What Do We Want From Reviews?

Recently, I have been reading reviews - on blogs, on Goodreads, on Amazon - for specific books and becoming quite frustrated. Which led me to ask on Twitter, "Does no-one else read reviews to find out more about a story?", to which I got more responses than I expected, and I realised that a lot of us actually want very different things from reviews.

A good number of years back, I discovered three Aussie blogs that I absolutely adored; Eleusinian Mysteries, Saz101, and Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me, all of which are sadly no longer running. Run by Brodie, Sarah, and Lisa, these blogs were everything. They're reviews were fun and full of passion, but they also wrote long, detailed reviews that answered every question I could ask. Loving their reviews, my review style changed. I didn't copy their review style, my reviews are very much me, but my reviews got longer, more detailed. The reviews I have from before discovering these blogs are pretty crap, but they're still here, if you wanted to look back far enough.

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Discussion: Are There Certain Books a Privileged Person Shouldn't Review?

There's something that has been worrying me for a little while now. Are there certain books that privileged people just shouldn't read?

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Mental Health Awareness Month: Reading This Month & Previously Read

Today, Mental Health Awareness Month, hosted by Leah of Uncorked Thoughts and Ula of Blog of Erised, begins! These are the books I'm planning to read this month:

Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern
Breaking Butterflies by A. Anjelais
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick

I've also read elsewhere that Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Looking for Alaska by John Green would also work, but I'm not quite sure how. On MentalHealth.org.uk, it says that Autism and Tourette's come under mental health, so I might also read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan. And if I have time afterwards, there's Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

I thought I would start off the month by linking to reviews of novels covering Mental Health I've written in the past. Looking through, I was surprised to see I had read quite a few! Maybe there will be some here you yourself could read for the event? Click on the images to be taken to my reviews.

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Previously Reviewed

For this post, I'm going to highlight two books I've read previously that work so well for D&B Week, books I absolutely adored!

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson - Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, with a nearly magical grin. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But the two can't collide without Lennie's world exploding... From Amazon UK

Taken from my Review:
This book is chock full of emotion. To compare it to a rollercoaster ride, like I would normally do, wouldn't work for this book. It just seems silly to do so in light of the depth of feeling running through this book - it would be like comparing the heat of the sun to a radiator. As weird as this may sound, Lennie's grief over Bailey's death is beautiful; it's sharp, it's overwhelming, it's heavy, and it's endless. Lennie compares it to a building, but I'd compare it to the sea; it washes over her - and you - and drags her down, away from the surface, leaving her unable to breath.

Read my complete review here.

Taken By Storm by Angela Morrison - Sometimes only love can save you.
Leesie Hunt's Unbreakable Rules: No Kissing (at least not of the French variety)...No Sex (hah! Not even close to happening anyway)...No Dating Outside the Mormon Faith (what would be the point?)...ABSOLUTELY No Falling in Love with the Wrong Boy (would ruin everything).
Leesie thinks she has her whole life planned out: get into the school of her dreams, write her poems, meet the perfect guy, and settle down. Then she meets Michael--a boy whose parents were killed in a diving accident during a terrible storm.
Michael is drowning in tragedy. And all Leesie wants is to save him. With each day, her heart hurts more. Could it be, perfect Leesie is falling from grace? Or is she just falling in love?
But if Leesie gives in to temptation, who is going to save her? From Amazon US

Taken from my review:
The plot is just awesome. Michael is grieving over the death of his parents, and isn't coping too well, suffering from nightmares and visions, and Leesie is the only one who can seem to keep it all at bay. However, Michael isn't used to having to control himself, so finds it really difficult to stick to Leesie's rules as a Mormon. Having been passionately in love twice before, Michael doesn't see how you can get close enough to someone to fall in love without actually loving them, like he feels so much he's unable to express it well in any other way.

Read my complete review.

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