7 ways to write a review // how I write my reviews.

If you’re scrolling Goodreads or blogs, you’re gonna come across loads ofdifferent review styles. They’re all different, and we all like writing a review differently. Book reviews are a HUGE PART of being a book blogger (but arguably not necessary since there are so many different posts that you can do???) I think that in the first stages of writing a book review (as in your first review) the thought can be kind of daunting. I know that it was for me!

I know that some bloggers absolutely hate writing reviews, especially on their blog, as they don’t gain much attention and they take A GENUINE AGE TO WRITE SOMETIMES. And sometimes, you just sit there thinking “WHAT THE HECK DO I SAY??” even though you liked the book just fine. But on the other hand, some people LOVE to write reviews. I basically relate to the entire paragraph. I mean right now I’m just putting off writing this review BECAUSE WHAT DO I SAY??

I try mixing up mini reviews and longer reviews, however I feel that mini reviews restrict me to talking in as much depth as I like (LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF A MINI REVIEW). Thing is, with reviews, I have the need to justify ALL MY OPINIONS and just shout at people why the book was good or not.

I’ve accumulated this list in order so that 1) you guys can have new ways to write reviews and 2) SO THAT I CAN JUST MAKE MY REVIEWS MORE INTERESTING.

1) Simple likes and dislikes.

Obviously probably the most straight forward.

This is where you can simply write 2 lists, and explain why you did, or didn’t like it. I usually incorporate a “likes list” into a review somewhere, as i think it’s really great for an overview of the entire review. However, I’ve seen plenty of reviews that are just the list, and i think that they’re really nice to read because 1) they’re easy to read 2) no big intimidating paragraphs??? 

Great because:

1. Good vs bad is clearly separated, meaning that your thoughts are CLEAR to the reader.

Could be bad because you might end up just writing a HUGE paragraph for both *cries*

2) Break it down! (by-section) review

Giving paragraphs assigned to an aspect of the book. For example, “world building” or “characters” I used to use this format when I first started writing my reviews, so if you look into the dark abyss that is the start of this blog you’ll find a lot of very caterorised reviews.

Reasons why they’re good:

1. They’re organised.
2. Easy to know what you’re talking about.
3. Gets all your thoughts down, less space to miss things out.
4. Good for finding out how you like to go your reviews. I used to write these kind of reviews and then i sort of just got into the flow of how I write reviews.

Not so great reasons:

1. I feel like when I use this style I’m really tempted to just write one long paragraph which is just. NOT. appealing to the reader.
2. I think that sometimes the free-flowing style allows you to talk more fluidly about the book and the set topic can sometimes seem a bit too blocky??? And I feel that it makes my review just a bit more, idk, c’est la vie, like here are my thoughts, think through them because I’m too lazy to separate the good and bad. I like it CASUAL, OKAY? <– this is literally the essence of my blog.

3) Bullet point list

Really simple, just a little list. I think that these are GREAT for mini reviews and give a really simple, easy to read review of the book!

Be careful though, don’t make each bullet point about 327645 lines long as it kinda defeats the purpose of the list!

4) Divided into spoiler and non-spoiler sections

If you’re gonna include spoilers, or revealing things about previous books in the series, PLEASE JUST SAY!!!!!!! Like I’d really appreciate a huge ol’ banner saying: “SPOILERS AHEAD!!” because, mate, if you ruin a book for me, I’m gonna be annoyed. For like 48563789 years.

5) A GIF- filled review

I went through a phase where I used a lot of gifs. For example, my dream thieves review. I think that they can make a review really fun to read and really divide up the text and make it seem more inviting to read.

Howeverrrrrrrrr, I think that it’s really easy to get carried away with gifs and include too many (I’VE DEFINITELY DONE THIS) and I just can’t handle it sometimes.

6) x-reasons-why-you-should-read- this-book review

I love these positive review styles. When I absolutely loveeeee a book, I just want to chuck* the book at everyone I see. I think that they’re soooo goood for getting reasons why THAT. BOOK. IS. AWESOME. Out there and HEY. REVIEWS ARE THERE TO GET OTHERS TO READ THEM, AREN’T THEY???**

*lightly — wouldn’t want to hurt the book now, would I? **yes.

7) All the above but miniature.

I think that these are GREAT when you have multiple reviews and want to publish them on your blog, not just Goodreads. I think that a post with multiple mini reviews is a really cute idea.

However, as I mentioned a bit above, I find it really difficult to justify myself fully in a mini review and I personally feel that my mini reviews feel a bit unfinished??? AND IT BOTHERS ME A BIT.

Like DKFHGBD it’s 23k word reviews OR NOTHING MATE.

ME @ me publishing a mini review.

Despite having just listed all these ways to write a review, I kinda follow none of them?? AND THAT’S FINE!!* And, not to toot my own French horn, but people actually compliment my review style?? I KNOW, CRAZY OR WHAT??

So here is my review style:

What I do, is I form a list, then I expand.

As I read, I start making the list. For example:

• OHMIGOSH THIS CHARACTER. I LOVE HIM.
• The world building. . . hmmm like it’s not very good atm.
• 1/2 WAY THROUGH: OH MY THE WORLD BUILDING IS SO MUCH BETTER I LOVE THIS SM.
• THE PACE!! MY SNAIL-NESS CAN’T KEEP UP!! THIS IS BRILLIANT!!

Or something like this:

This actually saves SO MUCH time at the end, because you have all the basic ideas there already!! Okay, this is full of spelling errors (eg. “lathe” instead of “loathe”), and text talk (eg. “ppl”) , and genuine gibberish,  but once you expand it, it just makes sense, or, for me it does.

*or so I will keep telling myself.

Why this works well for me:

1. It’s lazy. . . BUT WORKS?
2. I miss less things out, obvious right?
3. I get all my opinions from my whole reading journey –> CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY OPINIONS. –> I need to rant about the book as I read it and THIS IS PERFECT!! (at least it’s better than angsty tweets at 4am. . .
4. Saves time when writing the review since you do half the work before you even sit down to write the review.
5. You don’t get the “HBGJLDHBG WHERE DO I START???” panic.
6. Because you’re writing it as you go along, the points are already in a logicalish format and then all you need to do is maybe switch around 2 or 3 paragraphs and you’re done (well. . . then you can expand on them and make it readable!)

 

Do YOU like writing reviews? Did you find this useful? How do you write your reviews? What format do you prefer? Do you sort of mix them together like I do? Let me know! Was seeing my review style / plan helpful? Discuss with me in the comments!! 

Luuuu