Good morning !
By definition, we kind of know what a spoiler means. I mean, quite simple ; Not tell the ending of a story/movie/etc.
However, This is something I kind of always struggle with, as I want all my reviews to be spoiler-free.
Exemple; If a person go into diverse challenges to save the world.
Now it makes sense that upon doing a review, we shall not say what are the challenges in itself and if the person end up succeeding or not in their quest. That’s a given.
However.. What if I talk about the person’s mindset, aka if they end up describing a panic attack? What if I talk about the characters they meet along the way?
As a general rule of thumb, I always try to be as vague as possible. In my mind, if I don’t give out something that let you know what the ending will be like, and if you don’t know for sure where in the book that will happen .. It shouldn’t be considered a spoiler, right ?
I am not a someone who really cares to see a spoiler or not, so that’s why i’m mostly anxious of upon what I think is right or not – last thing I wanna do is put a spoiler while thinking it’s not one !
So what’s a spoiler for you ?
- Does it includes ALL the sides of the story, or just the main story line/plot?
- Is there things that you’d say is less bothering than others ?
- Do you agree with my way of thinking ?
- Do you includes some spoilers or are you choosing to keep your reviews spoiler-free like me ?
I have always been really careful about not spoiling anything. If I feel like there is something I must absolutely comment on that is a spoiler? I put a big huge warning and a lot of space before I say it.
I also put a warning at the top of the blog that at the very end I will give another warning and a lot of space before a potential spoiler. This is to err on the side of caution. Not sure if that might help?
Now also I recently had a friend read my review of The Chosen before I posted because I have a tendency to blabber incoherently when I love a book. And am trying to really get better at that. Now I didnt think to show him the synopsis of the book first (my bad). But when he read it he looked at me and was like but I dont really know anything and then said but my guess is you are trying not to spoil anything either. And when I asked him what he did know. He did summarize the book and what I was trying to get across. Then it dawned on me that unlike the audience I was writing for he didnt know The Chosen from a hole in the wall.
So I read the synopsis to him and he reread the review and the lightbulb went off. So that made me feel better that in context I’d given enough without saying too much.
I’m not sure I’m helping much here. But it is a difficult line to draw and I think spoilers mean different things to different to most people but for MOST I think it is basically to not give away the ending and ALL the details. Just enough to back up your opinion and get your point across. Make sense?
That’s good that your friend got it after reading the synopsis ! That’s my case alot of the time.. Sure I know the titles and covers from seeing them on other blogs, but what it’s actually about ? I have absolutely NO CLUE XD So I generally like a brief paraphrase of it, atleast to give me a slight idea of what it’s about.
It is very difficult indeed.. yeah, sort of. being as vague as possible is probably our best bet on that side.
I think a spoiler is more connected to the plot than the character’s inner self. There are of course, plot related character changes, like grief after a death. I don’t think panic attacks mental health problems in the same vein are spoilers, and in some cases, should be shared as trigger warnings.
I try to keep my reviews vague- X and Y go on a mission to do Z. I try to include the different types of rep and trigger warnings because I often find myself wanting to read something that reflects my experience and if I read reviews before it’s often just one other person with the same experience or i read it and it’s a surprise.
Yeah that’s what I think too ! I try to mention triggers as much as I can, if I was conscious of any.
Being as vague as possible seems to be a good way to be sure not to spoil anything 😅
I love spoilers lol which is why I rarely talk about books that I’ve read on either my blog/any social media. It’s already hard to write a review and it becomes harder if my review becomes restricted due to not be able to give out an explanation on why I like/dislike something about the book.
Oof yeah-but you know is you put a disclaimer that it may include spoilers you’re good!
As a person that hates spoilers and avoids them at all costs, I considering anything plot related that is not listed in the book’s synopsis a spoiler. So your question about characters would be no unless it is tied to a major plot development. I usually don’t have an issue with this because I don’t rehash the plot in my reviews, talking more about character development, writing style, pace, and worldbuilding.
So that means, I usually stay out of trouble then 🤔 as I avoid talking of the main plot.
Thanks alot for that little piece of advice! Xx
I definitely try to stay away from plot spoilers, but I agree that a lot of times it can be hard to talk about even things like character development without worrying that you’re creeping into the spoiler-zone. I always try to use my best judgment and err on the side of being cautious (I sometimes put things behind spoiler tags if I’m not sure).
Right, if anything I can always put a « spoiler alert bar », I was more onto the impression that it had to be one or the other – not a mix of the two like that. Thank you!