How to Review Books That You Didn’t Like (Without Feeling Like a Jerk)
Whether or not to post reviews of books you didn’t like to your Bookstagram/Goodreads/etc is one of the more polarizing topics in book reviewing. Some people don’t post about books they didn’t like because they feel it’s disrespectful to the author, because they want to keep things positive on their page, or for a myriad of other reasons. Others prefer to review everything they read, whether they gave it 2 stars or 5 stars. I definitely fall in the second camp.
My reviews are for other readers. I know I always appreciate a constructive review, so I like to provide them for others. In my 4+ years of reviewing books on the internet, I’ve definitely written a few reviews about books I didn’t like, so today I wanted to my general rules of thumb.
Here’s how to review books that you didn’t like without feeling like a jerk!
#1- Don’t tag the Author! This is a non-negotiable. Some authors prefer that they not be tagged in anything, even positive reviews, but no authors want to be tagged in negative ones. I read an author interview once where the author said that negative reader reviews aren’t helpful to their process since there’s nothing they can do to change it once the book is published, and that resonated with me. (This does not apply to problematic books… see below).
Be Specific There’s nothing worse to me than when someone says “it just didn’t work for me” without giving any additional detail. I don’t find it especially helpful and it doesn’t tell me much about the type of reader you are, so I have no way of knowing if a book will work for me. When I’m writing reviews of books I didn’t like I always include which specific parts didn’t work for me and why, i.e. “I didn’t care for the ending because I thought it came about too quickly and I wanted to know more about x,y,z. in the story.”
You Might Like This If This is my favorite way to help a negative review land a little more softly. We all know that there’s a book for every reader, so I like to include specifics on who might like the aspects of the book I didn’t like. For example, “I read a lot of thrillers so I feel like I’ve read versions of this plot a lot, but if you’re newer to the genre then you might enjoy.”
Problematic Books If a book is problematic, say it. If an own voices reviewer tells you that a book is problematic, believe them. It’s okay to update your own reviews if something comes out about a book that you can’t stand by. (See: American Dirt).
Strengths What were the book’s strengths? I can’t think of a time where I couldn’t come up with anything positive. How was the writing? Were there any interesting characters? How was the ending? These are usually the places where I can find the good, even if the book didn’t work for me.
What Kind of Reader Are You? I find it helpful to share insight as to the kind of reader I am so people know where I’m coming from. For example, I tend to struggle with a plot that centers on understanding sibling dynamics. I’m an only child and a lot of the subtleties go over my head, plus I don’t have anything to compare it to. (This is why I didn’t especially enjoy The Most Fun We Ever Had. Why couldn’t the sisters just be good to one another?!) If you didn’t know that about me and you love siblings books, you might miss out on something you’d enjoy.
Update (7/14/20)- I wanted to add one more point based on discussion I’ve seen going around Instagram since I originally wrote this post!
#OwnVoices When it comes to reading and reviewing a book written by an author from a BIPOC author or form someone with a different background than you, it’s important to consider the audience. If you are not of that same background and you find you “can’t relate to the characters”- remember that’s kind of the point. It’s not written for us. It’s for the readers who will finally be able to recognize themselves and their experience on the page, for what might be the very first time. Consider not leaving star reviews for own voices books and instead, share posts own voices reviewers. I highly recommend reading this post from Marissa @allegedlymari and this post from Dani @thunderbirdwomanreads for even more context.
Here are some of my reviews of books that I didn’t particularly like: Home Before Dark, The Half Sister, The Herd.
At the end of the day, do what you want. None of us are obligated to write things a certain way, but these are the rules I follow when posting about books I didn’t like!
Do you talk about books that you don’t like, or only books you recommend?
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