hOW TO REVIEW A BOOK
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LESSON
HOW TO WRITE A GREAT BOOK REVIEW?
Have you ever finished a book and immediately wanted to share your thoughts with others? That’s where a book review comes in. Whether you’re a student polishing an assignment, a blogger building an audience, or an author hoping to support fellow writers, knowing how to write a book review is a valuable skill. A book review isn’t just a summary of the story – it’s a thoughtful evaluation of how well the author achieved their purpose and what the book means to its readers. In simple terms, a book review combines what the book is about with your opinion on its strengths and weaknesses. Done well, it helps others decide whether to read the book and gives you a chance to develop your analytical and writing skills. By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly how to write a book review that is structured, insightful, and engaging—complete with examples, format tips, and a free template you can use right away.
WHAT IS A REVIEW?
A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:
- Review gives the reader a concise summary of the content: This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
- Review offers a critical assessment of the content: This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
- Review suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it: This involves various perceptions on readers opinion on the book.
DEVELOPING AN ASSESSMENT
There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument.
What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.
- What is the thesis or main argument of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
- What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
- How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
- How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
- How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?
Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:
- Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
- What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts” – alongside naming “bests” and “onlys” can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.
WRITING A REVIEW
Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.
Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.
1. Introduction
Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. In general, you should include:
- The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
- Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry.
- The context of the book and/or your review.
- The thesis of the book.
- Your thesis about the book.
2. Summary of content
- This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.
3. Analysis and evaluation of the book
- Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument.
- You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it.
- You can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book.
- Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote.
- Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.
4. Conclusion
- Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book.
- You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion.
- You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis.
- This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation.
Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be. With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review. Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled – and sometimes obligated – to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
