Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. Originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books, it’s now hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits.
This week’s topic is:
Do You Read Reviews and Spoilers Before or After?
(submitted by Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)
Prompts: Do you like looking at reviews for books before you read them? Is reading reviews important to you when choosing what books to read next? Or do you prefer to wait until after you’ve read a book to look at reviews? Do you ever look at spoilers before you read a book?
Reviews before…
It’s been a hot minute since I participated in a Let’s Talk Bookish discussion, but I’m happy to be back! When I saw the topic for this week, I knew it was a discussion I could join because I have a lot of thoughts on the topic. So I apologize if this gets lengthy. And/or ramble-y!
First, let’s break down my process when I see a book I might want to read. I never pick up a book just on the cover alone. I admire you brave souls who do that, but I’m a slow reader, and I don’t want to waste my time trying something I won’t end up enjoying. It’s taken a few years, but I’m pretty good at discerning whether I’ll enjoy a book or not just from the synopsis. But there are a few occasions when I’ve been wrong.
So, when I see a title and/or cover that interests me, I immediately jump to Goodreads to check out the synopsis. If I’m still interested, I’ll scroll down to see which of my friends have read it and how they rated it. Then, I might dive into their reviews, scanning lightly for their thoughts. If none of my friends have read it, I move on to the wider Goodreads community.
But if it’s an author I’ve never read or even heard of, reviews are crucial to me. I can’t enjoy a book if it has grammatical mistakes or is poorly edited, and most readers are quick to mention things like that in their reviews. If it’s a book I’ve been invited to read early, and there are little to no reviews, then I have to decide whether or not to take a chance on it, based on the synopsis alone. That exact scenario happened to me with Slanted and Disenchanted by Lisa Czarina Michaud when the author reached out and invited me to read the book. It sounded like one I’d enjoy, so I gave it a try. It ended up being a five-star read AND one of my favorite books for the year. It’s book magic when that happens!
Or reviews after?
There are instances when I avoid reviews before I read, however, and it’s usually NOT to avoid spoilers—it’s to avoid influencing my thoughts on a book I’ll be reading for review on the blog. I like to go into a book I’ve been invited to read with as little preconceived ideas as possible, so my review will be my own, and not influenced by what other readers and bloggers have thought. When I see fellow blogger’s reviews for the book, I’ll bookmark them to return to after I’ve reviewed it myself, because I do enjoy discussing the books once I’ve finished!
No spoilers allowed! Unless…
I’m trusting most readers to not include spoilers, or at least announce it if they do when I read reviews before I read the book. I prefer NOT to be spoiled, and sometimes I even prefer to go into a book almost blindly—if it’s an author I know well and the early ratings are good. I also appreciate it when a reader suggests going into a book blindly—if they feel that’s the best way to experience a book. It seems contradictory for a book blogger who’s “job” is to review books, but I want readers to have the best possible reading experience they can with a book, and that applies to me, as well.
I have had my fair share of being spoiled before or while reading a book, however. Sometimes it’s because I was scanning reviews and someone included a spoiler without warning, but mostly it’s my own fault. It typically happens when I’m reading a subsequent book in a series, and it’s been a while since I read the previous book. I’ll go searching for reminders about a character or a synopsis to catch me up, and then I end up getting spoiled. Oops.
I have also been known to go looking for spoilers on a few occasions. Sometimes I’ll be so committed to a character or relationship, I HAVE to know the outcome will go the way I want it to. But those instances are few and far between.
AND, I think there’s an expiration date on the ‘no spoilers’ policy. If a book or movie or whatever is super well-known, has been around for several years, but for whatever reason I still haven’t read or watched it, I fully expect to be spoiled. In those instances, it’s important to jump on the hype bandwagon early. For example, I was quite late to the Harry Potter party, and ended up spoiled on several occasions. I only blame myself, in those circumstances!
Let’s Discuss!
What are your feelings on reviews and spoilers? Let me know in the comments!
I only tend to read reviews if its a new to me author – spoilers are definitely an issue but people are getting better at hiding spoilers especially on storygraph!
I *try* to not read reviews, but sometimes I find myself scanning. Especially if I see someone giving a rating that’s different from the majority. I post reviews on Storygraph, but I don’t spend a lot of time reading reviews there yet. I need to get more familiar with it!
