Hey, y'all. Today I want to talk reviews. But this isn't your run of the mill post with helpful tips and comparing styles. This is for those reviews that just do not want to be written. You know the ones I'm talking about. You avoid the review by writing ten other blog posts. You get around to reorganizing your closet. You remember that your bookshelves need dusting and straightening. You will do anything to avoid writing
that review. There are tons of different reasons that reviews can be difficult, but I want to talk about two that pop up for me the most.
Books that defy being reviewed. I recently finished
Little Peach by Peggy Kern. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to write a review for it. It affected me so deeply that I had a compelling need to just pour my heart out. But rather quickly I realized that
Little Peach just isn't a book I can review. It is above being reviewed. (In my eyes, at least!) There have been several books like this for me. The only book like this that I attempted at reviewing was
The Fault in Our Stars. But it was less review, more me opening up a part of my heart and listing for
TFiOS affected me. It's cathartic, but scary. And I just don't want to go there again.
Books that are just meh. This type of book is the one I struggle with most because I encounter far more of them. It's easy to write a review whenever you have strong feelings about a book, whether it's love or hate. But what about whenever you're feeling just meh about a book? What do you write? "I finished this book. It was okay. Not too memorable. Meh." Usually I find something about the book to focus on and drum up a review by going down the list of plot, characters, relationships, pace, and setting. But it's hard. Some books really are just meh.
What about you guys?
Do you struggle with reviews?
Have any tips for those of us struggling with certain reviews?
I struggle with reviewing books that I really really really liked. Like when you get so excited about a book and you can't really make full sentences about it. I'm usually just like "so this book was really fantastic, you'll just have to take my word for it!" Another one is when I didn't like a book and I'm not really sure why. I just had that experience with "Spinster"...
ReplyDeleteSomething I've found that I struggle with lately is articulating WHY I liked or disliked a book. When I sit down to write any review, I feel like I can sum it up in a sentence or two: "It was good/great, and you should read it because [thing one], [thing two], and [thing three]. Boom!" But I suppose that really doesn't work, lol. Eventually the words start flowing after I stare at the screen for a while, but getting them to start is a pain!
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