Ask the author: Should authors review other authors’ books?

Dear Mandy,

Should authors review other authors’ books?

Short answer: Yes—but do it with intention, professionalism, and an awareness of the ecosystem you’re participating in.

Longer answer: I believe authors reviewing other authors’ work can be a genuinely good thing. We’re part of a shared creative community, and thoughtful engagement helps readers discover books while also raising the level of conversation around storytelling. That said, how you review matters just as much as whether you review.

On my own blog, I keep my literary criticism constructive. I talk about what worked for me and what didn’t, but I frame those “didn’t” moments as areas where something could have been stronger—not as the author doing something wrong. That distinction matters. It keeps the focus on craft rather than tearing down the person behind the work. If a book ultimately wasn’t for me, I’ll still highlight the kinds of readers who would connect with it, because every book has an audience—even when I’m not it.

Where I draw a firmer boundary is with Amazon reviews. I don’t post there unless my feedback is 100% positive. A single negative review can disproportionately harm a book’s visibility—especially for indie authors who don’t yet have a wide readership to balance things out. That’s not a system I’m interested in gaming or contributing to in a harmful way.

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I also think it’s important to be transparent about how you evaluate books. For me, a three-star rating is the baseline: a perfectly average, readable book that does its job but doesn’t necessarily linger. Four stars means it rises above that—there’s something notable in the execution. Five stars (which I give sparingly) signals a book that sticks with me, something I’ll likely include in my best-of-the-year list. On the other end, two stars means the book is readable but has significant issues, and one star means I wouldn’t recommend it at all—whether due to craft, professionalism, or deeply problematic elements. What I don’t do is downgrade a book simply because it wasn’t written for me. Taste and target audience aren’t flaws.

If you’re an author considering reviewing other books, my advice is simple: be generous, be specific, and be fair. You don’t have to love everything you read, but you should always respect the work enough to engage with it thoughtfully.

If you’re curious about the specific criteria I use when reviewing, you can check out my full rubric here.

Do you trust reviews more when they include critique, or do you prefer purely positive recommendations when choosing what to read next?

This column is part of an ongoing Ask the Author series, where I answer questions from writers and readers about reading, writing, storytelling, and the creative process. If you have a question you’d like me to tackle in a future post, you can submit it through my contact page.

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Now that Jack has been forced to reflect on everything he has to lose, he resolves to do better. He’s determined to spend more time at home with his family and repair the relationships that have suffered over the years while he’s been so focused on work. But as Callie’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, Jack realizes he has a lot more room to improve than he realized – and it might be too late to save his daughter after all.

For fans of We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push, and Baby Teeth.