How to Write a Proper Book Review

I once took a writing course where I was asked to write a review of a novel. I remember telling myself how easy that would be. “It’ll be a snap,” I thought. The instructor wanted to know what I thought of the book, right? It seemed so straightforward. As I sat down to begin work though, I quickly discovered that “It was good,” wasn’t going to cut it. And as I continued sitting there wondering what in the world I was going to do, I asked myself why the instructor wanted to know what I thought of the book. Was that really my goal? Is a book review written to merely express someone’s opinion? What’s the point of a book review, anyway?

Upon further reflection, I realized that writing a book review wasn’t about me telling someone else what I thought of a book, based on my preferences and opinions. It was more about me telling someone else what they might think of a book, based on the information shared in the book by its author; what it actually conveyed compared to what I thought it was meant to convey or what it would or should convey. And for me to share that information properly and effectively, I’d need to offer something less simple and straightforward than my initial inclination and something more along the lines of an analytical critique. I’d need to offer something with less personal opinion and more supportable fact. A sensible argument of sorts. Perhaps a conversation between the author, the person reading my review, and me. Yes, I’d certainly offer my opinion – after all, any argument is based on opinion, but that opinion would be more of a critical assessment. I’d also need some sort of an outline or a format – a structure (template) for my review. Something like that would make my life much less complicated.

In this post, I’m going to discuss a few things. I’m going to break what I share down below into pieces, so it’s easily digestible. First, I’ll explain what a book review is and what its primary purpose is. Second, I’ll explain how to assess the book that’s to be reviewed so the review makes the most sense. Third, I’ll explain what a book review contains; it’s parts and areas that generally need to be covered (a template, if you will). And finally, I’ll link to a few of my own reviews so you can see what a (hopefully) good review looks like.

Writing a book review shouldn’t be difficult. It’s like anything else; once you get the hang of what you need, what you should look for, and what a decent format for your work looks like, after the first one, each subsequent review should take less time to complete and be less complicated overall.

What is a Book Review? Why Write One?

To be clear, reviews can be written for a number of things, such as a variety of types of books and publications, events, exhibits, things, objects – and even phenomena. We’ve all seen or heard of restaurant reviews. Or reviews of fashion shows. Or movies. While these are very popular, for the purposes of this post, I’ll be focusing on actual book reviews and more specifically, reviews of novels – the type we buy from book stores or borrow from libraries to sit down and read on rainy days.

Book reviews are pieces of work that critique books. They offer arguments that accomplish a few things; they either agree or disagree with how a book is written – its style, what it accomplishes, whether or not it was pleasing to read, its organization, its character development, or its plot, among other things. Book reviews are meant to assist the reader of the review with coming to some sort of judgement about the book in question. Reviews are actual commentaries, not just summaries. We’ve all read comments on Amazon where the commenter simply writes a summary of a book. I’ve always wondered why they do that. It doesn’t tell the reader anything. Thank you for the summary, but how did that help me?

Consider:

As a young boy, Kvothe traveled with his family, who were part of the Edema Ruh. After his parents were killed, he entered the University to become a skilled magician. His life was tough, but he got by.

Versus:

Patrick Rothfuss dialed in on the Edema Ruh’s (traveling entertainers) struggle throughout history. For many, they were perceived as not knowing enough, but for some, they knew far too much. Kvothe traveled with his family and the Edema Ruh, but always knew he wanted more. Because of an inadvertent display of forbidden knowledge, both of Kvothe’s parents, along with the rest of his troupe, were killed by an evil force. For years, the boy traveled alone and suffered through terrible hardships to eventually land on his feet as a student at an esteemed university. I can appreciate the author’s detailed account of Kvothe’s suffering and his display of downright grit and tenacity, which were the very qualities that propelled Kvothe to his ultimate position. What frustrated me though was Kvothe’s seemingly never-ending self-sabotage that continuously got in his way and inhibited his educational development. If it weren’t for this type of behavior, his life as a student in later years could have gone much more smoothly, considering his precarious position in life. This isn’t to say the author did anything poorly – quite the contrary. For the author to frustrate me to the degree I was frustrated says something of his ability to write well and of his ability to craft a story.

In the second example, do you see how I wove a short summary of Patrick Rothfuss’ work into my personal opinion of the story itself and then into my opinion of how the story was written by the author? I find these types of reviews to be best. It loads helpful and actionable information onto the reader.

