In this world of online sharing and 'liking', The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is a timely, innovative, and original piece of work. Analyzing a wide range of review websites with a combination of discourse analytic methods, the book is certainly an important contribution to the growing field of internet linguistics. -- Carmen Lee, Assistant Professor of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong Reputation and ranking through online comment and review are a notable feature of contemporary consumer culture. Based on an analysis of a corpus of 1000 such texts, Vasquez shows how reviewers deploy discursive resources to provide advice, warning and product endorsement. This is an important contribution and makes the book an essential for anyone who is interested in the study of online discourse. -- Guy Merchant, Professor of Literacy in Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Camilla Vasquez' detailed study of online reviews explores a fertile topic for language research, ranging over reviews of hotels and restaurants, consumer goods, movies and recipes. Linguistic topics covered include the discourses of evaluation and identity, intertextuality and narratives of personal experience. The book is clearly and engagingly written throughout and is full of original insights into the dynamics of language online. -- David Barton, Professor of Language and Linguistics, Lancaster University, UK An innovative approach to important, but hitherto overlooked genres of online interaction. Inviting and accessible to non-linguists, and sure to inspire more linguists to engage with these important contexts of situated interaction. Richly and painstakingly researched, featuring a beguiling exploration of the intersections of involvement and intertextuality with a thoughtful eye to the importance of narrative in identity and connection. A must-read for students! -- Anna Trester, Director, MA Program in Language and Communication, Georgetown University, USA The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is an accessible and insightful overview of the ways people write online reviews. The book is the first large-scale linguistic study of this important material, and covers an impressive number of the significant review sites from an equally impressive number of linguistic perspectives. The linguistic discussion is rigorous, but presented clearly and with plenty of engaging examples so that students and researchers from many fields can benefit from this well-thought out study. -- Ruth Page, Reader in English Language, University of Leicester, UK This is a must read for marketing communication scholars and marketing practitioners. Vasquez has produced the first comprehensive examination of how language in online reviews reveals the nature of reviewers' experiences with products and services, their identities, and even their interactions with and impacts on other readers of online reviews. Bravo to Vasquez for producing a seminal work on the discourse of online reviews. -- Peter Cardon, Associate Professor, Center for Management Communication at the University of Southern California, USA The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews is meticulously documented, richly illustrated and relevant: it showcases the merits of a linguistically minded approach to a digital genre of undeniable importance for the social life and consumption habits of millions. Drawing with dexterity on a broad canvas of latest advances in discourse and narrative analysis for the exploration of identities, Vasquez has provided an indispensable map for future studies of digital genres. -- Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor of Discourse Analysis & Sociolinguistics, King's College London, UK Vasquez analyzed 1,000 reviews of hotels, restaurants, movies, consumer products and recipes from five sites: Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Epicurious and Netflix. As she explains in the new scholarly book...the patterns in reviews reveal insights about the state of the English language and the mind of the modern consumer. -- Michael Erard The New York Times
