Things to mention in a book review

[Simcha Lazarus]

I recently started writing book reviews for my website and I've been wondering if there are certain opinions that should be left out of a review, even though I feel strongly about them, because I don't see any other reviews doing it.

More specifiably, one of my pet-peeves is when an author uses a particular word or phrase over and over again in a book, to the point where it is distracts me from the story. The thing is, that almost all authors seem to do this but I rarely see anyone mention it in a review.

For example, in one of Kim Harrison's books she kept describing characters faces as going "blank" or "slack." In generally I don't think these are very descriptive words for an expression but the fact that she used them on almost every page drove me to distraction. But I didn't see anyone mention this in any reviews of the book.

I also just read a book where the author kept describing a character as "smirking" even though this expression was not inline with the character that the author had created (imagine Mr. Darcy from Jane Eyre being described as "smirking"). And about half way through the book this word was suddenly being used with a lot more frequency then before. Since this bothered me so much I want to mention it in the review of the book but I was wondering if this would be considered irrelevant to most people and something that I should not bother mentioning despite the fact that I feel strongly about it.

I would appreciate any opinions on the matter from other book reviewers

Thanks,

Simcha

[Lori]

I think the best advice, Simcha, is to be honest but tactful. I try to be honest about my feelings about the book without being disrespectful. I also try to keep in mind that it's my opinion and mine alone - - so while I may think a book is a terrible waste of trees, someone else may think it's the next "Pride and Prejudice".

I picked up a very good tip here about compromising witih reviews - - try to find something good to post. I have found that even when I don't particularly care for a book overall, there is something redeemable or positive and it's always a good idea to mention that.

I do agree with Stacy-Deanne that plot spoilers or twists should never be revealed in a review without warning. I have read several reviews that reveal too much and it's absolutely disappointing to know certain facts before you even open the book!

I do think that if you read a book that had a word tic or something that caused you to be distracted from the story, you should mention it.

Good luck!

[Lilly]

The way I treat my reviews is not really as a professional book review as I am not a book critic, but more as a way to express my personal opinion on a given book, an opinion that comes from a regular book buyer, book lover and a 'reading psycho' (lol!). As such, I will always say what is on my mind without giving in to what others say a review should or should not contain. In the time since I started blogging I have learned that there just so many different opinions, so many different ways of reviewing that it's just impossible to write one that will satisfy everybody. The one thing that you should always keep in mind is honesty. If you feel that there is an overusage of certain phrases or words in a book, you should mention it because there might be this one person who'll read it, notice it and wonder about why you didn't say anything and what other things you might have omitted in other book reviews. And just this one person that might not come back to rely on your review is one person too many IMO.

[Cheryl C. Malandrinos]

You've gotten some great advice Simcha.

I don't know if I would have mentioned those things in a review. It all depends upon how distracting it was to the storyline. In the past I have stated when authors use too many similies, as it truly can slow down the reading. When I recently edited a manuscript for a client, I did make a mention of words I felt came up too often.

As for emailing those types of comments to an author, it would have to be one that I knew fairly well before I would do that. Typically, I review the book and email the author only to send her the direct link from my blog. I rarely engage the author in conversation over challenges I had with the story, mostly to be able to maintain my own objectivity if I review books for the same author in the future; but also because it could backfire. The author could take great offense and then bad things could happen.

I'm glad it all worked out for you.

[Simcha Lazarus]

Cheryl, this is an interesting point you make about not interacting with the authors. I've never really thought about it before because I've always been rather awed by authors whose books I've enjoyed and never tried to reach out to them but now with all of these social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook, I keep running into different authors and interacting with them is a lot easier then I would have expected. But just from the brief time that I have been reviewing books I see that a positive interaction with an author makes me inclined to review their book favorably, so this probably should be something I should try to avoid doing, despite how cool it is to actually get to talk to an author whose books I love.

[Mandy McClanahan]

Also along the lines of the plot spoilers conversation, I've noticed quite a few book bloggers/reviewers who will post complete summaries of the books before they review them. And by complete I mean every little detail. I try really hard not to do that with the novels I review, because as a reader I'm turned off by blogs that do that. I read reviews (and I'm sure other people do this as well) to decide if they want to read the book. If a reviewer tells me every little detail about it, it doesn't matter how good that book is, I now know everything about it ....why should I read it?

I feel that there should be some sort of summary information line that shouldn't be crossed in interviews. But then maybe I'm just an opinionated beginner in the book blogging world.

[Emily]

I noticed this same thing! When I started reviewing books the way I got around accidentally giving too much in the summary is to limit myself to 50 words to describe the book. It's almost a game to try to describe the story and not go over the word limit and also gets me on to the review pretty quickly.

[Emily]

When I write reviews, I write about the things that stand out to me the most. If those things were positive, usually my review of the book tends to be positive. If they were negative, chances are the review will be negative, or at the very least, less positive than it could have been.

My reviews of books are really me writing about my experience reading the book and what the book did or did not do for me as a member of the audience. I feel like each review is a personal thing and reflects how you felt after reading it, so if you read something and the repetitive word usage was what stuck out to you (to use your example) then you should be the one to make the decision of whether or not to include it! I just finished reading and reviewing a book where the violence towards the female characters was so strong that it completely canceled out anything positive that I had to say about the book, so you can bet that that element is pretty strongly featured in my review.

Basically, if you think something should be included, include it! Maybe the reason that something hasn't appeared in any other books is that you're just the first person to pick up on it, in which case you're including something that's going to make your review stand out from the pack.

[Sophie]

As a side note, i am slightly amused by this. I am also laughing because I mention this to my friends all the time and they tell me I am imagining it. There was even one time I stopped reading the book and started scanning the pages to count off how many times the word was mentioned.

But back to your review question. I think if it distracts enough from your reading experience it is worth a mention. Maybe not coming straight out and saying that there was the one word that drove you nuts, but mentioning a tendency, by the author, to repeat him or herself.

[Simcha Lazarus]

Perhaps we should start a group just to can complain about "tics" ( a new word I learned from this site) in books we are reading, to other sympathetic readers. :)

[Cheryl Anne Gardner]

I review for The Podpeople, and I recently did a piece on how to write a review properly. It contains information from John Updike and also the Academic Rules for writing a review. You might find it helpful.

The article was titled Real Life Reviewers but I have several pieces on the art of reviewing. Also In the Wake of Writer/Critic Slapfest 09 And most recently Flogging a Dead Horse

As far as the smirking and things like that. I tend to just mention that the book had editorial issues, sentence structure, repetition, etc. and I say whether or not I, personally, felt they were distracting. I think leaving that sort of thing out is a bad idea. The author needs to know these things in order to improve their craft. I advise all reviewers to be honest and just watch their tone. Everything else that should be in a good review is listed in that first link.

[Sheila DeChantal]

I just read through all the comments and was going to mention a lot of what I see has already been said -

Be tactful and honest in your reviews. You are right, mentioning something that you find to be distracting in a books is not a deal breaker for future readers. I have read blogger reviews on a book where they will mention something about the book that did not appeal to them and I appreciate their honest. If I am truly interested in the book that is not going to stop me from reading it unless it is something offensive that I am thankful they mentioned.

Biggest thing for me - is reviewers dont give away too much! There are book blogs out there that when they review they write too much about what is going on in the book and the results of what happened... giving away parts of the book I would have enjoyed discovering for myself. I will not read reviews like that.

[Books For Sale]

I always mention weird things that bother me. Chances are if a word whisker tickles you its going to irritate other readers as well. ;)