To Review, or Not to Review?

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly series created by Rukky at Eternity Books and hosted by Aria at Book Nook Bits. The full list of August topics can be found here.

This week’s topic is about reviewing books. I’m curious to see what everyone’s thoughts are!

What makes you want to review or not review a book?

For the most part I want to review books that I enjoyed. When I really love a book and want to share why, that is usually the driving factor for my reviews.

If I dislike a book, I won’t review it. In the past, I didn’t adhere to this and eventually the negativity just became too much. I am very aware of the presence of authors on social media and I hate to think of them stumbling across a bad review that is simply my opinion and not an objective review of the book. Sharing things you didn’t like about a book is one thing, but doing so in a complaining or ranting style is just not something I like doing.

Do you review every book you read?

This may surprise some of you but no, I do not review every book I read. I decided to stop putting that kind of pressure on myself years ago and it has made the entire reading and blogging experience so much more meaningful.

Are some books harder to review than others?

The hardest books to review are the ones I enjoyed the most. This comes up a lot for me since I read so many series, and I genuinely love each one and that always extends to each individual book. It’s hard to find different ways to say “I loved this book” over and over again which is why I like to incorporate excerpts in my reviews so that I can at least try to show readers what I liked so much about that particular book.

Do you review books you disliked?

In the past, I used to do this. Now, I don’t.

If you’ve ever written a ranty review, have you regretted doing so afterwards?

Yes, and those reviews no longer exist on this website or anywhere else. I have found that the key is to only draft a review after finishing a book, and to not publish it. Often my feelings on a book won’t come to fruition until days, weeks or even longer after I’ve finished reading it. I would rather write a substantive review of my thoughts at a later time than to publish something I wrote in the heat of emotion immediately after finishing a book.

Do you delete reviews that are “outdated” or don’t follow what you think of the book now?

If possible, I try to revise the reviews. Otherwise, I will delete them entirely. My goal is to not spread negativity so if the review is mostly negative, I will just delete it and move on. However, I haven’t had to do this too much in the last couple of years after deciding not to review books I didn’t like.

What are your thoughts on reviewing books? Tell me in the comments!