As you might have noticed, It’s a little bit quiet here regarding reviews. Lately, I barely finished a book (okay I did, but they are not available in English) or I couldn’t find the words for a review. So, I thought it would be interesting to give a little peak behind the scenes in my reviewing process. I know I know, I’m struglling with reviewing lately and finding the right format, but I enjoy reading these types of posts myself and I actually learn something from them. So, here’s my reviewing process and I hope you can learn something from it even though it’s not set in stone.

How do I rate my books?

Well, I use the 1-5 star rating system. I don’t hesitate to also give half-stars, because sometimes that’s necessary. Here’s my rating table:

• 0 stars: No rating, DNF
• 1 star: Really bad
• 2 stars: Okay
• 3 stars: Enjoyable, I’ve had a nice time reading this book but it won’t stick with me
• 4 stars: Good, I had a great time reading this book but it’s not a new favorite
• 5 stars: Amazing, I think I probably found a new favorite

Books I DNF logically won’t get a rating and review. I don’t think it’s fair to the book and author to rate/review a book you haven’t even finished. I briefly mention these books in my monthly wrap up though.

What makes me DNF a book?

I DNF a book for several reasons. Mostly it has to do with the writing style or that I’m not getting into the story at all. One of the most recent examples of the writing style not working for me is Pageboy by Elliot Page. The story is an important one to tell, that’s for sure, but the writing was not working for me at all. It felt kind of all over the place and after 40% I just gave up because I didn’t know what I was reading. A recent DNF because of the story not speaking to me was I Fell in Love with hope by Lancadi. I already knew the plot twist when I hit the 10% mark and was so incredibly disappointed as I wanted something heartwrenching. Actually this was a mix of both story and writing, because the writing was way too Tiktok and quotable for me. The dialogues were not common people comversations, it was all quotes that could be on platforms such as Tiktok. So, after 15% it was time to move on.

Another reason to DNF a book is the timing. Sometimes, a certain book doesn’t work at a certain moment. This happened to me with Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman. I read it at first in 2020, when the Covid pandemic was in full swing. I didn’t get far into the book before putting it aside. It tookme till this spring to pick it up and now I really enjoyed it.

And then, it’s time to review

Whenever I finished a book and gave it a star rating, I contemplate whether I want to review it on the blog or not. According to me, a review needs to contain a few key elements and I always look for those when reading reviews as well. I always ask myself some questions and they help me when writing my review. These questions are the ones I use and therefore are examples.

• I’m always curious for the expectations beforehend, what did you expect from a book and did this book meet your expectations?
• Characters. I would like to know more about the characters and their development/behaviour. What do you think of them? Are they excecuted well or not? If you’re up to it, you could also mention your most and least favorite character. And in the case of a romance, how is the chemistry between the characters/love interests?
• Writing style. How did it work for you? Are there alternating/multiple POVs and how is their excecution (e.g. switch)? Did the book read smoothly for you or have you been struggling?
• Plot. This is probably one of the most important elements of a book. How was the plot for you? Was it interesting or not? Or, is the book character driven and is the plot there to support the character development? This is something you often see in contemporary novels and then the character development is way more important to me than the plot. Did the plot intrigue you or was it incredibly boring?
• Conclusion. In this concluding paragraph, I often summarize what I’ve said in my review, but I don’t mention my actual rating. You can find this in the top section of my review, right after the synopsis of the book. In this conclusion, I also mention whether I enjoyed reading said book or not.
• Book information. In this section, I put all the book details. Title, author, translator (if there is one), series, series position, publish date, publisher, ISBN, number of pages and genre. I put the original blurb right after this section, foolowed by my star rating. In official reviews, you have to summarise the blurb in your own words instead of copy-pasting the original one on the book page. However, I don’t mind that on a blog. We all have busy lifes and blogging is a hobby, so it should stay fun. It’s already hard enough balancing blogging and life so why shouldn’t you take it easy when reviewing? I therefore choose to put the book information straight after my introductory paragraph, so the review has a logical structure. Sometimes I repeat something from the blurb in my own words, but I link it to my thoughts on elements such as characters, writing style and plot.

Do’s and don’ts

Last but not least, there are some more do’s and don’ts you have to keep in mind when reviewing. See this as unwritten reviewing etiquette.

• Never, never, never and again NEVER put spoilers in your review! This is absolutely not done. Your readers probably won’t be reading the book you’re reviewing (or even your future reviews) once they catch a spoiler. Are you reviewing series or certain books in series? Always give a spoiler warning, because you’re unable to avoid spoilers for the previous books in the series as they are often in the blurb already.
• Always be respectful to book, author, publisher and – in case of audiobooks – narrator. Of course you can’t like everything in a book, there could be something you didn’t enjoy. You can mention that – actually need to mention it -, But never bring the author/publisher/narrator down. Getting a book published is already tough enough. Also, you wouldn’t like it if this happens to you right?
• Do you review books on Instagram or other social media platforms (as well) and is it time for a negative review? Please don’t tag the author/publisher in your post. Never.
• Stay close to yourself and definitely stay truthful. Is said book a huge hype but you didn’t enjoy it in the slightest? Don’t hesitate to tell us and write that negative review. If you highly praise it while you actually dislike it, we know. We know by reading your review and your tone of voice in said review. Don’t praise the book because it’s hype, you loose your credibility and people start to distrust your reviews.
• Personally, I like to read casually written reviews. The more formal the language, the more stiff it feels to me and the more likely I won’t be reading your review. For instance, a formally written review for a YA book doesn’t fit in my opinion. The target audience for YA book reviews are younger readers and you chase them away with a review full of formal language. However, it suits reviews for really formal books though. However, I don’t do this myself as I don’t read this type of books either. Of course, the official reviews are there to be formally written. Please let me stay chatty and casual, that suits me way better. However, I have to learn to re-apply this attitude still since I’ve written formal reviews for about 1.5 years. But, I’m working on this eventually. I enjoy reading chatty reviews as well, so why not writing them myself?
• Don’t you really know what to say about a book? Then I recommend you to not create a blog post for it, because that costs time we could invest in reading or writing reviews for the books we know what to say about. I mainly move these reviews over to Instagram, because you can keep it short and sweet on there. Furthermore, I mention these book sin my monthly wrap ups to still give them the spotlight.

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Here’s a little sneak peak in my reviewing process. Did I forget something? Or do you have tips for me? What’s your reviewing process for instance? Share them in the comments! This way, we can all learn from eachother and improve ourselves in reviewing books.