Book Blogger Confession is a new blog meme hosted by Tiger of All Consuming Books and Karen of For What It’s Worth. The meme will run on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of every month to discuss some of the frustrations that are unique to book bloggers.
You can read the introductory post here.
Here’s this week’s question:
Spoilers in reviews: Do you read them, do you include them? How to you describe (or avoid describing) spoilery parts of a book?
As far as reading reviews, it depends. If it’s an author I love, then I tend not to read any reviews of the book before reading it. Afterwards, I might look at the reviews just to compare what I thought to others. If it’s a new-to-me author and I’m not sure I will like the book, then I do look at a few reviews – mostly just skimming them to see if it’s something I should pick up.
As far as reading reviews that contain spoilers – I tend to shy away from them. I don’t mind if the review tells us that yes, the couple ends up together – that is usually a given. What I do mind is if the review tells how they get together – part of the fun of reading is seeing what obstacles come up and how the couple works past them. I’m using the romance genre here as an example, but the same goes for mysteries and thrillers as well as contemporary fiction.
When writing my reviews, I try to stay away from using spoilers. I don’t want to give the entire book away because I don’t like when people do that to me. In my reviews, I always start out with the first line and then put down the summary of the book, usually taken right off the book itself. Then I give my thoughts on the book. I try to talk about the book, discussing the themes or the characters, without giving too much away.
What about you? Do you read or include spoilers in reviews?
