Review Policies and Rating Guide

PLEASE NOTE: Because this is a horror blog, the reviews will cover disturbing/scary material for entertainment purposes. Expect to see creepy and upsetting things in the reviews and illustrations including, but not limited to, swearing, blood, gore, violence, skeletons and corpses, demons, ghosts, images and/or mentions of deceased people, the supernatural, and "creepy" animals such as spiders and snakes. All of these things are likely to appear without a content warning as they are all common horror staples. While I try to keep my language clean in the reviews for kid's books, there will probably be swearing in the Y/A and Adult reviews. If any of these things disturb, offend, or trigger you, please, DO NOT read this blog for your own well being. By reading the blog, it's assumed that you are willing to be frightened and disturbed for your own entertainment. Read more about content warnings below.

Disclaimer

• All the stories will fall in the horror and/or thriller genres. 
• I will be reviewing fiction only. Some historical fiction, but I want to steer clear of horror stories about real people.
• The stories will contain characters, preferably main characters, who are BIPOC, queer, and/or disabled. 
• Right now I will be focusing only on novels and novellas, no graphic novels or poetry collections. 
• I'll try and tag posts with content warnings, but keep in mind this site is dedicated to a medium that's supposed to frighten and disturb its audience. There will be discussions and depictions of death, violence, suffering, and all manner of creepy creatures, so if that's not your cup of tea you may want to visit a different website. Scroll down to learn more about content warnings.
• I'm not going to review supernatural romances as they're not horror stories. It's fine if it's a horror story with romance in it, but the emphasis should be on the horror and frightening the reader. Supernatural romances are usually just strait romances and/or speculative fiction not intended to induce terror.
• I am not being paid, nor receiving any kind of compensation from the publisher or author for these reviews. 
• Everything I review has either been purchased by me, or is being borrowed from the library or other rental service, unless otherwise specified.
• REMEMBER! These reviews are reflections of my personal opinion, and therefore highly subjective so I encourage everyone to check out the stuff I review and decide for themselves what they think. Just because I dislike something doesn't make it "bad", and just because I like something doesn't mean it's "good". Everything is relative. The only time I will discourage people from reading a book is if it's content is deeply problematic. 

Review Policies for Authors

• I only review books that fall into the horror genre and are diverse reads preferably own voices. This means your book needs to contain a major character, preferably the protagonist, who is BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or disabled. I also give preference to own voices books.
• I do not review poetry collections or graphic novels at the moment.
• If your book contains sexual assault, sexual abuse or pedophilia PLEASE WARN ME BEFORE HAND, especially if it's described in explicit detail. It won't negatively affect my review as long as the subject matter is handled well, 
• My preferred format is epub (as I use a Kindle reader) but I will accept other file types as well. I am not currently accepting print books. 
•  Please keep in mind I write reviews, not promotions. If I didn't enjoy your book then my review will reflect that. If your book has problematic content (including but not limited to offensive stereotypes, the perpetuation of rape culture, misogyny, transphobia, racism, ableism, etc.) I will point that out. By sending me your book to review you are accepting the possibility that it may be negative. If that doesn't work for you I'm probably not not the right reviewer for you.
• To contact me to review your book you can email me at diversityhorror(at)gmail(dot)com. 

ALT Text

I try to put alt text on all images (I'm an artist, there are a lot of images) to make the blog more accessible for people who use screen readers. Unfortunately, blogger seems to have a character limit for alt text, so I have to keep the image descriptions short and sweet. Sorry about that. Full disclosure, I don't know that much about screen readers, and I'm kind of figuring it out as a go, so feedback is appreciated.

Ratings

To judge this I look at the writing, the characters, and the plot. Does the writing flow smoothly, or is it awkward and clunky? Does the dialogue sound natural, or forced? Are the characters interesting, or flat and bland? Does the plot draw me in, or put me to sleep? Are there unique and creative ideas? These are all things I keep in mind when rating a book. Stereotypes can also hurt the score. I grade this score on a bit of a curve, and give a little more leeway to independent publishers, novice novels, and self-published books since the authors aren't going to have as much experience or editing resourced that a novel from a big publisher by a seasoned author would have. I also tend to dislike, to put it mildly, romance novels, especially they insipid, abusive, drama-filled kind *cough*Twilight*cough*. 

I currently use the following rating system: Highly recommended, Recommended, and Not Recommended (saved only for poorly written or offensive books).