To Review or Not to Review?: The Book Obsessed Chicks Question

Years ago when review blogs started to appear, those bloggers worked very hard to make sure that they were doing reviews up to industry standards. Proper grammar, format and fair rating was a must for reviewers and publishers as well as authors took notice. Nowadays everyone thinks they can be a reviewer, but can they really?

As a reviewer since 2008, I try as hard as I can to not only write a fair review, but also rate that book according to what was written. Scrolling through reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, I find a stark difference in the written word of the review and the starring. Some reviewers do not understand that if they give a glowing review, they really need to star that review accordingly. If a book is praised highly but starred low, this not a good thing. Starring is what really counts when it comes to the charts, and some don’t realize that they can make or break an author’s release with their choices.

Now I am not saying that a reviewer has to review everything a five, but if you loved it, then do so. On the other end of the spectrum, say that you simply didn’t enjoy the story, or you had to DNF a book for personal reasons, starring that book a two or below is really doing a disservice to the author. I lead a review team and one of the rules I have is that if you really felt that the book was below a three star, you need to tell me why, but move on instead of reviewing that book, because honestly, reviews are relative and just because I loved or hated a particular book, doesn’t mean that everyone feels the same way.

Reviews don’t have to be miles long, they can be just a few meaningful sentences is all that is needed. Now this is my personal view, but I really dislike reviews with gifs. Come on, write a good review, leave the gifs to the kids. If you want to become a respected reviewer, write a good review that comes from the heart. I especially turn my nose up at these reviews with gifs and snarky remarks that are meant to cause a stir for all the wrong reasons. These reviewers are, in my opinion, are trolls and shouldn’t even be called reviewers. Most of these trolls don’t use real names or a real photo on their accounts and I do believe that if you are going to troll an author about a book or on the other end, praise a book, you need to put YOUR name and face to that review. Being honest goes much farther and it gets you respected by all in the industry.

~KIMBERLY~