warnings though – if there’s cheating, rape, extreme violence, etc. – that’s really helpful to know. I also like knowing if the book employed tropes – there’s some I love (e.g., fake relationship, enemies to lovers) and some that really turn me off (e.g., secret baby, cheating).
The best thing about these kinds of reviews are that the very reasons you hated a book could make me want to read it (and vice versa).
This pretty much sums up what I like (& don’t) in reviews. More detailed reviews are great for after I read a book. I like to compare notes but aren’t especially helpful for me when deciding in the first place.
i also appreciate when reviewers mention little things – even if they personally liked it because it might be something I will avoid. Like love triangles, cheating etc.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
I also dislike spoilers, especially if I plan to read it! I agree with your comments overall, however, I like a little brief intro to the world/characters when I read the review in order to put the review in context – the characters, how are they related? etc. But after reading a few of these “what is helpful” posts, it sounds like maybe I’m in the minority! OOps… I have tried to change my review writing style to shorten it, but I just can’t seem to. Oh well.
All very good things that are good to know. I’ve had a few reviews save me from picking up a hated trope that the blurb didn’t make clear and I’ve had ones convince me to try even if the reviewer wasn’t too keen on the books.
Trigger warnings are great and I also love knowing what kinda tropes there are.
“The best thing about these kinds of reviews are that the very reasons you hated a book could make me want to read it (and vice versa).”
Yep! I can’t stress it enough: sometimes negative reviews can be more useful than positive ones!