Hello friends! Today I wanted to talk to you about some of my book review pet-peeves. I’ve spoken about my “bookish pet peeves” before (where I actually do mention one of these pet peeves already), but this post is directly relating to how people write reviews for books.
I want to start off this blog post by saying that I don’t mean to cause any offence with this post – it’s not directed at anyone in specific! These are just my own opinions on certain things that annoy me in reviews – however, I can still enjoy a review even when these pet peeves are present… I’d just rather they weren’t there!
Reviews that aren’t reviews
This is where the reviewer simply rewords the synopsis, every so often adding comments like “I really liked this character”, but never actually expands on their thoughts and feelings on the book as a whole.
I posted about this pet-peeve on Twitter, and it seems a lot of people are annoyed by the same thing. Simply re-writing a plot is not a review, it’s just editing. By telling me what the plot is about (after copy & pasting the synopsis above) does not help me decide whether I should pick up the book or not!
It’s not a review!!!
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The use of 
‘s
OK, so this is controversial, but gif’s in reviews irritate me. I’m all for a gif in other scenarios, but they just get in the way when they’re plopped into reviews. I always read around them, mostly never even looking at the gif, but it would just be nicer to not have them there! They break up the text in the most annoying of ways.
I get that gifs are like a trend now, but I wish they weren’t lol. (I used gifs in my reviews back in 2016 before I realised how annoying they were. Gifs and American Psycho don’t mix)
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Stressing a lot of unnecessary words
Some people just really love to stress words in their reviews more than necessary. I’m all for using italics or bold to make my point clear… but only in a couple of sentences, not in them all!
It annoys me when an author overuses this method, let alone when I’m trying to read a review about the book. When I see a review where the bold text is rife, I often just bounce back out of it, my eyes can’t cope.
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Negative reviews that judge the readers
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I just loooove to write a negative review for a book – it feels just as good as writing a nice one – so my problem here isn’t negative reviews. If you disliked a book, you disliked a book, there’s no way of getting around that. BUT, you don’t need to judge other readers if they liked the book.
Everyone has different views and opinions on things, and as long as they’re not offensive (racist, derogatory etc), then they’re doing no harm in liking something you didn’t… leave them alone!
Aaaand there we have it. Rant over!
Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to book reviews you seen online? I’d love to see what grinds your gears as much as these grind mine!
I don’t like the synopsis repeated in a review either which is why my reviews are so short! Ii like gifs in discussion posts but in not in reviews and I especially don’t like them on Goodreads! I really wish GR would ban them!
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Yeah they’re super annoying in GR. It annoys me even more knowing how much effort the people have put into getting those gifs in there!! It’s not easy to put pics in GR so why do so many people bother!!
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It’s a phase I guess and maybe they’re showing off lol
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I know what you mean about gifs. Some of them show the same miniscule clip over and over again – I try to scroll past them as quickly as possible!
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Same! They’re really distracting 😦
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Omg you stole the words right out of my mouth! Especially negative reviews that judge the reader. I get that you didn’t like the book but just because YOU didn’t like it doesn’t mean that someone else can’t like it! So irritating!
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GIF’s and stressing words annoy the hell out me also.
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Glad I’m not the only one 😀
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I agree with all of these except gifs don’t really bother me that much unless they are way overdone. Usually I just kind of skim through them.
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Yeah, I think a lot of people read around them haha
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I don’t really like too many gifs either :-). I don’t mind if a review says a little about a book though. It’s hard sometimes to jump right to it and say something without context.
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I can get onboard with a bit of story description but when the whole review is just the synopsis again, I’m so annoyed! Waste of time reading it lol
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I thought I was the only one thinking this about the GIFs! I used to feel pressured to use GIFs in my reviews (and posts in general) in order to get more readers, but I just loathe them so I could never do it…
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I tried a couple of times, but no… they’re just so irritating!
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I definitely agree with you, especially on a synopsis being repeated! I wind up skimming through those reviews to try to find some actual opinion.
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Same here! I just want to read your thoughts on the book, not your edited version of the synopsis!
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The last one is definitely a pet peeve of mine and not only as far as reviews go. Readers should never be judged for liking or disliking a book (unless there is something seriously offensive about it). I was involved in a book group discussion where one member had a bash at anyone who was enjoying it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it’s so wrong to make personal judgements on those who have a different view.
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Definitely! Like you say, as long as there’s nothing offensive going on in the book then leave people to enjoy their own things! I hate ketchup but people don’t have a go at me for it… so why do people do it about books?
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Love this post. 💜 I could comment on all of them but I have to say I agree with Gifs and the not allowed to be negative the most. Like you say if you don’t like a book you don’t like it, doesn’t matter if someone else did. Also, I love Gifs on Twitter, but don’t tend to use them anywhere else because well I just don’t see the point 🤷♀️ X
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I use gifs in my group chat with friends, but even then it’s rarely lol I just find so many of them annoying! Especially the ones you see over and over again 😛 Thanks George!
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I know what you mean. I like to use them then I also think I use them too much on twitter sometimes 🙈
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I loved this post! It’s honestly so helpful to hear about what people don’t like because I write my reviews for my followers, not really for myself. I rarely put in gifs, unless it’s a movie review and I’m talking about a scene relating to the gif, I mostly use them as a reminder for the reader of what I’m talking about or as a breaker so my review doesn’t look like an essay.
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Thanks! I like that idea of linking a movie gif to the book, it makes much more sense using them that way 🙂
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I can relate to all of your bookish pet peeves! What I would add are veeery long book reviews, those where you scroll and scroll and scroll … I think it’s best to keep is short and attractive, like a teaser, not explain in detail everything that has to do with that book.
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I agree with you there too, although I’ve fallen into the trap of a long review before! Sometimes I just don’t know how to keep my thoughts and feelings short 😛
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Yes to ALL OF THESE. God, I cannot stand gifs in reviews. They’re so generic and they don’t add anything and my eyes just glaze over them. And like, I realize that we’re all writing these reviews as a hobby so this is probably going to sound unbearably snobbish, but I can’t help thinking it’s a bit unprofessional looking. I just like a nice clean review.
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I totally know what you mean. I suppose some blogs are a lot more informal and I tend to find those are the people that use gifs. I’d say my blog is somewhere in between – I like to keep my review looking clean but I have more fun in some of my other posts 😛
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OMG, yes to all of these! (It seems many of your readers agree with you. Great minds… 😉 ) I think the reviews that judge readers who disagree with them — both negative and positive — are the ones that bug me the most, though. It’s just as bad when positive reviews get judgy about people who don’t like the book. Argh.
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Definitely! Any reviewer where the reader puts down other readers is not OK!
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I liked this a lot! I didn’t realize it but I also read around gifs in reviews. I feel like they only make sense to the person posting them.
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Haha, yes!! They’re like an “inside joke” but they’re not a joke and in gif form… so not really like that at all, but you know 😛
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Yes I see your point 🙂
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