Crap Critiquing Skills

I’ve been thinking about my ratings lately.

I love how people toss them out or definitely have an actual system.

I don’t, my three cups of coffee for a thriller or fantasy means it was pretty good, not great.

Three coffees on a poetry book means it was probably a bit boring at parts.

2 coffees is usually not great, sometimes I give things higher ratings if I think that it’s more enjoyable for a target audience I wasn’t included in. Like let’s face it, I’m not 16, but sixteen years old me might have loved it more, and if that’s the case, up the rating goes, who the hell am I to judge if a YA book is good for YA or not?

[UNLESS I think it’s harmful, or just does not promote something important for teen girls, such as when a book uses pop feminism to somehow put down other kinds of girls. That’s not cool. That’s not how it works. Okay, different tangent for a different day but there you have it in miniature so you know where I’m coming from! Don’t teach girls and boys abusive relationships are cool, don’t teach boys it’s not okay to cry, and don’t make it seem like makeup doesn’t make you a genuine person and I won’t hate your novel lol]

I also tend to just enjoy so much. Again unless it has issues that I realize, and sometimes I don’t’ realize something is an issue because I’ve never thought of it and I have to look to my fellow readers/writers/bloggers for support and learn and grow, I tend to just give books good ratings.

So, really, the fact of the matter is, I am crap at critiquing.

But is that a huge problem? Hmm maybe, maybe not but book blogging has forced me to think of my reviews more as I’m writing and before I post. I want to make sure I at least attempt a pros and cons list when I can, to show readers things that may not suit them despite my positive review but sometimes I just don’t have that much to say about the book! However, I promise guys, I really am learning as I go. So maybe it is a huge problem and a lot of you are like ‘Haley why do you love everything’ but I am trying to be more objective.

I also know that when I do remember (even if it’s after a review has gone live) I do try to post content and/or trigger warnings. NOT so much on a book whose plot clearly states this is gonna be dark, such as like say a thriller about serial killers told in the first person. But if it’s a book that’s like ‘oh yes a mystery, let’s see what happens’ and then boom gore upon gore, then I do try to remember to let you all know. So again, growth. Things I didn’t usually think about before have to be on the forefront for me. Because I know sometimes I appreciate the content warnings if I’m not expecting a book to have anything in gross detail. For me, people can’t really give trigger warnings for my sorts of triggers but I do try to remember things I think will generally be good to warn ahead, violence, deaths, drug/alcohol usage, abuse of any sort, but if you ever see a book you think should have more warning to it, please let me know, I’ll always appreciate that.

I’m about to write up my Crown of Feathers review and I know I’ll be warning about animal deaths and such, I don’t want someone to pick up a book because of me and be traumatized, that’s not my goal for those who are kind enough to read my blog.

So I guess what I’m saying is, thank you all for putting up with me being on a steep learning curve. I may be crap at critiquing but I’m always going to better myself for you all. However I think we’ll just have to all accept that I’m too easygoing with books, I just tend to like what I read. [Except for the time I don’t, and then I turn into a very salty and smarmy book blogger].

Thank you all, promise I’ll keep trying to grow.

Toodles