Book Blogger Confessions: Spoilers

Monday, April 2, 2012


Book Blogger Confessions is a new(ish) meme run by Tiger at All-Consuming Media and Karen at For What It's Worth. Every first and third Monday they post a new question to open up discussion about common frustrations to book bloggers. Link up your post on either blog and hop around to listen to and learn from your fellow bloggers!

This week's question is:

Spoilers in reviews: Do you read them, do you include them? How do you describe (or avoid describing) spoilery parts of a book?

I generally do not care about reading spoilers, but I am super sensitive to people who vigilantly avoid them. It's because I don't have much personal animosity toward spoilers that I'm always paranoid I'm going to accidentally let one slip.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to perceive what is a true spoiler. If it's something revealed by reading a cover jacket, I'm not sure that's a spoiler, but some reviewers hide sequel summary descriptions for fear that someone may happen across a spoiler. I don't go that far. Most regular readers of this blog know the books I'm discussing, or at least know if it's a part of a big series that they want to avoid for fear of spoilers.

That said, I'm also not out to ruin anyone's fun. If people want to be surprised, they should be surprised, regardless of my thoughts on the matter. That's why I don't post spoilers - simple common courtesy. It may mean cutting short a review or dancing around an issue, but I always know at least one or two other bloggers who have read the same book, so I'll take to Twitter or email if I really need to discuss a spoilery issue.

What do you do about spoilers in your reviews?

6 comments:

AO said...

hi Logan! they say great minds think alike so i must have one too since we share the same views on spoilers. lol. seriously, i avoid them like the plague on my posts. when i come across a review in Amazon, etc that has spoilers i feel so disappointed. i bought a book a couple of weeks ago at Amazon and when i checked out one of the reviews, i knew how it ended and all! bummer!
but i admire those readers/reviewers who provide a spoiler warning. at least they have the courtesy to do so. c",)

Rubita said...

Spoilers are indeed tricky, especially when it comes to series books. I do think they should always be prefaced with a warning, though. Sometimes (with certain books), I need a spoiler to take the edge off the tension. But I want to make the choice to be spoiled, not have the choice made for me.

I should add that I make an effort to resist all spoilers when I'm reading a book for review. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't seem right.

Hannah @ Dragons and Whimsy said...

I'm one of the spoiler avoiding people and do get really really grumpy when I happen across a spoiler. I think there's a level though. Some things need to be mentioned to put across the general feel of the book, but you don't need to go into the ins and outs, the twists and endings and such to do so. So when people blatantly disregard common courtesy it really bugs me.

Personally, I'll do my best to avoid spoilers in my reviews but if it is a sequel or later part of a series I always put a little potential spoiler warning at the top of my review. While I won't be spoiling that particular book, it's near to impossible not to spoil previous installments and thus it's polite to mention it so as not to spoil folk who'd rather not stumble across them. :)

Also: yay Name of the Wind!! One of my favourite books. :D

Annette Mills said...

I want to know why you liked or didn't like the book. What aspects were great or not so great. You can tell me that without spoilers. I get upset if I read a spoiler without having been warned. I usually stop following that blog, since I don't want it to happen again. If you warn me about spoilers, that's fine -- I just skip.

Belle said...

I hate spoilers that are randomly in the middle of reviews! For this reason I'm careful to avoid them in mine - if I want to talk about something spoilery I put a big warning. Spoilers with no warning drive me nuts. I want the choice to read them or not - that's what the warning is for.

Alexis @ Reflections of a Bookaholic said...

I really don't like spoilers. Really really really don't like them. I think the difficulty is that people don't think what they are writing amounts to a spoiler. I don't think you give spoilers.

It's not even that I worry about finding out one little thing. I don't want to feel like I don't have to read the book because I read the review.

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