Having a book blog involves a lot of book talk, which is amazingly fun, but, of course, I’m also required to toss in a book review here and there. Because, obviously, you all want my opinions about books (just smile and nod). Sometimes book reviews are easy to write, other times they are just GOD AWFUL and I literally stare at my computer screen until it sucks the life out of me.

Book reviews that are hard to write:

  1. When the book was fine. The awful 3-star review. Ugh. It is SO painful to sit there and try to come up with something interesting to say about the novel. ESPECIALLY if there’s nothing particularly interesting about the story.
  2. A bad review for an advanced copy. These are tough to write. Obviously I don’t want to pan a book that I’m supposed to be supporting!
  3. Along the same lines, a review that you know that author/publisher may see. This happens with advanced copies of books but also with books sent from publishers. Even if you love the book but have a small complaint, that ONE negative thing you have to say suddenly becomes the hardest words to type EVER.
  4. The book left you emotionally shattered. I experienced this with Gone with the WInd and The Bronze Horseman. I had NO FREAKING CLUE what to say about these books, other than vague things like “I LOVED THIS” and “the characters are great” and “the writing was well-done” and “I CAN’T FORM ANY COHERENT THOUGHTS BECAUSE MY BRAIN IS JELLY.”
  5. Reviews for classic fiction. I mention this challenge in almost every classic review I write: what am I going to be able to say that hasn’t been said 10,000 times already!? NOTHING.

Whelp so that leaves about 10% of my reviews that are easy. The rest of the time, guys, I just don’t know what TF I’m actually doing.


Do you write book reviews? If so, do you find any of this hard?
If you don’t write book reviews, what do you think about reading 3-star reviews?