Writing A Book Review.
Posted On July 30, 2015
Books give me two reasons for happiness; reading and writing. I love to read books and then I love to write my reviews on them. That’s why, it’s double happiness for me. While reading, I go through the story first hand. And while writing a review on it, I go through it again. Here’s how I go through the process from reading to writing.
1. Which Books to Review:
I don’t necessarily write a review on every book I read. If I love a book, it’s most likely that I’ll write a review. (Like, A Thousand Splendid Suns.) If I love the book too much, I may not write a review because of my overwhelmed state wherein I may be short of words. (Like, ‘The Fault in our Stars’.) If I hate a book, I’ll write a review trying my best not to come off as too critical. (Like, Gone Girl.) So, basically, there are no fixed rules as to which book to write a review on. You should enjoy the reading process. Think over it after you’ve finished it. Then, think if you want to write a review or not. At times, just as I begin, I know that I’ll most likely review it. At times, I know that I just won’t.
2. My Reviews:
My reviews contain four aspects; Introduction, Characters, Story line and Overall Thoughts.
Introduction: In this, I give a general idea about what to expect from the book. I state the genre and the basic topic. It’s very important to not give spoilers unless in the ‘Storyline’ section. So, this section is sort of a blurb.
Characters: I love to write this part of the review. It gives an edge to the entire thing. After reading a book, you get an idea of the characters. You understand them and how their brain works. You know if they’re being kind, dumb or naughty. This section is something that comes from my own way of contemplating them. This is the part of the review which you can’t find anywhere in the book because it comes from my thoughts.
I write about the main characters with a proper description while I give 1 or 2 sentences worth for the other characters. Writing about every single one of them is inconsequential. There’s no point mentioning a character who only exists for 10 % of the story and also is insignificant.
Story line: This is the part where I write the story in brief. I try my best to stick to the story but many times I add my opinions regarding a certain incident. Any person who seems interested in reading the book based on the ‘Introduction’ and ‘Characters’ segment above, should evade this segment. Any person who has already read the book can read the entire review to keep the story fresh in mind.
Overall Thoughts: This is my favourite part of the review. I write how I feel about the story in general. I write about some line which I love. I write about something that I hate. I write about how it changed my life in any way. I try to state the message sent by reading it. Or the message I got after reading it between the lines. I just write my overall opinion.
3. How to Read:
- Stay attentive while reading the book. It’s good to remember all the tiny details.
- Always bookmark or highlight any lines or paragraphs or moments that you enjoyed. Like some incidents worth reading again.
- Keep an open mind. Even if the plot becomes boring, finish the book.
- Know the characters. Try to interpret them and peek in their lives.
- Always remember that the faster you read, lesser you forget.
4. How to Write:
- You should always mention the name of the author. You can learn a lot from the author’s style of writing and mention these details.
- If you’re providing a blurb directly from the back of the book or from Goodreads, specify so. It’s always safe to mention the source.
- Stay away from other people who have reviewed the book. If you read other reviews before writing your own, it may cloud your judgement. Your original thoughts may disappear making the review a misthought one. You can read them later on, of course.
- Judge if every book in a particular series needs a separate review. You can always write a single review of the entire series. I’ve written two series reviews of If I Stay series and Just One Day series.
- “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is something we all know. But adding an image of the book adds more charm to the review. You can also add photos of quotes from the book or stills from the movie adaptation. Just like I did with We Were Liars review.
I consider all these points before writing a review. I hope you find this useful. You can check out the book reviews I’ve written here. I’d be happy to read your reviews too.
About The Author
Aishwarya Shenolikar
Hello! I'm Aishwarya, an Introverted bookworm & writer. I have been reviewing books since 6 years on my blog - Mindscape in Words. My favourite genres are Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thrillers, Magical Realism, Poetry, Fantasy & Memoirs. I like the kind of books which evoke emotions on several levels leaving me wrecked, but also incredibly content. I'm dreaming for the world to paint a landscape full of words, more like Mindscape in Words. Hope you enjoy the view.
24 Comments
valid points 🙂
Loved these tips! Will definitely keep these in mind :]
xo katie // a touch of teal
I love a good book as well. These are good rules to follow.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks so much.
Thank you for your kind words.
I've been trying to have more book reviews on the blog so I can't wait to use these tips! I like the tip about staying away from other people who have reviewed the book because I have definitely seen that happen to myself.
Jenni // The Beautiful Fool
Thanks a lot for reading.
Helpful rules to follow when reading and writing a review 🙂
Thank you for reading.
You made a really great point not to necessarily write a review on every book you read. I will save this and use it in my high school English class for my students to learn how to write reviews!
So true about not reading other reviews. I notice that many of the reviews I receive on my books are almost exact copies of others.
Love this! I had this grand plan to review 24 books this year for my 24 books in 12 months challenge. I might have read 4 books on that list and only reviewed 2. Oh well. I love book reviews though!
You always write the best reviews! It's interesting to see how you go about this…and boy do you read a lot! I'm sure you'd have your hands full if you wrote about every book you read. It's good to hear about the one's that really "wow" you. I know that if it's here, it's work reading.
These are great points! I love reading well-written book reviews!
Excellent! I am writing a book review on my blog this Friday (for the first time!) So these tips are especially helpful! Thank you!
Definitely going to save this! I have never fully written a book review because I'm not exactly sure how to do so. This a great post on how to! Thank you so much for this!!
I like your outline for the 4 points you cover in your book reviews. I just started getting free books through Blogging for Books and it has been a struggle to know the best way to write a review that is pleasing to the reader and also to the book publisher/author. I will be pinning this to look back at next time I write a review!
Thank you very much.
Thanks so much. Your words mean a lot to me, Heather.
That sounds great. Good luck. And thanks for reading.
Thanks a lot, everyone!
I find this very useful. As I am reading more books, and writing their reviews I wasn't sure what to put in them. Your guide gave me a good idea of what to stick in it.
Thanks so much for your kind words.