What are you looking for in a review?

Japanese
1

Since many people have said they wish more people would leave reviews after finishing a book, I was wondering: What kind of review is everyone interested in when it comes to LNs, manga, novels? I just thought about this. Some people here leave reviews after finishing a book and most of the time it’s both about the content but also how much they think it helped them learn more vocabulary, Kanji, etc. What I just realized is that especially for series that are difficulty 33+ what interests me most is what exactly makes them 33+ so for example is it just Kanji or the vocabulary or are there lots of original words, etc? And that made me think about whether I should start writing short reviews that mostly focus on reading difficulty only. Maybe focusing on reading difficulty would also motivate more people to write reviews?

5 Likes
2

I sometimes look at reviews for difficulty level and what might make it more difficult than others the same or similar levels but I also like to know content warnings and if there seems to be a trend with the reviews if it has a few (eg if it became more difficult or if there were boring parts, hated characters that put people off it etc).

I haven’t been great in reviewing books mostly because I’m unsure what to cover in a review without spoiling it and I find it difficult at times to look at it objectively and spell out what makes a book more difficult or what level grammar is in it etc.

3 Likes
3

I usually leave reviews of everything now, perhaps more for myself but to help others.

  1. Usually, I want to know the target audience because I do often judge content by the cover, difficulty and rating, that’s it. I want to know if it is targeted at high schoolers, below or above, and if it’s mainly for women. Many times I feel ‘tricked’ into starting what I believe to be a full-ledged fantasy (like Harry Potter) that turns out to be an teenage girls drama where the fantasy elements were just a bait and switch. Or, if it is smut. I would rather know up front: This is smut for teenage boys, girls drama, boys high school comedy, adult horror, etc. As it feels that much of the readership and ratings here are by women (assumption! there was a poll around somewhere).

  2. For the language difficulty, it would be nice to know if the content as been rated very difficult due to just a couple of complicated diatribes or if the whole content is difficult throughout.

3 Likes