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B&DERM: Q&A #3: Do you have a review format?


Hello! Welcome to the third B&DERM question and answer post! I have one question and answers from five awesome bloggers, as well as your hosts, Daph from Loving Books and myself! We hope they'll be interesting for you ;) This week's question is...

Do you have a particular format or way of reviewing (for example, talking about characters, then setting, then plot, etc for every book you read) or do you just write whatever comes to mind for each particular book?

Stacey from Pretty Books:
It's different for every book. I always provide a spoiler-free summary and then just talk about what I enjoyed, which may be the plot, or the characters, or the world-building, or the writing. I tend to write one sentence at the end to summarise how I felt about the book overall and then give the book a rating out of five (which I think is good for people who don't want to read the review yet but want to know whether I enjoyed the book or not).

Ashley from What's Your Story?:
I really just write whatever comes to mind. I guess I follow a general format, but I don’t do it consciously. I just write about the things I notice in books, like the main character, the plot, the mythology if there is any. You know, the big stuff. Anything I really liked, or really hated.

Sara from Just Another Story:
In my opinion you need to have some kind of format to write review. The most important part of a novel for me are the characters and the plot. That is what I like to write about when I am reviewing a book. I also like to talk about how the author excecuted their plot. The writing- I discuss whether it was a well written novel or not. Sometimes it's willy nilly. But I try to be as organised as possible.

Amber from Books of Amber:
When I jot down notes after reading the book, I break it up into sections: Plot, Pacing, Characters, Writing Style. After I've written down the notes, I write the review on the computer and even more stuff tends to come spilling out.

Carina from Fictional Distraction:
I think I've developed some kind of format for my reviews during the last year, but that's mostly unintentional. At first I always sum up my opinion about it (especially for those people who don't want to read an elaborate review, but just an overview) and then I usually talk about the characters. But since these are influenced by the way the world they live in and the things that happen in the book, I end up talking about the most important aspects while I always trying my best to stay spoiler-free.

Daph from Loving Books:
Not really.. I usually point out things I liked and disliked and explain why. The things that jump out to me get attention, whether it's in a positive or negative way doesn't matter. If the characters are great but the world building wasn't all that, I'll say that in my review (often in the order it comes to mind. Hey, I never said my reviews were structured).

Bella from Cheezyfeet Books:
Not really! I just say whatever comes to mind - which, to be fair, is usually the characters, then the plot, and then anything else that stood out for me. I have no set way, but a lot of the time they come out in the same kind of format, if that makes sense. I guess it depends on the book too, and on how much I liked/didn't like it.

__________

The next Q&A post will be next week, over at Loving Books, and the next B&DERM post will be there too on Saturday! :D Remember, if you haven't signed up yet, head over to the kick off post where you can add your name to the linky! Grab the button too, if you want! :D There'll be a linky on Saturday for you to link up your reviews posted this week (12th-19th May), and there's a linky here for you to post reviews from last week (5th-11th May), and don't forget to use the #BandDERM hashtag when tweeting about it on Twitter! :D Also, don't forget, all reviews linked up this month enter you into the giveaways mentioned below, and there are more coming too! ;D

In case you missed it:
The other B&DERM posts so far:
Kickoff! Bella | Daph
Blogger Q&A #1: How do you tackle your TBR pile?
Weekly Wrap-up and International Giveaway #1
Blogger Q&A #2: Finding the time for Reading and Reviewing
Weekly Wrap-up and UK Giveaway #1

Comments

  1. Interesting answers. I do pretty much what Stacey does, and try to include a little bit on plot, pacing, characters in each. And then I ramble on about random stuff. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I try to write a bit of a summary of the plot, and then a bit about the storyline, characters, what I thought to the book in general. Ihave to say that writing a review is sometimes a really tricky business!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post Bella :) !! I usually write whatever comes o my mind about the book too and try no to give any spoiler :) !!

    ReplyDelete

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