When you're a bright eyed and brushy-tailed reviewer, you walk into the game thinking "I'M GOING TO WRITE ALL OF THE REVIEWS!" and then you don't. Maybe it's a review copy and you don't have anything to say, or maybe it's the third in a series and you can't review it without spoiling the entire series; either way you find yourself with this:
I usually try to review all the books I read: ARCs, borrowed or bought copies. But I suddenly had a realization. I don't have to review everything that I read.
I know it sounds obvious, but sometimes we, as bloggers, get so caught up in having our voices heard, that we forget that this is a hobby and that we don't owe anything to anyone. Nope, nada.
This year, I have three books that I don't think I will review for separate reasons. First there is
Wallbanger, which I thought was an enjoyable book, but I couldn't find the words to review it. It suffered from 3-star syndrome, in which I really had nothing to say, terrible or great. It was just
good. I wrestled with this one for a while, but after about three days of staring at a formatted but blank post, I decided "naww."
Another book that I decided not to review this year was
Blood of My Blood. For those who don't know, this is the final installment of the Jasper Dent series. The final book was good, but it wasn't anything that took my breath away. I had a half formed review in my head while I was reading, but once I finished the book,
I forgot all the points that I wanted to make. In the end, I decided not to review this one, because I hadn't formally reviewed books 1 and 2 and didn't know how to randomly review the final installment of this trilogy.
I read this one about three weeks ago and didn't quite want to review it because I was tired of being negative. I have written a record number of 2-star or 1-star reviews in the month of November, and I just got tired talking about things I didn't like. It would be fine if I had read a
phenomenal book after reading
The Girl from the Well, but I've just been reading duds.
Lastly, I've decided not to review novellas. I love these side stories because 1) they're inexpensive 2) they provide more insight to either the characters or world 3) they're great at keeping you distracted until the next book comes out. Only downside is that they are very short, and I don't know how to even approach a review for a book that's less than 120 pages. So I just read them for fun and give my rating on goodreads.
It was hard at first, walking away from a book without writing a review, but now I just feel liberated.
And you? Do you review all the books that you read (or DNF)? Do you feel guilty if you don't review a book? Comment below and continue the conversation! :)
Labels: blood of my blood, discussion, ramblings, wallbanger
