Tell Me Something Tuesday: REVIEWS

a weekly meme hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings!

This week's question, a part of the So You Want to be a Blogger edition:

What are your tips for writing reviews?

Since I'm still perfecting the content/style/everything of my reviews (I guess it's an ongoing process), I'm going to take the perspective of a reader rather than that of a book blogger. There are some reviews that I find more helpful than others and those are usually the ones that cause a tiny prod; either towards or away from the book! A good review, for me, is, to some extent:

Reader-friendly. Rational. I'm all for subjectivity but only when the whys are laid to rest. Why were they not comfortable with the writing style? Why did they not like the ending? Why did that secondary character not resonate with them? 

Also, when it comes to negative reviews, I prefer the ones that clearly state why the book was not for them. All of us have different preferences, so when the reviewer takes time out to say why he/she in particular could've been put off by the book, biases and preferences withstanding, I find it easier to match my preferences with theirs and take a call on whether the negatives are something I would care about! These reviews go out of the way to be helpful and I appreciate that!

Energetic! I love it when I sense an energy and urgency in the review to tell you everything (that's spoiler-free) about the book. It need not be endless gushing or a GIF-plastered rant. Just... not monotonous, you know? Reviews feel like art when they contain the angst/enthusiasm/nervousness/cringiness/deadpanness- everything they felt or made sense of while reading the book- in a way that is contagious! 

Venom-free. Personally attacking an author or being scathing without any real basis is my one and only turn off.

Insightful; as additional insights always help. It's one of the reasons why I'm eager to look out for reviews of books I've already read as well- to see if they've come away with the same things that I have after reading the book! 

Easy to read. It could be with regard to the format of the review or the ease with which the reviewer moves from one aspect of the book to the next. I'm not going to wade through one giant clump of a paragraph... I prefer ones that are better laid out and easy on the eyes.

Wordily genuine. Nothing beats a genuine-sounding non-glossed-over review. I'm always on the look out for those!

Succinct, because as I said before, I am not going to wade through 10+ chunky paragraphs. As much as I don't want too much of the review to be a synopsis of the book, I do like a one or two line summary that gives context to the review (in case I don't read the Goodreads blurb). While I personally find it very hard to be concise and keep cutting out the "excess chunks" of rambling, I do love clear and crisp reviews that practically hit the bulls eye in what I'm looking for as a reader!

Of course, these are all of the things I tend to prefer in a review. Sometimes ranking high on one or two of these aspects alone is enough to make the review helpful and relevant and crazyhilariousandawesome!

Preferences definitely vary since we're all on the lookout for different things! What do you look for in reviews? Or what do you give importance to when you write them?