I was writing a review for a mystery novel and suddenly had a question that I wanted to ask everyone: do you (or how often do you) talk about spoilers in books and in what way?
While I am generally okay with spoilers and sometimes quite desperately want to discuss something that would be a major twist/big part of the ending in a review, I know that a lot of people prefer to be surprised. But that also means – how much talk is too much talk?
If you hint that there’s a plot twist, does that make readers anticipate a plot twist and thus spoil the book even if you never gave any details about the twist? (especially if the twist is meant to be a surprise)
If your opinion of a character is influenced by something unexpected they did, is it fair to include it in your discussion of a character?
I also see people give trigger/content warnings in books and I suspect those might be a form of spoilers as well. Do you view them in the same way?
I generally think that endings are crucial to the book, which is why I don’t really shy away from spoilers unless I somehow feel that it’s critical to the enjoyment of the book (weird, I know)! But I wonder if my attitude also comes from the fact that if I don’t discuss the ending of a book, I often do not have that much to say about the plot! After all, one major component of the plot and whether it’s satisfying is how it’s resolved.
So I’m very curious! How do you handle spoilers in your book reviews? Do you shy away from talking about any type of plot twist, or do you have your own boundaries as to what is acceptable to discuss is a review?
No such thing as ‘spoilers’. If a book or movie or whatever is good enough how does talking about it then spoil it? Rosebud was his sleigh. Romeo AND Juliet BOTH die at the end. Now you can never watch Citizen Kane again or read (or watch) Shakespeare. Ruined them both for you. You’re welcome.
Sometimes I’ll include spoilers and sometimes I won’t, but I always make sure to clarify whether or not I’ve done so in the title of the post. That way it’s up to the reader whether or not they want to engage, or to what extent.
Using the title is a good way! I’ve done that once or twice when the spoiler is particularly major so that people can skip the whole post if they prefer
I do mention the fact that there might be a huge twist near the end when I just can’t help it, when a twist gets me very excited basically. Though I always try to avoid spoilers in my reviews. Mostly because I don’t really like reading them in other reviews myself, especially when it’s a review about a book I have yet and would like to read. Though I’m fine with spoilers in other people’s reviews when I’ve already read the book.
Yes sometimes the twist is what I want to talk about too! I guess at the end of the day, there are two possible reasons why book reviews exist:
1. To sell the book (in which case you probably shouldn’t include spoilers)
2. To talk about the book (in which case spoilers are probably fine because everyone will want to discuss it)
Scenario 2 might be closer to a book club scenario, though
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Cool, sorry, I was just checking if this post would let me comment.
In general, I assume that my audience is not going to read the book I am reviewing. There are just sooo many good books out there that I doubt they’ll get to it, even if they do read in the same genres I do, which isn’t true for everyone. Or if they do get to it, it might be years from now, and my review will have faded from memory. So, on my blog, I spoil freely when necessary (which it isn’t always). If I am really trying to sell the book, I might hold off on the spoilers and just try to say something enticing.
On Goodreads, which is the only other place I post reviews, you can select “hide entire review because of spoilers.”
Or, the book I’m reviewing is a really old one, like an Agatha Christie, and if it hasn’t been spoiled by now, it never will be. Also, some books (Christie is a good example) are sooo complicated that it would be hard to really spoil them without essentially giving a long-form summary of the plot.
Woohoo the comments are working again!
Good point about how old the book is. And perhaps how popular the book is – if you haven’t heard the ending of Hunger Games or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, etc by now, then I’m not sure how you managed to find the one book review that spoiled it to you.
Perhaps spoilers are really more important when you’re using the review to “sell” books, especially those who are just released.
These days I give a warning if what I’m discussing will be a major spoiler for folks, but in general I thinking reading a spoiler isn’t such a big deal. I go about my reviews as if writing for myself (which is maybe a bit selfish). I include what I would have wanted to know if I was reading it, which is most things, lol. If I don’t want to be spoiled for a book, I won’t read reviews of it. And often if I am spoiled, if the book is done really well, I’ll still have a reaction to it when it pops up or sometimes forget what the spoiler is.
I also write reviews for myself (and I do check them so it’s a system that works haha). True that if I don’t want to be spoiled, I’ll go out of my way to avoid spoilers. Otherwise, I’m normally okay about the topic!
I remember a time I liked to discuss spoilery elements within my reviews and would use html gimmicks to include them invisible and allow those who want to read about it to read them. I stopped and learned over the years that I now just prefer talking about things without getting into the details, I write my reviews in a way that I know future me, when he’ll have forgotten about said book/movie/whatever, that he’ll appreciate what I’ll have to say and remember what made that book so good/bad and encourage him to reread/rewatch knowing those relatively vague things hahah
Nice that you found a system that works for you! I don’t think I ever figured out how to avoid spoilers using html so it’s amazing you went to all that trouble!
If I really have to talk about the spoiler, like I needed to explain why I feel certain way, I would mention on the top of the post that it has spoilers and make different section for it (most likely at the end of the post) so readers can avoid it.
Oooh, making it all the way at the bottom could be a good idea actually! It would be easier for people to skip it if they didn’t want to be spoiled