Hello and welcome to the first SFF Community Spotlight interview here on Track of Words, where today I’m chatting to the brilliant Shazzie from Reader@Work and the Fantasy Book Critic team. The idea behind these interviews is to talk to some of the fantastic people who help make the online SFF book community such a fun, thriving space, to find out more about them and to celebrate all the great work they do. I’m planning on talking to bloggers, reviewers, podcasters, and hopefully publishing professionals too. For this first instalment I wanted to kick things off by talking to a really positive, passionate reviewer, and I couldn’t think of anyone better than Shazzie, who writes great reviews, is a fantastic advocate for authors, and is just an all-round enthusiastic presence online.
We covered lots of ground during the interview, including (but not limited to) wanting to talk to as many people as possible about books, the importance of accepting that it’s not possible to always be active online and posting great new content, the challenges and satisfactions involved in writing reviews, loads of great SFF book recommendations, and plenty more. So without further ado, check out the interview, have a read of some of the reviews and books that Shazzie recommends, and make sure you follow Shazzie on your online platform of choice!
Track of Words: To begin with, tell us a bit about yourself as a reader, and as a blogger/reviewer.
Shazzie: I have always had a love for stories, and I was always hungry for them as a child. Before I learnt to read well enough to keep myself busy with books, I would always ask my family to read to me, or tell me stories, and since I was a rather spoilt child, I would often get my way. I loved to read as much as I could get my hands on. As you can imagine, my library couldn’t keep up, and I always resolved to be able to read a wider variety of fiction when I grew up.
I started blogging a few months ago, on Instagram, because I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with the demands of traditional book blogging, but wanted to find peers who enjoy reading as much as I do. I then became a part of the wonderful Fantasy Book Critic (FBC) team a few months ago, and I couldn’t ask for a better set of people to work with. I mainly write reviews on FBC but I also make it a point to post consistently on Instagram and put up my reviews and free flow content on my blog (Reader@Work), and engage with the book community on Twitter.
ToW: How did you get into blogging/reviewing in the first place?
Shazzie: My decision to start micro-blogging on Instagram arose out of a need to connect with a community of readers who wanted to speak about books on a regular basis. While I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and family who read, it is still hard to speak about what I read simply because I burn through books a lot faster than them since I spend a majority of my free time reading, and looking for new reads. I abandoned the idea after a short while because I simply did not have the slightest idea of what makes a photo appealing. I returned after a while and started getting a bit better. One day I saw FBC put out a call for new reviewers, I took a shot and emailed them and that’s how I am here today.
ToW: What do you generally cover in your reviews? Do you stick to certain genres, publishers, story lengths etc. or do you enjoy covering a wide range?
Shazzie: I read a lot of speculative fiction. I lean toward fantasy and mythology the most, and occasionally a thriller that I find intriguing. Since there is so much variety in fantasy, I find it easy to read a lot of it without feeling burnt out. I have lately been trying to add more science fiction, self-published, and indie press books to my review pile in a slow fashion, but I am presently still a reviewer who focuses on traditionally published books. My aim is to be able to focus on all of them equally, but to move to this in a slow fashion without disrupting my throughput. I love reading books of different lengths, and I tend to sprinkle in a few novellas between chonky books, but I do think twice before I pick up anything that is over 600 pages long.
ToW: How do you choose what to review? Do you write about everything you read, or do you have a decision-making process for which books you’re going to cover?
Shazzie: I try to review everything I read, but if I only have negatives to say about a book I read, or if I feel indifferent about one, I do not write a detailed review. I do not want to spend my time writing overly negative rants, and do not feel that they would benefit anybody. I do leave a short note explaining why I felt that way and refrain from going into detail about the book. If I promised a review for it, I do write a detailed review in as fair a manner as I can, but only publish it after the publication date.
ToW: There are all sorts of ways to write a book review, but for you personally what makes a great review and what are you aiming for with your own reviews?
Shazzie: I try to write reviews that I would be drawn to. That would mean ones that don’t look to tell the audience to buy (or not) a book, but those that direct traffic effectively by expressing what did and did not work for them, because after all, reading enjoyment is very subjective. There are thousands of books that consumers can choose from, so I aim to write a review that talks about enough aspects of a book to help them get closer to making that choice, because it would mean a commitment of about 6-10 hours of their free time, which I’d rather they spend on books that work for them. If I help one person decide if a book needs to be in consideration for their shelf, I take it as a win.
ToW: What can you tell us about your process for writing a review?
