Death of Serious Criticism: When was the last time you read a book review that was more than just short blurbs plastered on the back cover? When and how did the habits and culture around book reviews shift from long, serious deliberations to entertaining snippets and trendy videos? Over the years, the world has seen several crucial shifts in the literary world and how people consume and understand books. For the longest time, book reviews were considered an important, personal, and critical process that was approached with a certain air of seriousness and deep thought, which also felt exclusive. This exclusivity portrayed the literary world as a sterile wasteland of knowledge and sophistication, frequently overlooking the inclusion of more diverse voices. The history of this complex activity has shown a bias for specific types of books and how they are understood. However, it is more important to consider how these books are reviewed and critiqued.
In the past, reviewing books was considered an important job that was often delegated to experts in their field. Book critics were perceived as sharp, precise, and ferocious spectators who could take apart the entire framework of a literary work and scrutinise its pieces through a scathing lens. The words of a book critic could make or break the potential of the work that they are critiquing. However, the process of reviewing a book goes beyond just the trivial matter of whether the book itself is good or not. The work of a book or literary critic is to contextualise the literary medium and to hold it up against the larger backdrop of the ever-evolving world. For example, the literary reviews offered by the likes of Harold Bloom or Judith Butler are not merely about appreciating or downplaying a piece of literature. These great minds take time and effort to truly understand the work presented before them and they offer a review which is visceral and provoking.
The word ‘review’ used to hold a lot of weight because it was often allied with words like critique and analysis. However, modern-day book reviews are fast, trendy and always changing with the latest hot topics and literary trends. With the advent of the internet, book reviews became far more accessible. If you visit a website like Goodreads, you can find a myriad of book reviews, ranging from well-written and fleshed out to abstract and downright confusing. The internet bridged the gap between the audience and the literary world. No longer is a work of literary media immune from the grasping hands of its audience. Anyone from anywhere can write a review and there is no restriction on what they can say. This means that as our relationship with information changes, so does the way reviews are written and presented. People no longer have to sit down and write a review; they can simply use their phone to record something idealistic, loud and very in-the-moment. Reviews have lost their slow sense of deliberation, which made them meaningful in the first place. But who even needs a book review anymore when reading has become so much more accessible?
For the most part, this accessibility has been a positive change for the literary world because every time the written word is on the cusp of death, a wild book review will breathe a new life into its realm. However, the original intention and purpose of a review have been completely lost in the chaos of the new-age literary reform. No longer does the world have to rely on a book critic; people can simply open TikTok and watch hundreds of people reviewing books in an alarmingly short amount of time. TikTok in particular has become somewhat of a sore topic because of its ever-growing BookTok community.
Over the years, authors, budding writers and fans of the literary world have formed a buzzing network of reviews, drama and gossip which has completely rewritten how books are reviewed and perceived. Now you can find countless videos with carefully manufactured aesthetics and rows upon rows of meticulously organised books which serve as the backdrop of the intended “review”. People usually spent a few minutes giving their general thoughts about the trending fantasy novel of the month. The reviews are casual and focus more on the romantic tropes and character relationships. The language is often ridden with pop-culture references and Gen-Z terminology and there is usually a Taylor Swift song blasting in the background. Sometimes you will even find videos of people using only their facial expressions to review several books in one short video. They either offer a smile, a nod or a violent shaking of the head to convey how they feel about a book.
Any critique of the book itself is often met with a hint of performative allure. You can tell when someone is trying to start the latest BookTok drama or when someone is trying to get the attention of a wider audience or even the author themselves. Book reviews have become sensational entertainment for readers who want more action once they are done reading. The reviews are short-lived because they don’t really offer anything meaningful for the long run. The review disintegrates as soon as it is spoken into the world and that is the fleeting nature of book reviews in the new-age world.
BookTok, Blurbs, and the Death of Serious Criticism
While TikTok book reviews are the complete antithesis to traditional reviews, this phenomenon does not really begin with TikTok. The origins of this divergence are also rooted in celebrity endorsement for books and how a simple blurb from a famous individual is often passed off as a review. The Oprah seal of approval that has been stamped and stained on every book that Oprah has read in her book club was really the start of the demise of traditional book reviews. This small, unsightly sticker has spoken more words than a literary review ever could and it works.
As the world is introduced to more unconventional ways of expressing thoughts and opinions, the older rhetoric, traditions and attitudes will become more obsolete. With attention spans getting shorter and people becoming more impatient, no one is willing to sit down and read a review that is almost as long as a short story. Instant gratification, fast-paced performative language and intriguing gossip tidbits have overtaken the realm of the book review. Now people can use TikTok to provide a review that is far more straightforward and entertaining. On one hand, accessibility is a great way to make sure that book reviews are diverse and relevant. However, somewhere along the line we have lost the essence of what a book review is supposed to represent and what it tends to give back to the readers, which is now forever lost.