How do you write a book review for a genre you don't usually read/like?

[Ashley]

The 2015 Reading Challenge has lead me to start reading books outside of my "comfort genre". I'm curious. How do you write a review for a book in a genre that you either have never read before? How do you write a review for a book in a genre when you hate the genre?

For example, say you read a book in a genre you don't like. You don't like the book because you don't like the genre. Do you give the book an extra star because of your dislike for the genre? Or do you keep your scoring because, whether or not you like the genre, you still didn't like the book?

I'm curious on how the community handles this!

[Emily]

There aren't many genres that I don't like, but if I'm reading a book that isn't quite "my cup of tea", I'll rate it how I feel - give it a low rating if that's how I feel about it - but when I'm writing my review, I'll take into consideration that the things I didn't like about it might be genre-related. For example, when I reviewed The Collector of Dying Breaths: A Novel of Suspense on my blog, I wrote that I didn't like that the romance aspect of the book was so much more prevalent than the science fiction/fantasy element, which I thought was going to be the bigger part. I said that a fan of romance novels might like this one a little more than I did. I still said what I did like about it, but I was honest about what I didn't. If you're worried about giving something a low rating, just add a few words in a review about why you rated it low. Something like "I didn't really like it, but only because it was heavy on the romance, and I'm not a fan of romance-heavy stories." That makes it clear and people can judge whether they want to read it based on that, not just based on the star rating.

[Megan]

I generally rate it stars wise how I actually feel about it. In my actual review I generally write a disclaimer at the beginning saying 'I'm not generally a fan of _____ books, others who are may like this more than me.' Then I try to go through it I guess a little more technically. I look at the characters and their relationships, were they flat or did they seem filled in and interesting? I look at the story line, did it drag drastically somewhere? etc.

I try to stay away from things like 'I didn't like Edward because he was a vampire.' or 'I didn't like that it was set in space' and other things that will be obvious to the reader of your review when you say 'I don't normally like _____ books.' Whereas if I did like that genre I might comment on those sort of little personal preference details and compare them to other stories that are similar.

[Tanya]

Regardless of the genre, I rate this way:
1: I didn't like it,, but I finished it
2: it was okay
3: I liked it
4: I really liked it
5: I loved it

If a book is in a genre I love, I don't give extra stars for that simply because it is part of that genre--so I would not add them for books I don't like because they are a part of a genre I don't really read either. Even within a genre I like or love, there can be books that are poorly written which are too predictable or have characters too cliche or too underdeveloped, etc. So I appreciate reviews that describe *why* the book was either rated high or low. It could have even just been that a story reflected someone's own experience or triggered a memory and so that made it yield a certain ranking.

I don't find it valuable to have reviews without some commentary, but I have some of my own because it is usually a book I read in my youth and can't remember any details, just a feeling I had after completing the book. It would be helpful to others even if I just went back to those and made that comment, I realize, but most of the books that have no commentary from me were reviewed when I was completing a book comparison with another person's shelves. In that case, they are just many rapid impressions and I usually haven't a lot of free time to go back to provide detail. I could make time---but like most on this site, I would rather be reading.