Ultimately, it’s best to write a review that includes a dialog between the author of the work and the reader of the review. You’re the moderator of sorts. You’re using someone’s work (the novel) as material to initiate and to keep the conversation going. You tell the reader where the work was done well or was deficient in its subject knowledge, character and plot judgements, as well as organization. Every review offers opinions in no uncertain terms and every review should resemble an organized and perhaps an academic piece of writing, in that it includes a thesis statement, a body that supports the thesis, and a conclusion.

The greatest problem those who enjoy writing face is keeping their reviews succinct and to the point. Personally, I like to write. When I get going, it’s a challenge to turn things off. The issue is, people who read reviews are looking for answers and quite honestly don’t care for verbosity (yes, that’s a word). Book reviews are generally kept under 1,000 words, unless it’s a special occasion, such as some sort of written discussion between more than one person about a book that’s had a profound impact on society. Or maybe for an assignment that calls for something of a specific length. But for the average novel, plan on keeping any review under 1,000 words. And while you’ll find reviews that vary wildly in regards to style, you’ll typically see them following a similar format:

• A brief and concise summary of the book, which is more of a challenge than one might think. More on that down in the third heading. Within this section, you should also include the author’s name, genre the book falls in, the book’s overarching perspective, and any obvious arguments the book contains. You should also answer the question of why the book was written (this book tells the story of…).
• An opinion or assessment of the book. I touched on this in my second review example above. This is where the reviewer is critical of the book. What are your reactions to the book? What stood out in it? Did it make you feel a certain way? Did it persuade you in any way? Did it explain its topic thoroughly? Was it effective? When the word critical is used in regards to book reviews, it doesn’t necessarily involve negativity. It pertains to expressing an analysis of the merits and faults of something. So when you’re being critical in your book review, you’re merely critiquing, whether that be good or bad.
• A summary opinion of whether or not a person might enjoy the book. Or appreciate it in some other way. This is the section that comes to mind for most of us when either reading or writing reviews. It’s the meat of the matter. “Yes, you’ll love the book for these reasons…” or “You will absolutely hate this book but will treasure it for life. I’ll tell you why…” It’s as if the preceding sections were written to support this section, which, if you think about it, they were.

How to Assess a Book for Review

My favorite book is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. There’s something about the book that appeals to me. It’s beautifully written, fairly fast moving, and the plot is highly addictive. If someone asked me to write a review of the book, I’d feel somewhat inadequate. I’m nothing compared to Patrick Rothfuss. As it pertains to writing, the man is a genius. How could I ever measure up to him? I’m certainly no genius.

The good news is, if I were ever asked to review Patrick’s book, I wouldn’t be expected to measure up him. No one is asking me to measure up to him. No one is even asking me to write beautifully. If I owned an iPhone and someone asked me to review that, would I necessarily need to know how the technology inside it works? Or how the phone was assembled? No, what that someone is primarily looking for is my opinion on the operation of the phone and whether or not they should purchase one too. The same goes for a book. People want to know whether or not they should read it. They don’t want to know how brilliant the reviewer is.

If you’re reading this post, it’s likely you’ll need to someday write a book review. If that day ever comes, just know that you’re not expected to be an expert on the book in question. All you’re merely being asked to do is make careful observations that can assist you in making reasoned judgements. Don’t get me wrong – there are challenges involved. But learning how to use tact in your agreements and disagreements, in your praise and criticism, is a valuable life lesson. Remember though, any assertions you make in your ultimate review will need concrete evidence to back them up. They’ll need to be supported. That’s why you’ll need to have read the book carefully and that’s why you’ll need to have made a careful assessment of the book.

When reading a book, keep your assessment in mind. This means you’ll be asking questions along the way. Asking and answering these questions will make your ultimate review so much easier to develop and write. And if you need to jot down notes while reading, all the better. Below are some questions you should ask yourself while reading:

