Where to find good book reviews?

[Seraphim]

I was talking with a friend of mine, and we were discussing how hard it is to find places to read about people's opinions on books that aren't surface level and mostly pleasant. I recently finished Sanderson's Way of Kings and Bujold's World of Five Gods series, and trudging through google results yielded reviews that were fairly positive if shallow. Which are fine, and have a place in discussions about books. But I think I want to find more pieces leaning towards critique. 

I would love to hear where Melonlanders go to find balanced or in-depth reviews/critiques on books! And any format is interesting, forums, blogs, YT channels, zines, discussing in the town square.

Maybe I should start a blog to keep track of book thoughts?...

[mozelle]

avid reader here ! 

here r my personal faves !!   

LibraryThing , Goodreads,
onlinebookclub

I'd also recommend youutube!!!! thers generally small communities u can find with ur taste and probably have servers n stuff you can join !! but I'd recommend trying the forums first !!! 

[Eunice]

Good reads is okay, but I find that most people just write a summary of the plot of a book. Which is not really a review.

[di]

I'd also love to know Reading book reviews is almost as fun as reading books.

I usually used Goodreads, but I'd have to dig deep to find the more thoughtful and less shallow reviews. I've kind of weaned myself off of Goodreads, though, because I don't like Amazon. Then I used Storygraph, but the UI isn't all that great for longer writing in my opinion, and you can't filter what kind of reviews you see.

You could try looking the book up on Marginalia Search instead of google; Marginalia tends to lead to more sites with genuine content. You're more likely to hit on a hobbyist's blog.

[Rose]

I just use Goodreads too but I feel like a lot of the reviewers on there have a sort of "reviewer persona" they use to post these personality-filled reviews which I'm not a big fan of.

It would be nice to find a blog where one person is writing reviews and they have an enjoyable writing style that is fun to follow. Not sure if that exists or not. It seems like it must?! There's tons of readers out there 🙂

ALSO I wanted to reply because if you like Brandon Sanderson's stuff I assume you are a bit of a fantasy novel buff... I got really into the Cradle series by Will Wight a couple of years ago and it's so fantastic that I recommend it to everyone I meet  So if you are on the lookout for a new series... The audiobook is especially good. My only caveat is that the first book is a bit slow and it takes awhile to get into it but it _really_ takes off :D