Reviews: To Write or Not to Write

Do you write book reviews?

I ask this of both authors and readers and wonder how different the responses will be.

As a rule, I don’t write reviews unless I am simply blown away by a book and want to share my experience with others. These have, unfortunately, been few and far between.

Oh, I’ve written reviews because I’ve been asked to do it, and I have no problem with that, as long as the person asking understands that it will be my opinion, good or bad. But reviews that come spontaneously from me are usually few and far between.

Usually, if I write a review, it’s 3 stars or above. Mostly because I know reading is such a subjective business. Just because I didn’t like it won’t mean that you won’t. (Of course, just because I did like it won’t mean you will either, but I don’t mind putting the positive out there.)

I began to realize that my perception of things (like books and movies) was not in sync with the rest of the critics when, years ago, I read a review of the movie Jewel of the Nile that praised it up and down while I thought the movie so much worse than Romancing the Stone. Time and again I’ve loved a book or a movie only to find it panned by the critics, or absolutely hated one only to find it had accolades out the wazoo.

So now I tend to keep my opinions to myself, except as I said, for those rare occasions when the book just overwhelms me, like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander or Stephen King’s 11/22/63. And if I don’t write actual reviews of the books, I do tell people about them and describe, usually very passionately, why they should read the book.

Now, how about you? Do you tend to write reviews or not, and why? There seem to be a lot of them floating around on Amazon and Goodreads, so someone’s writing them. Is it you?

Filed under: Book Reviews, Jenna Jaxon