Today’s Sunday Book Club is not a book review, but a rather chit-chatty, slightly bitchy, perhaps offensive, rant about other book reviews that I’ve read. I like to write book reviews because I like reading them – just to gauge if it’s a horrid book before I even pick it up. But there are so many problems with other book reviews that sometimes I get so angry!
You might think that I’m upset at unethical book reviewers – those who give a great review to any book that is given for free. Yes, I am upset at them – I’ve seen a ton of amazing reviews for horrible books which they have obviously received for free. But they’re actually not the worst because most of these reviewers are now kind enough (or obligated by law) to admit that they have received the book for free or are paid to review, so I know which reviews to not trust too much. The ones that I get really upset with are the ones below!
I usually try not to read any reviews with spoilers if I have not read it yet. I do give a ton of spoilers because I know the agony of reading a horrible book and not wanting to finish it, but still have the need to know the ending. I always try to give a heads-up, by sectioning the post where the spoilers are so if you just want to know what I thought of the book without (most of) the spoilers, you can just skip to the end of the post. So I get upset when I see the whole story being revealed without any heads-up!
Most of all, I really cannot stand reviewers who downgrade a book, based on “typos” which are actually not typographical errors. I have seen so many people diss a really good book, because of its “typos” which are related to the British way of spelling. This usually happens with books in written in British english, and criticised by people who are used to American english. There are two different spellings, and the choice of the British version is not a “typo”! I was brought up learning the British way of spelling, but wordpress decides to underline everything that is not in American english and I’m sometimes too lazy to edit it so my blog is usually in a mix of American and British english – now THAT is a typographical error! If it is consistently in a standard British or American english, then it is not!
Anyway, I had to get that out of my system because I just saw an amazing book being given so many 1 or 2 stars based on “too many typos” or “spelling errors” and as far as I know there are none. That said, I might also be guilty of some really annoying book review behaviours; if so, please let me know! What are your pet peeves aboout book reviews?
Photo credit: Janko Ferlic
The Good Life Bunny 