Shazzie: My review process is very chaotic, and that’s the only constant! While I can read pretty fast, I do have trouble recalling all my observations, so I take the trouble to highlight certain passages in books, and to write some things down on my phone. But they all eventually go out of the window and my final review is something very different after a few stages of edits. My process for every review is different, simply because every book is different.
ToW: Tell us a bit about your latest review.
Shazzie: At the time of writing this, I have been working on catching up on everything I put off the last few weeks, so I am drawing to a blank. But, there is a series of books that I wish more readership for, simply because it is the most delightful set of books I have read in the last few months. Read my review of the first book in the Miss Percy’s Guide series by Quenby Olsen here, because the book (and its successor) is amazing.
ToW: Blogging and writing reviews can be a lot of hard work – what do you find the challenges to be?
Shazzie: When I write and publish a review, I find that I am never satisfied with it, and always think of more review points I missed out on. There is also generally a struggle to keep my platforms active when I don’t particularly feel up for it or behind on my reading, and have no drafts lying around, but I am slowly learning to be kind to myself when that happens, and to let go when I can’t be on track with all the latest happenings in the industry. It’s very easy to miss out on a lot if you don’t log in to Twitter for a while, and I have accepted that it is absolutely okay for that to happen.
ToW: What motivates you to keep coming back, and keep writing reviews?
Shazzie: For one, I make tons of review commitments and don’t have any option but to keep up with them! Jokes aside, I find that any interaction with a fellow blogger, an author, publicist or any of my audience that is positive is great motivation, and I am happy to be surrounded by members of the community that consistently engage with my content in any way that keeps me going when things seem like a lot of work. Any recognition for the time I put in to make content is always great, and it is super satisfying when I hear “I loved your review and bought a copy of [insert title here] book”. I want every one of them to know that I am very grateful and cherish those moments, and I never take them for granted, even if I do not always respond.
ToW: Do you have a particularly popular post that people keep checking out? If so, what do you think it is about that post which keeps people coming back to it?
Shazzie: That would be my review of Babel by R. F. Kuang, which you can find here. I don’t know if it is my best, but it certainly did well, and all I knew was that it was quoted by Harper Voyager US on Twitter. But a very kind writer I have met since I started blogging showed me that it was even blurbed (as Reader@Work) on the website, which I had no idea about. That was unexpected, but also very exciting. It is so nice to know that they actually read my lengthy review, and found it worthy of being called critical praise.
ToW: What would you say is your favourite book of the year so far, and why?
Shazzie: I have read many amazing books published in 2022, and have even been fortunate enough to read early copies of those that are due in 2023. This is generally a very hard question to answer, but my most memorable read would be The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. It is a fantasy horror standalone that is as entertaining and fast paced as it says a lot about motherhood, patriarchy, and the lengths people would go to, to protect those closest to them without being overly preachy, and I can confidently say that it will be a top contender for the spot by the end of the year. You can read my detailed thoughts here.
ToW: Are there any interesting trends in SFF, or in publishing as a whole, that you’re seeing a lot of at the moment?
Shazzie: There are two trends that I have observed lately that are very welcome for me. The first is a push to put books that are not set in non-eurocentric worlds on the shelves. It is lovely to see authors and readers of various different regions of the world write and read worlds and characters who are relatable to them and their upbringing. The second is that there seems to be a big investment in designing book covers that make it look almost irresistible. I admit that I have purely accepted review copies on this basis, and I am much better off for it.
ToW: If you’re not reading or working on reviews/posts etc., where can you usually be found?
Shazzie: When I am not doing my reviewing as I like to call it, I am reading, in the gym (currently on a hiatus), and generally drinking unhealthy amounts of tea and coffee.
ToW: Finally, tell us about the book (or books) that you’re most looking forward to reading in the coming weeks or months.
Shazzie: I really loved reading The First Binding by R. R. Virdi, and look forward to reading the sequel soon. It might be the only chonker I commit to next year. Apart from that, I hope I can read Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson before the next one is out.
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Thanks so much Shazzie for chatting to me, and for all the really interesting, inspiring ideas! If you haven’t already, I would really recommend checking out Shazzie’s reviews on whatever platform(s) you use – Instagram, Twitter, the Reader@Work site and/or the Fantasy Book Critic site.
I hope you enjoyed reading this interview as much as I did putting it together. I’ve got lots of great plans for future SFF Community Spotlight interviews, but I’d love to know what you think, and what you’d like to see in future interviews. Let me know (either in the comments below, or over on Twitter) if you’ve got any ideas, requests or suggestions!
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I agree with every factor that you have pointed out. Thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts on this.