Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why is it so hard to review books I like?

Why is it so difficult to review books I really like?  The reader in me was thrilled to learn that I had won an Advance Readers Copy of Shift (Shade, Book 2) by Jeri Smith-Ready, while the reviewer in me thought "how on earth am I going to write about this?".  My problem is that when I like a book, I want to talk about the book, what happened and how it made me feel, but I don't want to add spoilers to my reviews.  So, I find myself writing and re-writing, editing out and shortening until I don't feel like I've spoiled anything and wondering if I've said enough.  I often feel like I haven't done justice to a book I really enjoyed because I seem to just say that I enjoyed it without really going into why I enjoyed it.  I don't know that my recommendation alone is enough to make someone want to read the book.  I have spent the last few days trying write a review of Shift (Shade, Book 2) that I am comfortable posting.  I am trying to convey how much I enjoyed the book without spoiling it for potential readers, but I find myself discussing plot points and things that a reader might prefer to discover on her own.  I don't want to focus on how the book is written because well-written doesn't necessarily mean enjoyable story, and this book is both.  Anyway, I feel like I've worked out some of my issues here and hope to post a well-written review of Shift (Shade, Book 2) very soon.

1 comment:

  1. I have this problem sometimes too. I have seen some bloggers post a short review with no spoilers. Then they post a discussion post that reallys goes in depth, which obviously does have spoilers. This way you get to have both sides.

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