Q&A with Hayley of Hayley’s Reviews, a YA Book Blogger

by Beth Barany · Published May 26, 2015 · Updated May 27, 2015

Please welcome Hayley of Hayley’s Reviews. In the Q&A, an occasional interview series with book bloggers, she shares with us why she loves to review books while she’s still a high school student in Canada, and more.

Read on!

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1. Please tell us about yourself.

My name is Hayley Guertin, and I live in Ontario, Canada with my mom and my dog Jax. I got into reading when I was 10, and even before that, I used to pick books over toys anytime. My hobbies include listening to music and working on reviews. (I feel like I’m on a dating website.)

2. Why do you like to review books?

I enjoy reviewing books because I like getting the word out on books that I’ve enjoyed. It’s very interesting to me how writing a review for a certain book can give it exposure, regardless if it was a good or bad review. When I was 11 I had a good grasp at internet things and decided to take a shot at doing book reviews, because I knew it was something people did. I’ve been reviewing ever since then.

HAYLEY GUERTIN, YA book blogger, for independent authors: http://hayleyreviews101.blogspot.com/

3. How do you make your reviewing decisions?

I don’t have any specific way of choosing which books to review. As long as it’s ok for someone my age, I will accept to review it. I enjoy any type of story, as long as it’s written well. I didn’t even know that authors give free review copies to people for reviews until I started the blog, so I was pretty surprised and accepting of all genres when I started.

4. What is important to you in a good book?

Diversity has to be the most important thing for me in a book. Whether it be in the characters’ race, diversity in their sexuality, gender, ext. It has to be realistic, no matter what genre it is. The world isn’t just made out of straight, white males or females.

5. Why do you have a YouTube channel?

I have a YouTube channel because I know that it helps a lot with exposure. It’s also something that I think is fun to do and I feel it would help with my social anxiety. Doing YouTube for indie authors is something that I especially wanted to do because there are a ton of channels of reviewers reading books they bought at the store, whereas I can bring in books that are only available on Amazon and introduce them to the world.

6. I know you’re only 15 years old. What triggered the decision to start book reviewing and reaching out to authors when I’m sure you have tons of homework to do?

Honestly, that was decided rather quickly. At the time that I started doing reviews, I would finish my homework in class, and I would have nothing to do. Being someone who is always trying to find things to read or write about, I thought it was a great way to occupy my time all the while being able to vent about a book I liked. Nowadays, I have much more homework to do which leaves me with a lot less time to read and write, but I like doing this too much to stop because of school.

7. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview. Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you, the books you like to review, etc.?

You’re welcome! I do have a piece of advice to kids out there. Don’t give up on something you want to do because you feel overwhelmed. It gets easier to manage life as you grow up, and even though I’m smack in the middle of growing up, I know that it will get better eventually. Follow your dreams, because you never know where they’re going to take you.

Sorry I got all sappy there. I also wanted to say that if you’re ever looking for something specific to read, you can always ask me about it at any of my social media sites!

HAYLEY GUERTIN, YA book blogger, for independent authors: http://hayleyreviews101.blogspot.com/

ABOUT HAYLEY: In her own words

Hi there! My name is Hayley Guertin, and I am 15 years old. Reading is my absolute passion. I love sharing my opinions on what I read with the world, as well as talking to authors about their books! I love reading independent author books as well as popular ones, they are all good! I am looking forward to seeing where this [blog] will take me.