Blog Discussion Sunday

Do the length of reviews matter? |Discussion Sunday

by on February 7, 2016

Discussion-Sunday

Discussion Sunday is our meme used to have an open discussion about anything books. It’s not necessarily every week, just whenever we have a topic we’d like to talk about. If you’d like to join us on your own blog, please credit us and send us the link so we can discuss your topic with you! -Taylor

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’m finally so curious that I can’t hold it in any longer. Do length of reviews matter? Does a review have to be at least 2 paragraphs to really convey the readers thoughts? As someone reading reviews, do we really care about reviews that are only a sentence or two? Do those reviews with only a couple of sentences even count as reviews?

I noticed a couple of weeks ago how my own reviews vary in length a lot. Some reviews are pretty long and some are very short. The length of my reviews really depend on a lot of factors. If I wrote the review just after finishing the book or I waited a couple of days. If I liked the book or not. If I was in a hurry to post the review before I had to go do something else. But mostly, how passionate I was about the book.

If I absolutely loved (or hated) the book, I can babble on and on about it. I noticed that most of my short reviews tend to be books that I rated three stars. Three star books, for me, tend to be the hardest books for me to review because I neither loved nor hated it. How does one write long, detailed reviews for books that simply didn’t impress you?

Personally, I tend to read shorter reviews when I’m looking up reviews on a book. Probably because I’m a little lazy but also, I don’t have time to read a massive review. I just want to know if the book was good or not. Why would I spend 10 minutes reading a review for a book when I could use those minutes to be reading an actual book?

But do short reviews really convey anything? Are they thorough enough to do the book justice? Or do they leave out too much information? If the review hits the main points (plot, writing, characters) of the book, does it matter how long it is?

I believe that the length of a review doesn’t really matter as long as it tells me what I want to know, which is if they book or worth reading or not. Maybe it depends on who the reviewer is. If a good friend of mine wrote a review that had two sentences, I’ll call it good and proceed to either read the book or not. But if I’ve never read a review from the reviewer before, two sentences isn’t a lot to go off of.

How do you feel about the length of a review? Do you prefer long or short reviews? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, whether you agree with me or not. :)

Taylor-Signature

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8 COMMENTS

  • What's She Reading?
    7 years ago

    I prefer short reviews as a reader. A lot of times the bulk of a review will be a summary of the plot anyway (which I’m not really interested in reading). As a writer I try to keep them to a medium length. I don’t want to drone on, but I do want to convey all the information. And I contain my summaries to one paragraph so that the bulk of my review is actually review material.

    Reply
  • Britt (@kalebsmome)
    7 years ago

    I really love shorter reviews. My friend Emma at Missprint.wordpress.com does some really awesome little reviews. I think with a strong vocabulary you can get your point across in less words. I however do not have a strong vocab. Longer reviews I skip the middle or skim to be honest. I also really hate when the whole book is summarized. I have the blurb, I might read the book, I don’t need to know all the things that happen thank you very much. I agree with what to said, my length depends on how passionate I am about the book. Great topic girl!
    ❤️Britt @ PleaseFeedTheBookworm.com

    Reply
  • tattooedpages
    7 years ago

    i don’t think it depends on how many words there are in a review. I think it depends on how much is said. so if someone can accomplish that in a paragraph, great for them. Though i don’t see how someone can adequately review a book in a couple of sentences. How?? “It was good. Peace out!” That, right there, isn’t a proper review. What about it did you like or dislike? and why? That’s what I look for in a review. So i think if a reviewer can cover those points it doesn’t matter how long it is.

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  • flowlessbooks
    7 years ago

    I agree with you. The length of my reviews depends on how passionate I am about the book AND when I write the review. I try to write down my thoughts during the reading but sometimes I’m too lazy to do it haha ! As a reader, I enjoy medium length reviews ! Great topic ! I think I’ll start discussion sunday too 😉

    Reply
  • iloveheartlandx
    7 years ago

    I tend to write longer reviews, simply because I can’t convey all my thoughts about a book properly in a shorter space. I do agree that 5 star reviews or 2 star reviews are much easier to write than 3 star reviews though, it’s much easier to say why I loved or absolutely hated a book than it is to explain why I felt kind of “meh” about it.

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  • Taylor
    7 years ago

    Definitely! I find a lot of reviews are mostly the synopsis and I’m always worried I’ll see a spoiler.

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  • Taylor
    7 years ago

    I agree! Vocabulary is definitely important with short reviews! :D

    Reply
  • Taylor
    7 years ago

    Agreed!

    Reply

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