As 2025 starts, you might have the resolution to read more this new year, whether you are an avid reader or you are forced to pick up a book for English class. As you browse the shelves looking for the right book, you might notice something: you look at the back of the book or on the inside flap (if it’s a hardback), hoping to learn what the book is about, only to find reviews from big newspapers saying the book is “unputdownable” or “one of a kind.”
I’ve been noticing this frustrating pattern for a while, and maybe you have too. This is a new habit publishers have started to do: prioritizing reviews over synopses or blurbs on book covers. There used to be a mix of reviews and synopses but lately, there has been a change to only having reviews. The obvious reason they’ve been putting reviews is to attract customers by showcasing an author or newspaper they deem trustworthy so they are more likely to pick up the book. On paper that doesn’t sound bad, but there are clear issues with this and how it’s done.
If you dislike an author, then you will completely ignore the book or judge it based on the people who are endorsing it. It’s only human nature to judge a book based on its reviews. The problem with this is you might love the book, it might even become one of your favorites, but since you are judging it based on the reviews and not what the book is actually about, you will miss out. Most authors don’t decide if they want reviews on their books, this is based on the publisher. Reviews of books are also very unhelpful to the reader since they tend to be vague about the authors themselves and very little about the book.
They also make reading more intimidating for people who want to get back into the hobby. Many people have told me they want to get back into reading, but if you go to a bookstore and you only see reviews it’s hard to know what to read since it’s all a mesh of positive comments, which leads me back to my next problem. If you look at a new book and only see reviews you will have no idea what the book is about and are more likely to just pick up a familiar book since you don’t have to search what the book is about.
Reviews are directly hurting books of smaller authors and are annoying readers since most don’t want to go on their phones every few minutes to search for what the book is about. The switch to having a synopsis instead of a review on the back will help smaller authors and readers by giving smaller and less popular books the chance to be read. It is more convenient which is why I think the book publishing industry should bring back synopses.
