If and when should you re-do book reviews?
So, I’m not sure just how many of you noticed (though, you’d literally have to be blind not to notice) that my blog style changed… again. >.> I think this is something like the second or third time I’ve changed my blog style. And, naturally, when I change my blog style, I often change other things. I mean, it’s a good time to do so, right? Just change everything at once and then be snazzy and call it a re-boot or something. 😎
Well, one of those other random changes I made in the past was in regards to my book review style. You see, when I started my blog, MNBernard Books, uh… it wasn’t supposed to be about other peoples’ books. It was supposed to be about mah books. 😝 I made this blog to post my fiction and gain readers for when I became published. As such, I didn’t know a speck about reviewing books.
Of course, being the overly-organized, mildly-OCD person that I am, I decided to be SUPER technical when I did start reviewing books. I talked about the writing, the characters, the pacing, the points of view, the plot. And not just what I thought about them from an objective point of view. I legitimately tried to break them down into technical aspects from a subjective point of view.
God! I even wrote about which of the seven original plotlines the story fell into. That is what I mean by technical. What I’m really saying is that these reviews were bad. I don’t like to talk about them. I’ve been wanting to at least change the headers on them for MONTHS now, but like… I don’t even have new headers made for some of those old headers so… I can’t change them! And now they look awful and totally n00bish! Don’t believe me???
😱 (Example A: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard) 😱
Thankfully I have learned since them. Through countless, arduous, agonizing trial and error, I’ve learned to assess books from my point of view. I’ve learned to let go of my rigid structure a little bit [only a little bit because I’m still too organized for this new-age free-range shit] and focused more on things that stuck out to me about the book. When I did this, writing book reviews became SOOOO much easier. I was no longer forcing them. (Well, unless I liked the book, which is just hard to write about in general because all I ever want to say is: “I liked all of it. You should read it. And you should read it. And you should-Nope! Stop asking questions. Just buy the damn book already!”)
And the best part is that these more loosely structured reviews…
allow me to RANT!
YAAAASSS!!! 😈
Well, anyway, now that I’m a total BAMF at writing book reviews, (😜) I’m wondering if I should go back and re-write some of my earlier book reviews. For one, the review style would be WAY different. I’d discuss very different things, more important things honestly than the writing style every single time.
But at the same time, I’ve read more books compared to when I started (obviously. Hahaha!) What I mean is, I’m more well-read than I was when I started reviewing books. What if my opinion of them has changed? What if I only liked those first few books because I hadn’t read 100 other books to compare them to? What I just have WAY different things to say now and no one will ever know because I never re-did my review?!?!
WHAT IF?!
But what do you think?
Have you/would you re-write book reviews?
Leave your thoughts in the comments!
And check out my discussion from last week:
“Trigger Warnings“
Melanie Noell Bernard 
Well I like change too. Change is the only constant in life 🙂 You certainly have leant to review books well on your own. I hope I am correct as I don’t know much about reviewing books myself. What ever field if we are interested, really passionate about is our purpose of life, and by following that passion we master what ever field we are pursuing. This is how I believe. Wish you luck to improve more and more and become an excellent book reviewer 🙂 ❤
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Aww! Thank you and yes, I have figured a few things out on my own. Much of it was finding my blogging voice and allowing my personality to come out in my posts. 🙂 That, I think, is the real measure of success as a blogger.
Best of luck to you with your blogging endeavors, as well. 🙂
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I never re wrote a review. I don’t have a “style” as I can be super structured or rant or joke or… depending on my mood, the inspiration, etc. I could not rewrite a review as I forget about book details very fast. That’s why I always write my review before reading any other book or it would be “polluted”. So far I’m not ashamed of the review I wrote. I even think sometimes” wow that was good” LOL I swear I don’t have a ginormous ego. I think I’m just surprised at what I wrote when I’m suffering from the blank page syndrome.
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I never thought about re-doing reviews but I feel like I would only do it if I reread the book. If it’s a book I read forever ago, I know I won’t remember the details, but I also don’t reread often.
