Reviewers. We love you. I hope you know that. You're wonderful, nice to your reviewees, and you're a pleasure to work with.  

We appreciate all you do, and we know your job isn't easy. Hopefully, though, you don't hate us too much.

Anyway, a lot of people seem to be having trouble with the new form we posted a couple of contests ago. So, I decided to post an example of a review I did a few weeks ago. I chose this one because the book was an exceptional book, and I've noticed that some of our reviewers are not grading with a discerning eye. 

In other words, I read everyone's reviews, guys, then I read the same chapters, and I'm finding things that are sending up red flags. 

Now, please, don't read this in the mean voice I know you're reading it in. I simply mean that we have people that are giving points for things they shouldn't be. 

Take the sci-fi contest so far. Most of our books are receiving grades in the 90s. Guys, that is a really high score. It should be difficult to get that score. A 90-100 score should be our golden goose, but I'm seeing full points handed out left and right. 

This is telling me several things: we're either not really reading, some of us have signed up to take too many books, or we're just not understanding the form. 

Now, you'll notice that on this book review, I gave the author a 91.5. That was because I loved this book, and you'll notice that my review reflects that. I took points where I felt she deserved to lose them and I explained why. I explained why I liked it, I justified my scoring. 

NEW RULE: I'm going to start asking people to elaborate if I see a score higher than 90 without a clear reasoning.

In example, no more: (20/20)Your story is well developed. I think the plot needs to speed up a bit more. I'll be reading more though!

There is nothing specific about that. If I see that in my review of your reviews I will ask you to tell me in exact terms what you liked about the plot. 

Okay? And I'll make sure to ask nicely, cause you won't be in trouble. I just need to know that you actually gave it thought and read the text. 

I think I'm being very reasonable in all this, and I hope everyone understands that you're not in trouble, and I'm not trying to chew you out. I honestly just want to give prizes out to the stories most deserving. 

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Example Review for Kaiku

Title: (10/10) Kaiku--- I love this. I don't know if it's just the fact that I would have never thought that up (or the story behind it), or if I just love the way it sounds when I say it, but it is definitely interesting. Cover: 5/5--- I wish, wish, wish I could give you more points for this, because your cover is great and was really what made me want to read your book when I flipped through our entries. I love the simplicity of it--- the planets, the fog aren't all that simple, but they aren't overpowering. The font is great and I absolutely love the way the title text fades into the clouds a bit. This is a wonderful example of how to use minimal text, but really draw the eye to the graphic! I don't know who made it, but they deserve a round of applause.Blurb: (6/10) Now this is where simplicity is going to cost you a bit. Your blurb is only two sentences. Brevity may be the sole of wit, but in this case I had to dock you a few points. You've given us the important information, the who's, what's, and (a hint) of the where, but other than that I wasn't drawn in (I will note that you didn't tell us when the story takes place, and that could be a wonderful intro!). Your title and cover would have made me pick up the book, but the blurb would have made me put it back down (not really because I'm a nicer reader than that, but I think you get the point). My suggestion would be to take some notes from Orson Scott Card and his Ender's series. Include some flair, space out who you're MC and the Keeki are, and insert some drama. Your tags say something about romance--- mention that.Grammar: (9.5/10)---> There're some odd word choices here and there, along with a few minimal typos. This isn't necessarily grammar, but sometimes there are some pretty big words thrown in out of nowhere (this tends to happen in the narration, which going off of your protagonist's age and personality so far, makes it seem unnatural).Characterization: (13.5/15) Secondary characters come off as flat, and the main character's personality is slowly taking shape. I thought that the Keekis are cool though. In fact, they're my favorite part of this entire book. I am officially in love with Tyne, but my one gripe is that I have absolutely no idea what he looks like, aside from blue scales and wings, and spiky blue hair (I'll go more into descriptions in the overall category). Plot (19/20):The plot itself is interesting, taking place on a newly discovered world, named Needles. I like the tension that is being created between the humans and the Keeki- from the language barrier to the secrets they're keeping from one another. There's not much else I can say, since we can only read three chapters, but I think you're going in the right direction. I do think your subplots (The Keeki having already been to Needles, and the romantic subplot brewing between Mile and Tyne (You may have noticed I have an obsession with these two/ I totally ship them already)), could use some tightening and more attention. Also, random note, but I think telling us when this takes place could help make it feel more authentic. Whether you go the traditional sci-fi route and post it like a journal date heading or some other way, I really think that will help center your universe and make it more relatable.Overall: (28.5/30) Cons: There was a definite info dump (especially in the second chapter). This tends to come through the narrative of the story. Try balancing it out between dialogue and Mile's thoughts. The dialogue feels like a very vague transcript or screen play--- no actions or facial cues. And then we're told their feelings from Mile's view, instead of being shown. Readers are smart and we love to infer things, so by throwing some actions in there and keeping Mile's thoughts to herself you're giving us something to work with. We don't have to know exactly what the character is feeling at that moment, and during my reading I felt like that you were trying to explain things the second they happened. Leave some cliff hangers. :) I felt like the story jumped from event to event too quickly--- I suggest using moments like when they play Ticket to Ride to build characterization, show us more about Tyne, rather than just simply saying, "He seemed to enjoy himself as the game progressed." I think you're trying to build a relationship between Tyne and Mile, so show us more of their interaction here to really cement that feeling. They shouldn't be lovey dovey, but maybe you could play with some flirting? Transition issues: A lot of your scenes are well built but the mini arcs between them are almost nonexistent. I noticed that most of the story follows this pattern, "We did this, and this, and then we did this," with no description of what is really going on between the "thises" XD. Random and I didn't take points off for this, but maybe split up chapter 1? It was soooooo long compared to the next two and took me forever to get through. Pros: I love the premise, I love the creativity I'm seeing with your alien race--- I'm interested in seeing your major conflict come into play. Your work has a professional-like vibe (I'm guessing you're going through and editing atm).