Confessions of a Book Reviewer is a guest blog, written by John Valeri, popular with thousands (and thousands) of writers and readers as a reviewer with the Hartford Books Examiner. Don’t miss John’s thoughts on spoilers and certain Amazon reviews – and his use of the word salacious! Thanks John!
John Valeri’s reviews can be found online at Examiner.com.
What Mark (probably) didn’t know when he ever so generously invited me to contribute a guest post on the topic of writing book reviews is that this month marks my sixth year of doing so as the Hartford Books Examiner for Examiner.com. Time flies when you’re having fun!
I have a confession to make: I am as daunted by the task of doing so now as I was when I first began. Maybe even more so. You see, I’ve built up a loyal readership through the years, and knowing that these folks might read a book (or not read it) based upon my opinion is … well, heady. While reading is typically a solitary endeavor—and a subjective one, too—I feel a certain responsibility to guide readers accordingly.
Of course, before I allow myself to be worried about how my assessment of a book might influence somebody else, I grapple with more practical concerns. Like how to provide the proper background of an author and title without boring my reader out of his or her respective skull. Or how to accurately and succinctly summarize the plot(s) without giving it all away. (Spoilers are a big no-no!) Or how to interpret somebody else’s work without misrepresenting, or diminishing, it. That’s not to say that I achieve these things each and every time I write a review because I don’t. But I do try.
Then, the real challenge: rendering my verdict. In addition to telling you whether or not a particular title is guilty of keeping me turning pages when I should probably be doing other things (like household chores … or exercising … or sleeping!), I want to tell you why. (Juries have it easy. They don’t have to justify their decision.) Were the characters engaging? Did the plot unravel organically? Was I satisfied with the denouement? In short, what did I find outstanding? And what might you? This requires separating the book from the author and expectations from reality—and other complicating factors that don’t come to mind until you start to write. All I can say is: easier said than done.
One thing that I have learned to do is to concentrate on the positive. If I don’t enjoy something, I most likely won’t write about it. Or if I do write about it, I’ll be as fair as I can. (Case in point: the one time I slammed a non-fiction book for being unnecessarily salacious, I also pointed the finger at myself because I knew what to expect—and yet I read it anyway.) Common criticisms tend to include redundancy, poor editing, or inauthentic dialogue. None of these things entirely ruins a story for me in and of itself, though a mix-and-match combo can be hard to overcome. (If you want negativity, you can find it elsewhere. Like on Amazon, where a smorgasbord of one-star reviews await your perusal—and that are often given for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual quality of the book!)
The funny thing, given my agonizing self-doubt (okay, maybe “agonizing” is a slight exaggeration), is that publishers regularly include excerpts from my reviews in and on their books. Can you imagine the absolute thrill of finding your name and words included in a book written by somebody you’ve admired since tweendom? (Because that’s what happened when I picked up a paperback edition of Marcia Clark’s debut novel, Guilt by Association.) Or the irony of discovering, years after the fact, that the very first piece you published—and one that still ranks among your most nitpicky—was creatively edited and splashed across the back cover of a book written by one of the world’s most popular authors? (Because that’s what happened when I came across a mass market copy of a James Patterson’s Step on a Crack.) It’s a fringe benefit, and one that continues to surprise and delight.
Ultimately, I am motivated by simple things: a love of books and an admiration for the people who write them. It’s both a pleasure and a privilege to be able to share that love with other hardcore readers—I believe the accurate diagnosis for us is bibliophilia!—even when I know that I can’t please each one of you all the time. You may or may not agree with me, and I’m good with that. Just know that my intentions are noble.
Confession may be good for the soul … but that’s all this book reviewer is willing to own up to today!
