How to Write an Editorial Review of a Book
Y'all finally reach the last page of a book that kept you up all night and close information technology with the afterglow of satisfaction and a tinge of regret that it's over. If you enjoyed the book enough to stay upward reading information technology fashion past your bedtime, consider writing a review. It is one of the best gifts you lot tin give an author. Regardless of how much you know about how to write a book review, the author volition appreciate hearing how their words touched you.
But as you confront the five shaded stars and empty box, a blank listen strikes. What do I say? I mean, is this a book really deserving of five stars? How did it compare to Dostoevsky or Dickens?
Maybe there's an easier manner to write a book review.
Want to learn how to write a volume from start to stop? Check out How to Write a Book: The Consummate Guide.
The Fallacy of Volume Reviews
Once you've decided to give a review, you are faced with the task of deciding how many stars to requite a book.
When I first started giving reviews, I fabricated the mistake of trying to compare a book to ALL BOOKS OF ALL TIME. (Sorry for the all caps, just that'southward how it felt, similar a James Earl Jones voice was request me where to put this book in the queue of all books.)
This is honestly why I didn't requite reviews of books for a long fourth dimension. How can I compare a sweet romance with Dostoevsky? I can't, and I shouldn't.
I realized my fault one day as I was watching (of all things) a dog evidence. In the concluding round, they trotted out dogs of all shapes, colors, and sizes. I thought, "How can a Yorkshire Terrier compete with a Basset Hound?" The journalist explained that each is judged by the standards for its brood.
This was my "Aha!" moment. I have to take a volume on its own terms. The question is not, "How does this book compare to all books I've read?" but "How well did this book deliver what information technology promised?"
How to Write a Book Review: Consider a Book's Promise
A book makes a promise with its cover, blurb, and first pages. Information technology begins to set expectations the minute a reader views the thumbnail or cover.
If a book cover has a picture of a lip-locked beautiful couple in flowing linen on a beach, and I open to the first page to read near a pimpled vampire in a trench coat speaking like Mr. Chivalry about his plan for revenge on the entire human race, there's been a breach of contract earlier I even go to page two. These are the books we put down immediately (unless a mixed-message beachy embrace combined with an Austen vampire story is your thing).
But what if the encompass, blurb, and first pages are cohesive and perk our interest enough to keep reading? Then we have to think well-nigh what the book has promised the states, which revolves around one key idea: What is the core story question and how well is information technology resolved?
Sometimes genre expectations help us answer this question: a romance will end with a couple who finds their mode, a murder mystery ends with a solved case, a thriller'south protagonist beats the clock and saves the country or planet.
The stories we dear virtually do those expected things in a fresh or surprising way with characters we root for from the first page. Even (and especially!) when a book doesn't fit neatly in a genre category, nosotros need to consider what the book promises on those get-go pages and make up one's mind how well it succeeds on the terms information technology sets for itself.
When I Don't Know What to Write
About a month agone, I realized I was overthinking how to write a book review. Here at the Write Do we have a longstanding tradition of giving critiques using the Oreo method: bespeak out something that was a force, then something we wondered near or that confused u.s., followed past another positive.
We can use this same structure to write a uncomplicated review when nosotros finish books.
[Volume Title] past [volume author] is about ___[plot in a sentence—no spoilers!]___.
I chose this book based on ________.
I really enjoyed ________.
I wondered how ___________.
Anyone who likes ____ volition love this book.
Following this basic template can help you write an honest review about near any volume, and information technology will give the writer or publisher good information near what worked (and perhaps what didn't). You might write about the characters, the disharmonize, the setting, or annihilation else that captured y'all and kept yous reading.
Every bit an added bonus, you will be a stronger reader when you are able to express why you enjoyed parts of a volume (just similar when you critique!). After yous complete a few, you'll find information technology gets easier, and y'all won't need the template anymore.
What if I Didn't Like It?
Y'all will accept to brand the call about when to go out a low review. If I tin't give a book at least 3 stars, I don't review information technology. Why? If I don't like a book after a couple chapters, I put information technology downwards. I don't review annihilation that I oasis't read all the way through.
Also, it may be that I'm not the intended market. The book might be well-written and well-reviewed with a great cover, and it simply doesn't capture me. Every volume is not meant for every reader.
If a book kept me reading all the way to the terminate and I didn't similar the catastrophe? I would probably still review information technology, since there had to be plenty good things going on to proceed me reading to the cease. I might mention in my review that the ending was less satisfying than I hoped, but I would even so end with a positive.
As writers, we know how hard it is to put down the words day after day. We are typically voracious readers. Let's send some love back out to our fellow writers this week and review the most recent championship we enjoyed.
What was the final book you read or reviewed? Practice you e'er find information technology hard to review a book? Share in the comments.
PRACTICE
At present it's your turn. Think of the concluding book you read. And then, take fifteen minutes to write a review of it based on the template above. When you're done, share your review in the comments. For bonus points, post it on the book's page on Amazon and Goodreads, besides!
Don't forget to get out feedback for your fellow writers! What new reads volition you discover in the comments?
Sue Weems
Sue Weems is a writer, teacher, and traveller with an advanced degree in (mostly fictional) revenge. When she'southward non rationalizing her love for parentheses (and dramatic asides), she follows a crewman around the world with their four children, two dogs, and an impossibly alpine stack of books to read. Yous tin can read more than of her writing tips on her website.
Source: https://thewritepractice.com/how-to-write-a-book-review/
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