Jenni Elyse

I’ve seen so many different book review styles across the blogosphere, especially within the book blogosphere. In trying to nail down my own style, I’ve often wondered what makes a good book review.

There are so many things to consider when writing a book review. First, what do you include in your book review? Do you include book publication information? Do people really care about that stuff? Do you include spoilers? I find it’s hard to say what I really think when I skirt around the major points of the book. Do you include a synopsis, either in your own words or from the dust jacket or back of the book? Do you talk about the prose and how good/bad it is? Or, do you just concentrate on the feelings you had when you read the book? Or, is it a mixture?

My style has morphed a lot in the past 4.5 years. I wrote my first official book review on this blog in October 2007. It was the hardest review I’ve ever written. I had no idea what to say or include. At first, I wanted to include a synopsis in my own words, but I didn’t like it. You can get the synopsis from the back of the book and I felt like I was reinventing the wheel. I settled on a few of my discoveries when I looked up concepts from the story on the Internet. I also included a small, very small, paragraph about my experience reading the book. The differences between that first review and my latest one are night and day. After a fair warning, I included a lot of spoilers because it was the only way I felt I could discuss my feelings about that particular book. The review is bordering on novel length (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it is quite long). And, I almost feel like I rambled incoherently, even though I tried to organize my thoughts as well as I could.

Which review is better? Honestly, I don’t know. I’m struggling with what is good and what is bad. I want my reviews to do the books I read justice. I want them to inspire others to read the books. I also don’t want to bore my readers to tears. And, I want to write what I want to write. Is there a good balance?

There are a lot of sites that talk about writing book reviews. Most of them are for college classes. And, of course, that involves looking at symbolism, imagery, prose, setting, and analysis. Frankly, I don’t care about any of that stuff when I read a book, except for a select few (e.g. East of Eden, Night, Diary of a Young Girl). I just want to read for the enjoyment of it not really to be enlightened. And, maybe, that’s my problem. Maybe, I need to read more stimulating material. Or, maybe, I need to look at the books I do read more harshly and actually analyze the prose, symbolism, imagery, setting, etc. and use examples from the book to help support my analysis. Or, maybe, I’m thinking too hard and making this harder than it needs to be. Maybe, I just need to quit worrying about how good my reviews are and just write what I think, like I do now, no matter how long or short my reviews are.

What do you think? Do you struggle with this in your own reviews? If so, how do you combat it? If not, why do you think you don’t struggle?