I love reading other readers reviews for books. It helps me decide whether or not I should include this book in my life. Here is the problem....where some readers leave fantastic reviews of very good books (or unfortunately, leave very bad reviews of books they have read), they also ruin the book by telling me word for word what happens. I am guilty of it. I love a book so much that I can't stop talking about it and before you know it, I have laid the whole book out.
Here is the thing about spoilers....regardless of whether or not you tell me there are spoilers in your review, I am going to read it. I have to know whether I should read this book or not! I love that you can remember every single minute detail about a book and feel it necessary to tell everyone about it, but we don't need it. Why should I read the book now that you have told me everything that happens?!? I know I am not the only one who feels this way...right?
I have really gotten away from leaving reviews of this type. Where I might tell a summary of what the book is about, I typically leave out any major details about a book. I want to leave something for the imagination of the reader. Isn't that what it is supposed to be about? I think some reviewers have gotten away from that. And it's really bad for the reviewing community. What I mean by that is that readers are going to read reviews of books like this and not feel it necessary to read the book themselves. Not only are they getting away from reading, but the author will have lost sales.
I think that all reviews should be cut down to 20 words and that's it. Who really needs more than that? Either it was good or it wasn't. Isn't that the just of it? Am I missing something or am I just lazy and don't want to write long reviews? I haven't quite figured that out yet.
What do you think? Do you think spoilers are good or bad for a review? How many spoiler reviews have you written? I think you would be really surprised at how many you have written.
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