Posted by There was a post on Twitter a few months back where a writer (and I honestly do not remember who it was nor am I going to go back thru my feed) tweeted how they felt it was disrespectful to the writer to give spoilers away in reviews. And although I understand, I’ve got to tell you that it is hard to stick to that mantra. There are events or details that happen in novels that I NEED to discuss. Examples:
- Hard No’s: Main characters raping the heroine, steamy scenes with food involved (I’m not a fan of food in the bed)
- How Dare You moments: When a hero gets upset with the heroine regarding her past conquests when you know full well he is or was a man-whore himself (hypocrite)
- Swoon-worthy moments that will make any romantic gush
- Steamy, sexy times scenes that will make you blush
I promise you this…when I do write about spoilers, I warn the reader ahead of time with emojis and bold letters (Looks like this: 💥💥 WARNING: SPOILER-ISH COMMENTS BELOW 💥💥). And I normally write some sort of paragraph encouraging my reader to go read the book first then come back. Could I be anymore respectful than that?
On GR, you can always mark your review as containing spoilers. On the many, many book podcasts out there (Shout out to the Heaving Bosoms Podcast whom I adore), the hosts discuss the books which surely gives the plot away. Is that disrespectful?
It is obvious that I am slightly annoyed by this tweet. Maybe I should start calling my book reviews: Book Reviews / Book Club Discussion (or something a little more clever) and put a disclaimer before I even begin.
What do you think? Should a book blogger or a reviewer on GR give spoilers away? Do you find it disrespectful? I would love to know your thoughts.
People usually put disclaimers when there are spoilers but I feel once you read a book you gotta talk about it somehow! Why not through a book review? Also food in bed with sex!?? Where on earth did you read this??
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One example as a recent, there is a honey scene in one of Christina Lauren’s novels (Beautiful Player). And after, they didn’t shower immediately. Totally gross IMO.
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Oh god!
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I think spoilers in reviews are fine as long as they’re properly marked so those who don’t like being spoiled don’t get spoiled. I like reading reviews by people I’m following before deciding to pick a book up usually, and I generally don’t like being spoiled except for like general content warnings. I think another way to do it might be to make a review and a discussion (with spoilers) into two separate posts if you’re worried about accidentally disrespecting authors!
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