An Interview with the Most Popular Reviewer on Goodreads

Since joining Goodreads seven years ago, Emily May has amassed more than 80,000 Goodreads followers and has written 1,300 book reviews and counting—making her the most-popular reviewer on the site. She loves reading across all genres and completes an average of 200 books per year. Originally from Yorkshire, England, she currently lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a freelance editor and beta-reader, giving publishers feedback on soon-to-be-released novels.

Goodreads chatted with May to get her advice on writing book reviews, upcoming trends she's seeing in the book industry, and her top 10 favorite books of 2017.

Goodreads: Why is reading important to you? What books got you hooked on reading?

Emily May: I don't remember ever not reading. Like most bookworms, I was a deeply shy and quiet child who preferred to keep to myself and live in books instead of the real world. Reading was, and still is, all kinds of things to me—an escape, an adventure, and entertainment.

The earliest books I remember reading were everything by Roald Dahl, [R.L.] Stine's Goosebumps series, and C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I still get a sense of that early excitement and wonder I felt every time I think of Lucy stepping through a plain old wardrobe in a house and discovering a whole magical world—that has always seemed like a metaphor for reading itself. Later I found that metaphor again in the Harry Potter series as well as others. Both Harry Potter and Lucy Pevensie cast off the mundane life they've always known and step into a world of magic where anything is possible—isn't that what happens every time we get lost in a good book?

GR: What inspired you to become a book reviewer? How did you get started?

EM: When I started writing reviews, I didn't consider myself a book reviewer at all. I was still a teenager, feeling—as a lot of teenagers do—constantly out of place and awkward in myself. I stumbled across Goodreads one day, and it offered exactly what I didn't know I'd been looking for—somewhere I could go where people genuinely loved reading and talking about books. There was no uncool on Goodreads. I could make hyperbolic statements like "I am dying for the next book" or "if this character 'chuckles darkly' one more time, I'm going to throw this book in the fireplace" (yes, I'm dramatic), and other Goodreads members would get it and share encouraging GIFs.

I made friends all across the globe, we gave each other "likes" and comments, and I stuck around. It was that simple, really. I'm still not sure I consider myself a book reviewer. As far as I'm concerned, I'm still that same weird girl talking about books with other book lovers.

GR: What's your process for writing book reviews? How much time do you spend on them? How do you define your star rating?

EM: With most books, I make notes and highlights (on Kindle) while I'm reading. Time permitting, I like to start writing a review immediately after finishing the book while everything is still fresh in my mind. It takes me approximately 30 minutes to an hour to write a review, usually depending on how passionate I felt about it. The hardest are the 3-star books because I have to somehow communicate "I liked it, but I didn't like it that much."

I typically try to follow the Goodreads star ratings—"did not like it" (1 star), "it was OK" (2 stars), "liked it" (3 stars), "really liked it" (4 stars), and "it was amazing" (5 stars). I especially like this rating system because the use of "liked" and "did not like" emphasizes that the rating is a personal opinion, not so much a statement about the quality of the book. I am one of those readers who believes all reading experiences, all experiences with art, in fact, are about perspective and interpretation. I don't believe I am in a position to make a universal statement about how good a book is; I can only say what I liked or didn't like about it, and why, and maybe some people will relate to that and find it useful.

GR: What do you hope your followers will gain from your reviews?

EM: I've actually had to school myself not to be too obsessed with what my followers, or anyone on the internet, wants from me and my reviews. Constantly worrying about how others will see me, especially when those others number in the thousands or tens of thousands, is the fastest way to bring on the anxiety. But, put simply, I hope people find books they love. I don't care if that's because they read a book I reviewed positively or if they saw something they personally enjoy in a negative review I wrote. It is not too much to say that books can inspire us, change us, even save us at times, and I hope everyone finds the book that they need.

GR: What advice would you give to a book lover who might be a little shy about writing a review?

EM: I would tell them to first and foremost write for themselves. Approach every review from the standpoint of "how did this book make me feel?" and try not to worry too much about what other readers will think. When you start to review yourself, and scrutinize every word you put down, it becomes impossible. There will always be someone with a different opinion from you. It's a cliché, but true: You really cannot please everybody. So stop trying (maybe one day I will take this advice, too). And if you feel like you're the only person in the world who liked or didn't like a particular book—I guarantee, you are not. There's a whole bunch of people out there, like you, who have or haven't connected with a book for whatever reason, and your review could be exactly what they need to hear to feel like they're not alone.

GR: What books do you find yourself recommending the most?

EM: To be honest, I actually think I'm pretty good at recommending books specific to the individual asking. There have been many books I haven't enjoyed but have passed along to my mum, dad, or a friend because I know it's more their thing.

Just in general, though, I take great pleasure in recommending authors I perceive to be underappreciated; for example, Marcus Sedgwick, Abigail Haas, Jodi Lynn Anderson, Kathleen Duey, and Melina Marchetta. Some other authors I recommend a lot are Tana French (for mystery and thriller fans), Neil Gaiman and N.K. Jemisin (for fantasy fans), Courtney Summers (for YA contemporary fans), Roxane Gay (for fans of short stories), and Margaret Atwood (for literary fiction fans).

GR: Are there any interesting book trends you've noticed in 2017? Do you have any predictions about trends in 2018?

EM: Absolutely, but I don't think I have anything particularly enlightening to reveal. YA has moved away from all the fairy tale retellings and is now becoming all about superheroes. It's been slowly building for a while with [Brandon] Sanderson's The Reckoners series and [G. Willow Wilson's] Ms. Marvel graphic novels, but now, this year, we've already seen [Leigh] Bardugo's Wonder Woman: Warbringer and [Marissa] Meyer's Renegades. Also of note is the lesser known Dreadnought by April Daniels that has a transgender superheroine. Next year the buzz will undoubtedly surround [Marie] Lu's Batman: Nightwalker and [Sarah J.] Maas' Catwoman: Soul Stealer, too. With such major authors all writing in the superhero genre, I would be surprised if many others didn't follow suit shortly after.

There's also been a huge increase in diverse books published by major companies since the start of the We Need Diverse Books campaign. 2017 has been the year where I've really seen the difference the movement has made. It's so wonderful to finally be able to go to the new YA releases and find characters of all skin colors, sexualities, and gender identities, plus characters with physical disabilities or mental illnesses. I had very few diverse books growing up; I am thankful my kids will have more.

GR: What were your top 10 reads of 2017 and why? What impressions did they leave on you?