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Kara.Reviews

About This Site

Learn more about Kara and her approach to reviewing books.

Who Am I?

My name is Kara Babcock (she/her), and I’m a 33-year-old teacher from Thunder Bay, Canada. For a much more detailed bio, check out my personal blog.

I’ve reviewed every book I have read since I joined Goodreads in 2008. Although I originally began writing these reviews to help jog my poor memory, over time writing them became an end to itself. Writing reviews has improved my skills as a writer (and as a teacher of writing) immensely.

I started Kara.Reviews because I wanted to establish a platform for my book reviews independent of Amazon-owned Goodreads. Thank you for taking the time to visit my site!

In addition to writing book reviews, I co-host two podcasts:

I came out as transgender in 2020. You can read more about my journey on my blog if you’re curious. One consequence of having reviews back to 2008, however, is that some of them might refer to me as a cisgender man—because I thought I was one at the time I wrote the review! I’ve tried to update these reviews or add notes, but just keep this in mind as you browse.

How to Contact Me

I’m on Twitter as @tachyondecay. For longer inquiries, email me at [email protected]

Review Policy

I review every book I finish reading and rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. Abandoned books are only reviewed if I think I have enough interesting things to say. These are usually left unrated and shelved under “did not finish.” A book receives 1 star if I hated it or believe it has very few redeeming qualities. A 5-star book means I love it, although that doesn’t always mean it’s perfect.

How to Submit Books for Review

I love getting free books! I’m happy to accept both ebooks and physical books (if you can ship to Canada). I am open to books from indie authors as well as other authors and their agents or publishers.

However, if you only have a limited number of copies you can send out for review, please consider sending your book to someone else first. I can afford to buy books! I’d rather you send your book to a reviewer of colour, especially if they’re young.

Nevertheless, if you are still determined to send me a book, what I’m most likely to want to review:

Email me using the contact info above, and let me know how I can get your book (NetGalley is fine). If I agree to review your book, I’ll read it and then post my review according to whatever promotional schedule you like. I will indicate in the review I received a free copy of the book. I’m happy to post short versions of my reviews on Amazon, but you will probably have to nudge me, because I tend to forget about that.

I do not provide sensitivity reading or editing services.

Credits

She doesn’t just read and write a lot; she codes too. I built this site using Flask. Layout and design are done with Tailwind. Go ahead and view the source code on GitHub.

Most of the header backgrounds come from talented photographers on Unsplash, including: