How to Write a Book Review

How to Write a Book Review

A book review is an analysis and evaluation of published literature to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of a book’s content, style, and significance (Heyd, 2017). Writing a book review is essential as it provides valuable feedback to authors, guides potential readers, and sharpens one’s critical thinking and writing skills (Heyd, 2017). As a good book reviewer, your aim is to give an opinion on how qualified an author is to address a topic in a particular genre, and also make a stand on how accurately the book will solve the problem that the author will have sought to address. Writing an effective book review involves different steps that guide the reviewer to make unbiased judgments about the literature and the author. In the next sections, we guide you on how to write a book review by analyzing each of those steps, and examining the essential components of a book review.

Steps in writing a good book review

There are different book review formats. However, most formats include a five-step process which comprises planning, an introduction, creating a thesis, the body, and a conclusion.

Planning

The first step of writing a good book review is planning. This involves creating an outline with all the main points that the reviewer will want to summarize and explore; this will act as a foundation of their analysis. The main points should help the reviewer answer questions like what the book’s plot is. Furthermore, to perfectly structure a book review, the reviewer will also need questions that prompt the character’s actions, dialogues, and motivations to evaluate if they are compelling and well-developed. Lastly, before choosing a book, the reviewer should be able to determine whether they would recommend the given book irrespective of its strengths and weaknesses.

Introduction

The second step is the introduction. By the time you get to this step as the reviewer, you should have chosen a book.

•  In the first paragraph of most book reviews, the writer starts with a hook phrase meant to attract the attention of readers; for example, if a review on the book Cinderella had a starting phrase like “the classic rags to riches tale of an orphan who becomes a princess” the intention would be mainly to attract more readers.
• Also, the reviewer should introduce the author and highlight the author’s qualifications, aspects like education, and the discipline on which the book is based. This will help analyze whether the author is qualified to address the genre that the book cover. It will also be pivotal to address the book’s scope and purpose by using questions like what motivates the author to write, and how the literature fits within the discipline addressed.
•  The second part of the introduction includes identifying the author’s thesis and writing a parallel thesis. The reviewer is free to quote the author directly to make it easier for the reader to understand the author’s claim. The reviewer’s statement will assess the quality of the author’s thesis by showing their point of view on how well the author solved the problem addressed by the book. This can be achieved by addressing the questions that will assess the quality of the author’s solution, such as if the author understands the topic from multiple perspectives, and if the thesis is a significant solution to the problem addressed. However, this is done after reading the book to evaluate the thesis of the author’s argument (unlike identifying the author’s thesis, which happens earlier). After writing this section of the introduction, the reviewer should determine their understanding of the book. The reviewer should be able to answer what motivated the writer and the target audience of the book.

Writing the body of the book review

The third step is writing the body of the book review. This will include summarizing the content and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the book to help assess the book’s content, and providing readers with a non-biased view to help them decide on whether to engage with the book.

• In the body, the reviewer should give enough information on the key themes, plot twists, concepts, and arguments explored in the book. This is significant in understanding the book’s scope and approach. The reviewer should also discuss the book’s weaknesses. This can be achieved by evaluating the book on its own terms to determine what the author had claimed to accomplish in the thesis statement but failed to. Even so, when writing about weaknesses, a reviewer should maintain objectivity. Moreover, in a few paragraphs, you should as a reviewer, highlight the book’s strengths.
• The above characteristics will contribute to the overall opinions on the book, and can be identified through the author’s reasoning and logic, structure of the book, incorporation of sources, and originality in presenting different perspectives. If the strengths are more compelling, the reviewer may explain why the weaknesses, if any, should not be used to judge the book. Similarly, the book’s strengths are evaluated depending on whether the author has accomplished what they had intended; reviewers should also avoid being overly positively here without compelling evidence.
• In the body of the book review, a reviewer may also decide to evaluate the author’s tone; in literature, a tone is described as the attitude the author takes towards a subject. The tone can be identified by observing features of the book, such as whether the book was academic or informal, personal or impersonal, and discouraging or motivating. A reviewer should only state the tone of a book if stating what drew them to that conclusion. This section should express how the book will impact readers, whether it inspires or discourages them, and whether the tone will fit the target audience.

Writing the conclusion of a book review

The last step of writing a book review is writing a well-rounded conclusion. First, the reviewer should restate the thesis they had written in the introductory part. This will be essential in doing a final assessment that will help make the concluding judgment. This will in turn, help answer questions on the significance of the book, and what value the book adds to the genre or conversation it was intended to contribute to. The reviewer should not introduce an argument or new evidence in this part of the book review. However, they may introduce new ideas if the purpose is to extend the logic of the topic of discussion. Nonetheless, at this point, the reviewer should be aware of the book’s significance, to whom they would recommend it, and to whom it would be most important.

Types of book reviews

Having looked at the standard format of writing a good review, it is also important to know that there are different types of book reviews. These may include:

• Critical reviews
• Subjective reviews
• Reader reviews
• Academic reviews
• Professional reviews

Critical Book Reviews – have a purpose to provide an extensive analysis and assessment of a book’s context, unlike summary reviews that focus on the main elements like characters and the themes used by the author.

Subjective Reviews -only reflect the reviewer’s opinions and personal experiences. This types of reviews are not objectively analyzed, but are based on the subjective feelings of the reviewer.

Reader Reviews -are mostly done by readers via online blogs or even social media platforms. Academic Reviews -have to be written by experts or scholars and mostly appear on academic journals. They often offer suggestions that provide an overview of different theories or methodologies.

Professional Reviews -are only written by reviewers who are experts in that specific field or topic of discussion. The reviews often follow a framework of set guidelines and strive to maintain high standards of quality and delivery.

What makes a good book reviewer?

It is also essential to acknowledge the different aspects that characterize someone as a good book reviewer. Firstly, a good book reviewer has strong analytical skills, which are an advantage when evaluating a book’s content. Good reviewers should also have a wide reading experience ranging from genres, different styles, and a variety of authors. A good book reviewer should in addition, be objective, as this allows them to look at each book with an open mind. The reviewer must be willing to embrace new ideas that challenge their own biases. Lastly, a good reviewer should empathize with the audience which also comprises the readers

 

References

Heyd, M. (2017). How to Write a Book Review–And Why You Should. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 17(4), 349-355. https://doi.org/10.1080/15323269.2017.1366783

Stevens, D. D. Write Book Reviews. In Write More, Publish More, Stress Less! (pp. 121-133). Routledge.