Kirkus

I wish I had read more comments online before spending $674 on a Kirkus review. I naively assumed that for that amount of money I would receive a discerning analysis that at worst would yield a quotation or two that could be used to market the book. That's not what happened. Like others, I received a vacuous summary that read more like a book report written by a lazy high school student--who sprinkled in a few quotations to demonstrate they had "read" the book--than a professional review. While the "review" was not negative, there was no critical engagement and not one sentence worth quoting or one positive comment about a book that has been praised elsewhere. The only hint at criticism was a peevish complaint that the book is too long and there are too many deaths--six over a period of fifty years.

In my experience it is evident that Kirkus does not offer a service commensurate with the cost of a review and that it takes advantage of the good faith of people who have put a lot of time and effort into their work. A brief examination of comments online supports the perception that the reviewers are unqualified, even apathetic, readers looking to pick up a little extra income who are not governed by uniform standards or professional oversight.

You may have written a very good book, but don't believe the reviewers at Kirkus will make the effort to read your work carefully or write a few words to acknowledge that.

As a first time fiction writer, I naively paid several hundred dollars for a book review. What I got was a vacuous, snarky book report that was grammatically correct, but not much else. If this had been turned in by an eighth grade student, my comment would have been "See me after class" and my first question would have been, "You didn't read the book, did you?" and regardless of the answer, I would have given the student an F.
This is the kind of report a lazy student could write after reading the blurb on the back cover, plus the first, last, and a few middle pages.
There was no discussion of theme, writing style, use of symbolism, character development (not a single character was mentioned by name,) conflict, or plot turning points.
Unlike others, I did not give up when the company refused to either re-do the review or refund my payment. I disputed the charge with my credit card company, and after much correspondence by certified mail, including a copy of the so-called review and a point by point rebuttal of major inaccuracies in the plot summary, got a full refund.
I could have saved myself a ton of aggravation if I had researched this company before making this purchase.

Kirkus chose a reviewer who feels sonnets are 'outdated' to review my book of sonnets.

This despite Kirkus' statement that it will use its "best efforts to provide a review that is impartial and unbiased."

I got sucked in and paid way too much money for the reviewer to tell me my children's book was "too white". I didn't realize that books were now being based on wokeness instead of the creativeness of the story and the illustrations. Who vets these reviewers? Clearly they are letting anyone in the door there.

BookLife also does paid reviews and I tried them out, hoping they had high quality reviews. They don't! They are a ripoff copy of the Kirkus scam model.
$400 for a fake review where the reviewer is a flunk-out English major getting paid for doing nothing but pretending to carefully read a novel. Hah!
I am regretting that I learned the hard way about paid "book reviews." They are not real reviews by qualified book lovers. They're just ez money for doing nothing.
From now on, I will buy no reviews. I will only use volunteer reader reviews, free and more accurate. You should too.
My reviewed novel is "BRAVE NEW MARS" a wonderful scifiction novel about how life on new Mars has been bought out by a multi billionaire who effectively OWNS the government and its court system and is able to punish people who don't buy into the commercial economic system. https://amazon.com/author/allenmeece

The Awakening of Adam Capello

Like most writers with their first book, I was eager to gain a professional review, so I spent £270 with some trepidation. After 6ish weeks I received the review promptly but was rather dissapointed. Not so much by what they said, but by what they left out. It seemed quite apparent that the reviewer had not read my whole book as he left a fundamental element out, that being the recuring image of a skull in his past lives. As you go through the book, they become more and more important and lead to an important twist at the end.
I complained and they were very good at replying and investigating, but eventually said that due to a 'hard word count' they could not include everything so would leave certain details out! In this case, it is like leaving out Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics' out of 'I Robot'... it doesn't work?
So if they did not read the whole book, how can they review it properly?
I had to really push for a definative answer to whether the reviewer read the whole book and he finally, reluctantly, said they had. I am not convinced, but how can I prove otherwise. A waste of money in my opinion.