Quote:
Originally Posted by NickyWithNook
My sister told me she only reviews if she likes the books, and I told her to reconsider that because if people does that it could skew the reviews. I hope people review books they like and books they don't like. I'm not good at reviewing at B&N or Amazon, but I do review just about everything on Goodreads.
I am more interested in what people say in their reviews than how many stars they give. A 5 star review saying it's just the kind of book I hate makes me move on. A 1 star review saying someone hated it because of something I like in a book makes me curious about it.
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Aside from the Vine choices, I don't review everything I read or purchase from Amazon simply due to lack of time. I tend to review in batches and will review things I liked and things I didn't like. I think it's important to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of whatever I'm reviewing.
I don't profess to be any type of professional reviewer, so my reviews tend to reflect my tastes and opinions, without the underlying assumption that everyone else should share them
. I may not necessarily focus on aspects of the story or item that other reviewers focus on. I try to ground my reviews of products in reality - do they function, are they really useful, can you actually find room in your home to store it, things like that. With toys and DVD's, I'll talk about how long it held the attention of my test kidlets, whether it survived their attentions, it's re-playability and adaptability to other purposes derived by their imaginations, etc.
If no one has actually summarized the plot of the book or if the Amazon description is skimpy, I'll try to give more information so people can get a better sense if the book will appeal to them. I'll mention whether or not the book held my attention consistently. If the storyline is too linear, if the characters are well-or-poorly developed, if secondary/tertiary characters add or detract to the story, if the author's style is too flowery or the word count has been inflated by the obvious use of a thesaurus, if sex or battle scenes are realistic or not (not to mention whether or not they add anything to the storyline) - those are all areas I try to touch upon when writing up a review. If it's a fantasy/scifi book, I say whether or not I lost myself in the universe the author created. If it's a romance book, whether or not the characters are real or stereotypes, or merely TSTL (too stupid to live). If it's a mystery, whether or not the author managed to pull off the whodunit without me figuring it out too early. For non-fiction, my main concern is readability: is it written for the lay reader who has an interest in the topic, or does it require an advanced degree to understand?
Basically, I try to provide the type of information I look to reviews for, information that will help me decide if the item will suit my tastes or needs. Others have helped me made decisions with their reviews, so I try to do the same.