• Who is the author? Where is the author from? What are his/her interests? Does his/her history or interests have any impact on what was written in the book? Does the author have any relation to any characters in the book? Is the author a character in the book? Here, you’re basically looking for any type of relationship between the author and what was written. Background, family, special training, etc…
• What is the book’s genre? When you know the genre, you’re given a hint for what to expect while reading. While the book may not adhere to a particular traditional genre per se, it’s helpful to know what you’ll be comparing it to or assessing it against. When you review a book, you’ll need some sort of standard to measure against and by knowing that standard, you’ll be able to offer more educated observations. Your readers will appreciate that because they’ll likely have some familiarity with different genres as well.
• What is the thesis of the book? This is actually a tougher question to answer than one might think. The Name of the Wind is over 650 pages long and it’s penultimate brother in the (incomplete) series, A Wise Man’s Fear is just about 1,000 pages long. I’m supposed to identify one main argument from all those pages? Yes, I am. It was actually given at the beginning of the first book. There’s always a thesis, you just need to be keen on seeing it. Why is it important? Because by knowing the primary argument, you’ll also know if the book accomplished its task of addressing it. And that information is critical in a review.
• What is the topic of the book? By knowing the topic, you’ll know if it was addressed adequately. I may write a book that I claim is about fishing in the Hudson River, but if all I discuss is my vacation to England, I’ve probably not addressed the topic very well or at all. When reading a book, try to determine how the topic was handled. Were all aspects of the topic covered? How were they covered (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive – more on this)?
• How is the author’s argument supported? In The Name of the Wind, the main character, Kvothe, was described as just a man “waiting to die.” Kvothe’s apathy is part of the story’s thesis. Once a book’s thesis is determined, how does the author support it? What evidence does he or she offer and is the offered evidence convincing? How so? Have you seen this type of argument in other books? How does this book compare to the others?
• What is the structure of the author’s argument? In The Name of the Wind, the author structures the argument of “waiting to die” by using examples of Kvothe’s weakness and even a character’s death. But that set of scenes only covers about 1% of the entire story. The other 99% was a flashback to the past that built the base for the argument. So you could say the author used present examples of apathy and then used the story of Kvothe’s life leading to that point as parts of the structure. When determining the structure of an author’s argument, ask yourself what the parts are that, when combined, make the whole. Ask if the argument made sense. Ask if the argument was persuasive and then answer all these questions in your review. Also, if you aren’t familiar with how an argument is structured, take a look: the three essential parts of any argument are the claim, the data (grounds or evidence that support the claim), and the warrant (the assumption upon which the claim and evidence depend). If you need to, do some research on how arguments are structured and how to properly argue. In the case of The Name of the Wind, the warrant might be that Kvothe will wither away and die a lonely, useless old man, which is terrible because the world needs him at the moment. The claim might be that Kvothe is weak and lives an apathetic life. The data is the entire body of the story. The flashback to the past I mentioned above.
• Would you recommend the book to a reader of your review? Keep a pencil and paper handy because you’ll want to record the moments in the story that influence your answer to this question.

The Structure (Template) of a Book Review

What I shared above might seem complicated, but as I mentioned earlier, the more you write reviews, the easier it gets to write them. It’s like anything else – practice makes perfect. To help simplify things, I’ll give you a general breakdown of the parts every book review needs. Just remember that everything I mentioned above goes into these parts. They are:

• A hook – This is the catchy line that will help reel your readers in. What if I told you there exists a story of a young man who was so magically gifted that he became the most notorious wizard the world has ever seen? Would you believe me?
• Essential book information – I mentioned these parts in the previous section. Author, published date, part of a series or not, genre, etc…
• Basic plot summary – I mentioned the parts of a good high-level synopsis in the first and second sections of this post above.
• Praise and critique – This is the meat of any review and it should be the longest and most well though out. Included are the sections I wrote about above that touched on the topic of the book, the author’s argument, the structure of the argument, etc…
• Your recommendation – Would you recommend the book to a friend? Why or why not? When developing your recommendation, it’s best to read through a few examples from other reviews you can find online. This is an important part, so you want it to make sense and to be convincing.
• Your rating – It’s nice to give a rating. I think the consensus out there is that book ratings are between 1-5 stars.

Example Book Reviews

This section will be populated once I have a few reviews under my belt. I’ll write them and post them on this blog. And then I’ll link to them here. For the time being though, I’ll lead you to some world class reviews at The New Yorker. These are the best of the best.

https://www.newyorker.com/tag/book-reviews

In Conclusion

I think that’s everything. At least I hope it is. The reason I wrote this post is because I needed to know how to write a proper book review myself. I’ve written some lousy ones in my day, so I wanted to jot something down that I could use as a framework for the future. It’s always better to do some research beforehand to learn all there is to learn and then to start doing what needs to be done later on. In the case of this post, this was my learning. Now I’ll go ahead and begin what needs to be done.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the above, please let me know down below. Thanks!