Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts. Today topic is: Do You Read Reviews and Spoilers Before or After?
Do you like looking at reviews for books before you read them? Is reading reviews important to you when choosing what books to read next? Or do you prefer to wait until after you’ve read a book to look at reviews?
When I’m adding a book to my TBR, I depend largely on the synopsis and rating to make my decision, since nearly every book I add, I do so well ahead of its release date. As such, reviews are typically not available. However, on the occasion that I do add a book that has already been released, I like to browse a couple of reviews (with great care to avoid spoilers) if I’m not able to make a decision based on the synopsis and rating alone. Right before I start actually reading a book, I read the synopsis again just to refresh my memory, but I don’t look at reviews at that point because I like to form my own opinion of the book.
Reading reviews is important to me when I’m not sure if a book will be to my taste, but generally speaking I like to avoid doing so as much as I can. I think it’s more fun to look at reviews after reading a book to see if any other readers had the same thoughts about the story that I did.
Do you ever look at spoilers before you read a book?
I never look at spoilers before reading a book. Spoilers are literally among the worst things that can happen to a reader in my opinion and I do everything I can to avoid them, especially if the book in question is a very highly anticipated or popular one. Case in point, Chain of Thorns just released this week, and it’s going to be a minimum of another week before I have it in hand. So I am being very careful on all social media at the moment, particularly Twitter, where I’m making sure to only check my notifications and reply to comments, and basically avoiding scrolling through my feed at all costs because there’s bound to be someone posting about the book.
The only time I have ever looked at spoilers was if I was DNFing a book. When I don’t intend to finish reading a book, I usually scroll through spoilers if I can find any just to know how the story ends.
Do you look at the reviews and spoilers for a book before reading it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Worlds Unlike Our Own 
I tend to check out the average rating and might skim a few reviews to see if I can get a sense of why if I’m not sure. But at the same time if I’ve read an amazing review for a book I haven’t otherwise heard of, that’s enough to make me go and read it, so I guess it depends if I hear about the book or the review first aha. I always try to avoid spoilers though the best I can.
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That’s a great point! Seeing a great review for a book you haven’t heard of before can definitely be a great motivation to check it out too. Thanks for reading and commenting!
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Great entry!
My LTB: https://laurieisreading.wordpress.com/2023/02/03/lets-talk-bookish-all-about-reviews-and-spoilers/
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Thanks for reading and commenting!
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I’ve always been the kind of reader who avoids spoilers and I plan to keep it that way! 😂 The intentional looking up of spoilers when I’m excited to read something can feel like I’m ruining my own experience of the book, so I tend to avoid them until after I’ve read the book.
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Same here! Reading a spoiler, even one that isn’t a major reveal for the book, somehow takes away any anticipation and excitement I have to read that book and it’s just the worst thing ever!
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No I never look at spoilers but I will check the synopsis and Goodreads score if I’m on the fence on whether or not to read it. Interesting post!
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Thanks for reading!
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