Hello Darlings!
Today I’m talking about different types of reviews! Maybe that will inspire you to try out something new!
I saw many many different reviewing styles here and on GoodReads, and that’s amazing! I love the creativity and personality shining through all of those.
I think it’s super important to have different styles because people reading reviews also have their preferences so the more varied the reviews the more potential readers!
Anyway! Back to the point.
emotional review
This type of review is when you just word vomit all your emotions and personal experiences with the book.
It may be a bit all over the place but it’s daring and very you.
I love reading emotional reviews because they also teach me something about the reviewer and let me really connect with them.
thorough review
Thorough reviews cover all aspects. They often have separate sections for
- writing style,
- plot/pacing,
- worldbuilding/setting,
- characters,
- relationships,
- themes,
- etc., etc.
I love writing thorough reviews because I have many thoughts and I like putting them in different drawers in my brain.
essay review
Those reviews are something between emotional and thorough reviews. You still want to be thorough and have a lot to say but you focus on the aspects which impacted you the most.
There may be sections again but essay reviews have a nicer flow to them and you discard the elements you’re not passionate about and just go with the flow.
bulletpoints review
Those can be either just general thoughts or pluses and minuses or entirely different thing.
One time I wrote a review that had two categories of bulletpoints:
- what this book made me FEEL
- and, what this book have that I LOVED
It sounds like this type is basically a draft of a review someone didn’t feel like putting into pharagraphs at first but you can BE CREATIVE with it!
gif review
I admit that that’s probably the only type of review I’m mentioning I’ve never done. Never ever.
I put some gifs in my reviews here and there but they were never the focus because, again, I tend to have a lot to say.
But it’s okay if you don’t!
An image can say a thousand words! So have fun with them!
mini review(s)
Those can be either 2-3 paragraphs or 2-3 sentences.
They usually appear in groups when you have lots of books to review and little time and/or thoughts.
I wrote those a few times and it’s fun to try and be concise.
Related post: Mini Reviews: JAN 2020 Graphic Novels
not review types but deserve mentioning
- start off with a meme
You, just like every writer, need a hook. And what’s a better hook for a bunch of millenials/gen z than memes?
- quotes for everything
Some people really like putting quotes in reviews. And that’s fun! Recently I put a quote between each paragraph of my The Starless Sea review and I really liked how that turned out!
- summary but make it FUN
Sometimes (*cough*nearly always*cough*) you read a synopsis and wonder what did I read and then come those people who will shorten it to two funny sentences and you go oh, yes and!!! Those people really do the god’s work
- What types of review do you usually write?
- What other types would you like to try out?
- Do you have a type of review that you consider your ‘brand’?
Local Bee Hunter's Nook 
I love doing essay/thorough reviews analyzing the plot elements of books. It’s something I want to incorporate into my blog more 🙂
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I love those the most as well! It’s so satisfying to just put all your thoughts out there! And usually I have many 😀
Thank you so much for visiting ❤ Have a lovely day!
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My reviews would probably fit best into the essay category. I focus a lot on how I felt about each aspect of the book, and then I try to sum up my overall thoughts at the end. And of course, I throw in some gifs for good measure! Reviews are hard for me to write though, so if I ever find a method that works better for me, I’d definitely switch up my reviewing style!
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Oh, I know the pain! It´s always so difficult for me to start writing a review because I have so many thoughts but they´re all over the place! Essay reviews are always interesting to read though so don´t be discouraged! But experiment if you feel like it — it’s fun 🙂
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I always call my reviews ‘mini reviews’ because I cover two books in one review post, but to be honest, they aren’t really that mini! They’re more like short essays really!
I’d definitely like to experiment with some different types of reviews though, because sometimes I find them a bit boring to write. So you’ve definitely given me some ideas in this post! 🙂
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Oh, I know another blogger who does that only she calls them double reviews! They are so long and wonderful!
That’s amazing to hear! Thank you, honey!! I love being an inspiration ❤ I hope you have a blast experimenting with your reviews!! Thank you for visiting!!
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I LOVED reading this post, E.! I like reading all kinds of reviews but my favorite ones are the emotional reviews! I guess I’d love to do mini-reviews more because I’ve been reading a lot of books these days (because of the blogging hiatus!) and I haven’t reviewed any of them lol. Wonderful post! 💖💖
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Thank you so much, Nikita!! Yes, emotional ones can really get to your heart! I’m in the same boat with mini-reviews — actually, I just drafted a bunch of 2 sentence reviews and that was so fun to write! It was a challenge for me to try and be concise, haha! Good luck with your batch! And thank you for commenting ❤ ❤
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I used to do bullet point reviews that were pretty thorough, but lately I’ve moved mostly to mini reviews.
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I love mini reviews! Feels like such a challenge to be concise 🙂 Thanks for the visit!
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I haven’t really thought about it before in these terms, but I realize I usually write essay style reviews! I start off with a bunch of notes and work them into a lil essay, discarding bits that don’t seem as interesting or relevant. I also do mini reviews every now and then, when I don’t have enough to say for a proper ‘essay’ 😛
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I love reading essay reviews! They always ‘flow’ nicely! I’m planning on doing more mini reviews myself because there’re so many books I read and didn’t review recently it’s impossible to catch up otherwise 😀 It’s interesting to try and be concise!
Thank you for commenting, Jenna! ❤
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I’d like to think I write reviews that are essay-like a lot. I want to be thorough but then I also just want to be emotional about the book 😅 I would love to try writing these types of review though I don’t think I can do the gif one.
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Yeah, the gif one is not my thing as well 😅 But I think I tried all the others and with essay-like ones, I feel it’s good to focus on the things that were most important to you about the book and be thorough about those instead of everything if that makes sense? That way it sounds more emotional and not like a report 🙂 Read more reviews that are close to what you want to write like and they should inspire you!!! That’s why I included some links but also my fav essay like reviews are by KitKat @ kbbookreviews867789450.wordpress.com/
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Yup, I agree with your point! It’s better to focus on and write about things that are most important to you than trying to cover everything. We don’t always have anything interesting to say about all aspects of the book and like you said we don’t want it to sound like a report 😆 And roger that! Thank you for sharing the link with me. I’ll be sure to check out their reviews 😄
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