If a book is by an author I know, I don’t bother reading the reviews, but if it’s for a new author or an author I’ve read but am not sure about, then I’ll read some reviews before picking up the book.
That’s pretty much what I try to do, as well!
If I know that a review has spoilers, I won’t read it at all – even if I’ve already read the book. Also, if I see a spoiler in a review, I get very annoyed with the reviewer.
Oh, so you’re very anti-spoilers. I very rarely give spoilers, but I make sure to announce it and hide them—and I only share them if I feel they’re necessary to review the book or something that really bothered me that I feel other readers might need to know. Like content warnings.
I don’t often read reviews, I usually rely on just the star ratings if I need guidance. I read a lot and I’m not afraid to DNF a book so occasionally selecting one I end up not liking well isn’t too tragic. One exception is if I need to lead a book for book club. Then I read the reviews while I’m preparing author information and questions.
That makes sense! If I was a fast reader, I could probably do that. And I still find it hard to DNF. Although I’m getting better. And I’m not in a book club, but that would definitely be a situation where I’d want to be more prepared.
My process is very similar to yours. See a pretty cover, read synopsis, check overall rating, if it’s above 3.5, scan reviews. I don’t do any of that for an author I have read before UNLESS they are going out of their lane (different genre, age group). I especially enjoy reviews after to see how my experience compared, but they will never sway me to change my mind. I have seen “update” where readers said they initially enjoyed a book but needed to change their rating after reading other reviews. I will hold back my thoughts.
Oh, yes, I would never let another review influence a review I already wrote. I have changed my mind about books after years, but I still don’t change my review. If I wanted to change something, I think I’d just add a note. To me, it’s like snapshot of that time. I will add to a review if I’m doing a reread, though. You make a good point about an author going out of their lane. I usually spend more time checking reviews for those, as well!
I don’t mean a re-read either. I mean the review said, “after reading [person’s] review.” I can’t even say I have only seen it once either. I can respect the updated reviews from re-reads, though I think the old review should be left in tact.
I think my scanning process is pretty similar to yours. I do always check out the ratings but not always the reviews. I tend to read reviews before the book only if I’m surprised by peoples’ ratings, especially if they’re low or high and by bloggers whose reviews I follow often and whose judgement and taste I trust/are similar to mine. I do think there’s an expiration date on spoilers too, although I still very much prefer to not be spoiled but if that’s the case, I just don’t go looking at reviews for whatever book I know I still want to read. Last year I was spoiled for something in Maas’ first Crescent City book and even though I was told by another friend it happens early on, I was *shocked* and it was kind of annoying since it wasn’t marked at all! 😂 Great discussion post, Dedra!
Oh, yes! I didn’t think about that, but I will check reviews if I see a ‘friend’ give a rating that is surprising. Then curiosity wins out! It is very annoying when spoilers are just given with no warning or without being hidden. I do have a terrible memory, though, so I’ll get spoiled for a book and then completely forget about it if it’s been a long time. 😂 Now I’m super curious about the Crescent City books. I still need to read some Maas!
I usually read books based on the synopsis, though if I’m on the fence about a book and see a friend give it a good review then I’ll be more likely to pick it up.
As to spoilers: I get greatly annoyed when they aren’t listed as spoilers, but I also want them to be available for me when I go looking for them… because there are times I go looking for them. As an example, I just started reading a book that I thought was a futuristic science fiction novel, but as I get started it seemed like a near-future dystopian instead. So I went in search of spoilers, and discovered that it is a dark dystopian, with CWs that I’m glad I saw before reading them, and I DNFed the book instead. Generally I only look for spoilers if I’m considering DNFing, though.
Oh, no wait. I’ll also look for spoilers if I want to know the plot of a book without actually reading it. This comes in very handy for horror books that I know I’m too chicken to read, but I still want to know the plot, for example. 😉
This is a fun topic. I am all over the place with it. I don’t always read blurbs -especially if it’s an author I already know and love. I will pull up GR sometimes and see how my friends rated a book before I read it. If it was a negative review, then I will sometimes read it to know why. I try to avoid spoilers before I read a book. I don’t even really read teasers because I like going in fresh.