One of the panels I attended at AussieCon 4 was called Spoiler Alert: reviewing plot-driven fiction without giving the story away. The panel had some awesome people on it: they were Ian Mond, Helen Venn, Jenny Blackford and Crisetta Macleod. I wasn’t fast enough to write down what they did but there’s a fair amount of literature in there, reviewing books and also writing books.

I learnt so many things from them and hope to try and put some of them into practice but I’m fallible so that may not happen. The biggest thing I learnt is that a review is not the same as a critical essay. When writing an essay at school you’d assume the teacher had read the book and was looking to see how thoroughly you’d read it as well as your understanding of the book some of which may include putting the book into context in history. A review is nothing like that. A review is for those people who haven’t read the book and so you have to tread a fine line between giving enough of the details so the reader knows whether if this book is for them and revealing the plot. They suggested you talk about how it fits into the genre (this is a fun thought as some books cross genres and could be categorised in two or three genres), and mention the plot from the first three chapters only. They also suggested you outline the protagonist and main characters. I like to talk about the writing style and also to give any warnings as I try to have a ‘G’ rated blog.

If you’re reviewing a book that is part way through the series and you haven’t read the previous ones you could say “I haven’t read the previous books but this is my take on this book”. Some people also talk about how it is a stand-alone book or if it needs to be read as a part of the series.

Some do’s and don’ts

Don’t reveal if there’s a twist.
Don’t say nasty things as sooner or later you will meet that person and feel really bad.

Do accentuate the positives and play down the negatives.