For myself, I am conflicted:
- If you include spoilers, please clearly marked that your reviews include spoilers please! Sometimes I read reviews before I read a book just to see whether I want to read that book (too many books, too little time, I need to make a decision somehow!) I tend to read the negative reviews first to see why the reviewers don't like it. In those instances, I don't want to read spoilers!
- Other times, I want to read spoilers! I am done with a book, and want to discuss with someone, I want to see what others think of those spoilers (usually crucial parts of the story)
- Another time I want to read spoilers is when I DON'T want to read a book, but want to find out what happened, I want to find out how it end. Yeah, the lazy way to read a book :)
- I tried not to, because I don't want to spoil it for someone else's enjoyment of the book
- Sometimes I include spoilers when I really want to talk about it in the review. But I would mark it clearly that it includes spoilers, so for those who don't want to know, can skip.
- But lately, I'd re-read some of my older reviews, where I might say the twists were good or predictable, but didn't elaborate... and now I don't remember what those twists or secrets were! Or how the story ends! Which made me think that I should use more spoilers tags, so when I read back, I'd remember the story more...
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I don't mind spoilers if labeled because if you have read it can start dialogue. I don't reread so knowing it was great due to twists but not remembering them is ok for me.
ReplyDeleteI used to avoid at all costs, but then found that my reviews suffered as a result. I found a plugin for wordpress that made it easy for me to hide spoilers - and in a way that no one will "accidentally" read it (except in my e-mails, which I don't know how to fix).
ReplyDeleteSo far as reading spoilers, if I haven't read the book, I don't like spoilers. I don't want to read if all of the surprises are gone!
I try not to include spoilers. I want to make someone want to read the book, and not ruin it. I know how it feels to have a book ruined by spoilers...
ReplyDeleteI've included spoilers only once, and that was for a book widely read - I found it kicked quite some discussion, a few commenters were very passionate about their take on it. But for the most part, I don't include. I just allude to stuff in my reviews (the ending was lame, the character does something halfway through that is inconsistent, etc). I may not recollect the stuff later, but I find it's ok. If I really want to remember it, I bug someone else who's read it. :)
ReplyDeleteI totally hate reading spoilers! I always mark at the top if the review has them, and this only happens if the book is part of a series so that reviewing one necessarily tells what happened before it!
ReplyDelete@Marce - Agree with labeling spoilers. I hardly re-read, but when I see someone else's review of a book I'd read, I'd go read my own review and then I found that I don't recall what the twists or endings were!
ReplyDelete@ham1299 - Agree that spoilers can ruin the surprise! Sometimes I just want to find out what happened without reading the books, like the Twilight series lol (I read the 1st book only). I don't think blogger has that plug-in... that's too bad. Also agree that my reviews might have suffered a bit, since the spoilers are usually the critical part of the story... hard to share thoughts on something I can't talk about!
@Mrs Q - "I want to make someone want to read the book" - well said!
@Aths - Now I wonder which book you included spoilers!! :) That's why when I wanted to remember the spoilers, I checked the "hidden reviews with spoilers" on goodreads. I asked them if they can add a spoiler filter (like you can choose to read just 1 star review) for ease of finding the spoiler reviews :)
@rhapsodyinbooks - I definitely appreciate posts clearly marked spoilers - so I can choose to read it or not! Often times I found that reviews DON'T mark spoilers, then I found out who died or who the killer was. Sigh.
I don't mind spoilers as long as the reviewer clearly marks them. Personally, I try not to include spoilers in my review unless I feel it is necessary, which is obviously very subjective. When I do include spoilers, I make sure to make it very clear that I am doing so.
ReplyDelete@reviewsbylola - agree with you!
ReplyDelete