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Right? I don’t re-read at all, but I definitely agree that I’d need to re-read a book in order to re-write a review (also because I don’t always remember everything about the book that I liked/didn’t like.) So, it would be good for a fresh look. But… I barely keep up with new reviews. :p
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I completely agree that our reviewing style and taste in books change as we read more and review more books! Personally I’m all for editing or rewriting reviews, with a few caveats:
If editing a review: state what is changed and reason for change
If rewriting a review: best to do so if we’ve just reread the book, as opposed to rewriting a review of a book we’ve read 2 years ago 🙂
I haven’t changed or rewritten any reviews BUT I really want to for Everything Everything. This was the first YA book I’ve read in a very long time, and when I read it, I loved it and gave it 4 stars. Now that I’ve read many more (better) books and reviews by other bloggers, I begin to see the issues with this book. I really want to go back and change my review haha, but I will probably go back and reread the book first 🙂
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i think i am waaaay to early into blogging to say anything about that. but i guess that in the future i will get to the point were i want to write my reviews in a different style and then think about my old reviews. but i am not sure if i would rewrite them. i mean, at the time i wrote them, that was what i felt so i think that shouldn’t change. but who knows? 😂
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You could just do a new review and label it ” review 2017″ and then link to the original in the new one, with a short note on why you liked the book enough to reevaluate it.
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Hm. That is an interesting idea, B.L. I hadn’t thought about adding a section explaining why I choose to re-review, but it would be important, I imagine to readers, especially if something drastic changed in your opinion of the book. But if you are re-evaluating, do we need a specific time frame between re-reads of the book in order to re-evaluate with a clear mind?
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I wouldn’t think the time would really matter, but just by attrition you’re only interested in re-visiting your old content, right? Any newer reviews would be in your newer style.
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Yeah. It would end up that all my reviews, new and old, would be in the same style.
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When I first write a review, I read over it and realize it sounds too bland. This happens every time! As if I’m trying to be professional. I feel no personality while reading it. So I add myself into it, then feel satisfied later on. I have a constant struggle between what a review should sound like and making it sound like it’s my own. Works out in the end though.
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I totally feel that! My old reviews definitely used to have that professional edge to them. They were soooo formal and then I realized that it was almost too difficult to do that because it took more brain power to write those ‘nice’ reviews than it was just to just let my fingers spew words from my brain. :p I kind of like personality-full reviews better, though. They seem more… real?
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Oh my gosh I think about this all the time 😳 My early posts are so different (they’re short, vague, and horribly amateurish) and so for me I might go back in and re-shape them a bit so that they’re a bit less embarrassing and a bit more informative, but for the most part I sort of leave them where they are (although there are still some waiting on my edit list for when I have time haha).
a) I forget about my older posts most of the time unless I stumble across one and fall out of my chair in horror, b) I don’t really feel like re-reading most of those books to properly write a new (and full) review, and c) I sort of like knowing how I felt about a book two years ago or whenever. But that’s just me. Like I said mine were really short bursts of vague opinion and emotion haha 😝 so those were all but useless if I didn’t go back in and make a few changes.
Anyway, do what you think is best for you and your blog, but I guess if you want to change your old reviews then go ahead and tweak them a bit closer to your current style but don’t totally erase your original content. Unless you’re just that motivated and determined to do some re-writes haha then by all means change away, I suppose! 😅
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I love the the concept. Sometimes style and taste change. This is a great way to show that, depending on if you do or don’t reread. Plus you learn as you go. Great post.
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Thank you, James! And yes. I think reviewing is definitely a learning process because you start off imitating what you see on other blogs because you’re new and as you go along, you find what you enjoy and how you like to format/organize. I suppose it’s one way to look at the progression/growth of a book blogger, too? Maybe?
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I totally agree. Learn the basics, understand the ins and outs, create your own style. As easy as 1-2-3 steps! Nice summary in your comment. 🙂
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