I seem to have gone on an email newsletter subscribing craze. I blame J.T. Oldfield’s incredibly entertaining newsletter, ‘This Week at Bibliofreak’. In the latest edition, Cara from Ooh…Books! wrote a great guest post on the absence of negative reviews in book blogs.

I’ve been meaning to do a post on what it means to write a good review, and Cara articulated almost exactly what my thoughts have been on the lack of negative book reviews in the blogosphere. (For those of you who haven’t read this yet, I’ll quickly summarise).

Negative reviews

Cara suggests that book bloggers deliberately skip reviewing a book they don’t like in order to stunt its growth in the online search environment.

The idea that people would do this astounds and frightens me. To dislike a book so intensely that you want to actively block its presence online? You must really think a lot of your blog if you think that simply refusing to mention a book would have any impact on its overall success. Sure, book blogs are incredibly influential in the global online community but really, unless you were a major book blog with thousands of unique daily visitors, I somehow doubt the effectiveness of such a plan.

Cara also makes an excellent point on the importance of negative reviews on books that have received a lot of hype. While I try (in vain) to avoid these books altogether, I enjoy reading negative reviews better than overwhelmingly glowing ones. Reviews that are critical and don’t simply read as a press release for an author tend to be more honest and, well, to put it bluntly, well-written. This is not a hard and fast rule, just something I’ve observed over time.

What makes a good review

Everyone has their own opinion about this. Our taste in reviews is as varied as our personal reading tastes. I don’t think my personal tastes represent anyone else’s but my own, and having had discussions about this in the blogosphere, this is what I look for:

It must be a well-written review.

Have you written something that you are proud of? Book reviewers obviously love books. We surround ourselves with the greatest writers the world has to offer on a daily basis. So when it comes to discussing what you liked or didn’t like, it’s only fair to yourself and the book being reviewed, that you’ve put some thought into it. I’m not a big fan of reviews that simply cut and paste the blurb, followed by “I liked the part where” and “I didn’t like how”. To me, this just isn’t thoughtful writing. Reviews need to appear to hold a bit of weight behind them and overuse of the first person dilutes this.

Work out your intention and stick to it

Matt from A Guy’s Moleskine Notebook is one blogger whose reviews I enjoy reading. They delve a little in literary criticism but still offer a clear picture of what the book is about, through his own reading experience. Other book reviewers maintain they do it as hobby, and aren’t particularly focused on the ‘writing aspect’, but would rather just talk about how the book made them feel. That’s fine too.

Show, don’t tell

A not-so-recent discussion over at J. Kaye’s Book Blog looked at whether or not it’s appropriate to use a book review formula. I have general rules for myself rather than a strict formula, the main one being ’show don’t tell’. It’s through writing about the book that readers will be aware what you liked/didn’t like. If you comment on how the technical aspects of the writing convey emotion and mood, you’re showing that this is something you value in books. If your review focuses more on the plot, then it will be clear that a compelling plot is important to you. I’m so sure I had this discussion on J. Kaye’s post, but my comments seem to have disappeared into one of those internet black holes. Weird.

Find your voice and keep it

A friend of mine once pointed out that my reviews tend to reflect the style of book I happen to be writing about. My brother found my review of The Secret History by Donna Tartt incredibly boring, mainly because it’s not a book he would ever read in a million years (his loss, right?). Rereading my review, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and contradicted much of what’s been said in this post.

But the more we write, the more our own voices emerge. This is true of creative writing as well as book reviewing. J.T. Oldfield is one book blogger who I think has established a very unique -not to mention hilarious- voice. Angela Meyer of Literary Minded is another whose voice and personality is entertaining and relatable. I must admit this is something I’m still working on. If someone asked me to describe my review ‘voice’ I would probably stare at them dumbly. I do that a lot.

I have much more to say on this topic, it seems a Part Deux is in order. I’ll leave you with a few more bloggers whose voices (and writing talent) keep me coming back for more:

Sam Cooney @ Not Dark Yet

Lorelei @ Lorelei V

Ryan Paine @ Socratic Ignorance Is Bliss

Estelle @ 3000 Books

Phill @ Toothsoup