I review books once a week, usually on Mondays. I’m getting more consistent with my blogging, and I love it. But reviewing books are tough.
I have a review policies page, and I usually loosely follow that when I type up each of my reviews. Sometimes, if the book was okay (not bad, but not extremely good), I’ll sit down and write a list of pros and cons about the book, but that really doesn’t happen often.
The thing is, I feel like I say THE SAME THING every time I post a review. “I really related to this character…” “There was just enough romance in this one…” “The ending took me by surprise…” Sound familiar? So here’s the truth: I kind of dread writing a review.
I’m not going to stop posting reviews. That’s one of the #1 reasons for For the Bookish. But every time I write one, I feel like I should just copy and past my last review and put in the right characters’ and authors’ names.
What do you think? Do my reviews feel repetitive? Do you notice some of the same lines from other book reviewers? Do you have any ideas?? And book bloggers: how do YOU review a book?
P.S. Sorry this is a bit of a short post! Hopefully I’ll make up for it soon. Look out for my next review on Monday, and tell me if it sounds like other reviews!
P.P.S. Are you ready for the winner of the giveaway?? 😀 I drew at random this morning, and this winner is… H.M. Wilson! I’ll be contacting you soon about the gift card, Hannah! =)
I enjoy writing reviews. They’re not my favorite oddly enough, but I enjoy it. Using more gifs helps to entertain your readers and yourself, it’s fun to go out on a look out for the perfect gif(s) for your post.
Oh and how and when will you announce the winner for your giveaway? Its been a looong 10 day wait! 😉
Yeah. I need to do more GIF’s. Sometimes I don’t know how if I’m using too many GIF’s or not enough, and I don’t want them to look cluttered. :/
I just drew the winner!! Haha, has it felt like 10 days?? Only 7! 😀 I edited this post and announced the winner. 😉
haha yes it has felt like 10 days! 😛 btw, did you see heather vogel frederick’s new post on mdbc?? its so exciting!
I get what you mean. You can tell by my blog that I have a couple of book reviews, but not many. I’m hoping to get more done too.
I read your email, and I think that’s a good idea.
Great! 🙂 I’m emailing you back!
Hey Emily, I’ve only read about three of your reviews, but I totally understand where you’re coming from.
I don’t write book reviews often, but I suggest to first give a brief summary (if you have difficulty writing one, look up a summary of it online and utilize that to construct your own). Then talk about characters: I suggest choosing primarily the two most important in the story…give some brief background of each. You can still say you can relate to them if you’d like, but try digging deeper this time. What qualities made you dislike/like this character? Do these qualities reflect your own? Stuff like that 😛 Maybe talk about the elements of realism in the plot: did this certain scene make it more realistic? GIFs can totally help lol, but they don’t always provide an in depth review, if that’s what you’re aiming for. I hope I helped somehow (that’s just how I would review a book…I actually have a review here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FMXysNG1HlezgYtVrbhExB9LKFnWLW5-hd1Aw4Vv2vQ/edit?usp=sharing
It doesn’t go everything I said, but it’s how I reviewed a REALLY good book xD
I’ve found that some of the things that I say in my reviews do tend to get a bit repetitive because there are set things that I love to see in a book, so it’s natural that I mention them over and over again. I’ve found that talking about specific examples in the story really helps to individualize my reviews, and I actually think you do a pretty great job with that. I know some bloggers also occasionally write reviews in different formats, so that might help shake things up a bit.
Oh, thank you so much!! I’ll have to let you know which book I pick out with the card… Thank you so much!! <3
You’re so, so welcome!! I can’t wait! 🙂
I find that I don’t really look forward to writing standard reviews. Sometimes reviews are really easy to write, and come naturally – like books I have really strong opinions on – but most are really difficult to write, especially if I loved a book! I try to mix up my reviews with discussion posts, but I wouldn’t say that review posts are my strong points either!
Beth x
Same here. I totally get what you mean about reviews actually being harder to write when you loved them. I’ve found I more want to fangirl about them than do a practical review for people who have no idea if they even want to read the book yet! 🙂
I have been struggling with this problem too. A lot of the time, I have trouble expressing how I feel about a book without using cliches or other 0ver-used comparisons.
To try and combat my growing sense of reviewing blues, I have been trying a couple of new things.
I have been trying to incorporate quotes from the book into my reviews, because they are always completely unique to that book.
I have been thinking about trying a mini-review feature to avoid repetition. I also want to try co-reviewing books with my co-bloggers and maybe other book bloggers.
Great discussion!
Yep. You took the words right out my mouth.
I have incorporated some quotes from the books to emphasize things I like about it it, too. I’ve only done one or two mini reviews, but I really ought to do both of those things more often. I haven’t thought about them! Thanks for the tips!
OMG, co-reviewing sounds like a FANTASTIC idea. I’d love to do something like that. 😀