How to Write a Fiction Book Review
A book review is a critical evaluation of the book that provides a thoughtful and in-depth analysis, and evaluation of the main idea, and purpose of the book. In a word, it presents the assessment of the quality, meaning, and significance of the book.
We’ve all heard the saying, “So many books – So little time”. In the modern society, book reviews play a vital role in helping us decide which books are worth our investment in time and money. People don’t want to waste either, reading books they won’t enjoy, so they rely on book reviews to help them go for a particular reading.
The key to writing good literature review lies in good planing. What points to include and what to omit. Spend a necessary time thinking before you even set pen to paper. To assist you in this process here is a book review template with few useful tips on how to make it right.
Steps for Writing a Good Book Review
Top Tip 1: Don’t read the book!
At least, not yet. Instead, start by looking at it. Is it a richly manufactured item aimed at collectors? What does the cover illustration indicate the book will be about? What sort of blurbs are included? How is it categorized by the publisher? All of these will give you a clues to the nature of the book you’ll be reading and will indicate the book’s target audience.
Top Tip 2: Read the book!
It may sounds silly, especialy in respect to the first tip, but you have to pay due care and attention to the author’s work and only then can you be confident of critiquing it.
- Introduce the subject, scope, and type of book
Identify the book by author, title, and sometimes publishing information. Specify the genre of book and what categories does this book fall into? Help your readers to review with perspective.
- Put the book in context
Sometimes you will need to include background to enable reader(s) to place the book into a specific context. Is it the first of its kind or an imitation? The author’s first book or fifteenth? Spend some time relating this book to others in its category to further explain the book and your judgment of it. - Briefly summarize the content
Once you’ve put some thought into the reviewer mind set, writing the review is the easy part. Briefly review the story line for readers, being careful not to give away anything that would lessen the suspense for readers. One tactic is to either summarize the key concepts or the key characters.
- Provide your reactions to the book
How did the book affect you? What caught your attention, and when were you bored? When was the book suspenseful? Which characters did you like, and why? Here you must be cotious not to fall into a chatty style that is more about your own experiences while reading the bok than an analysis of what the author has produced.
- Summarize your ideas
Close with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review. Let the readers know what the author was trying to get across and if he actually succeeded.
- Pass judgment
If you liked or disliked the book, this is the time for you to say so. Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience.
If you choose to read other critics who have written about the book, do so only after you have read the book and formed your own opinion to avoid being unduly influenced by others.
Negative Book Reviews
Why Books Get Negative Reviews? Book reviewers love books. They want to enjoy and recommend good readings. When a negative review is given, it is usually because the author failed to do the work necessary to receive a positive review. If you have to write a negative review about some fiction book, here are the major points that may envoke your critics wrath.
- Poorly composed basic Fiction Elements – weak story line, poor character developments, choppy writing.
- Poor editing and proofreading – apart of all issues related to the luck of professionalism, these directly distract the reader from following the plot and should be criticized in your review accordingly.
- Poor research – If a reviewer is an expert in the subject matter, he is going to notice mistakes the author made or facts he left out.
- Miss-targeting the audience – Children’s books written in confusing style or treating inappropriate subjects and topics are good example.
Why you should go for writing a negative review? Well, evene a negative review is better than no book review. In the long run, you may help some creative people out-there to become a better writers and hopefully sell more books 
Book Reviews on the Run
How to write a book review is not just another of hot literature questions.
You are a bibliophile, a bookworm or a lover of the printed word, you have just read a book and are offering your opinion. As people see and read your review, they will most probably be enticed to read the book (if it’s a good review) and the message of the book is spread further and wider.
So the next time you discover one of those real life-changing books
, why don’t you take a bit of time to do a review on it? It might just be a blessing to someone who really needs it.
Tags: book review, book review template, critical book review, fiction book review, free book reviews, how to write a book reveiw, literature review, negative book reviews, new book reveiw
Good post, this would help out a lot of students writing reports. i think its good to break things down into steps, it is easier to find weak points.
I have always been mostly a nonfiction reader but fictions is a great read once in a while for me as well. Thanks for the post. I usually dont take the time to write a review but just kind of make one in my head. This gives me a place drive my focus. Thanks!
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This was a great article, thanks! I review childrens books, but your ideas can be used simplified in the same context for my reviews.
Brilliant guide!
This should help budding book reviewers no end!
Thanks for sharing your book reviewing tips!
I thought reviewing a book would be simple, easy stuff – until I actually had to do one in a professional setting! I suddenly wondered… whether my personal opinions of the book were the most important to share with people, and which infomation doesn’t quite need to be there? I want to write a good review, but I don’t want it to be too long.
since i want to add a book review to my blog in the future, the tips you gave will help me performing well =) thanks a lot.
This was a very informative post on writing book reviews. In a very simple language you have explained the nitty-gritties of writing a good review.
One very important thing to take care off when you write a review is to ensure that you look at the content and the material from the perspective of a reader who has an interest in the subject. It is important that you do justice to the review because your review could be the reason for a reader reading the book.
This is a helpful guide to ensure that you don’t get the boot from a lot people. Especially the first one. Many a times I found myself doing that, I look at a book and when it seems outdated and old with nothing attracting me I just place it one side. Some books are a good read though but not all.
I should of read this a long time ago before trying to write my own, keep up the good work.
When I read your top tip #1, I was like “errr…this can’t be right”…but then I’m glad I decided to read further instead of just closing the window. Writing a book review can be a challenging task; but you have broken down the task in logical steps which can serve as a checklist when writing book reviews. Thanks a lot for sharing this info.
The first book ever credited to a Bermudian was the story of Mary Prince who was a slave and helped to end slavery in the British Empire. The author was Brian Burland and he achieved some international acclaim for the work. I love interesting facts about places I’ve never been. lol
Thanks! I have been trying to figure out how to properly review documentaries on my website and I think I can apply many of these ideas.
If a negative review is written for a book, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the book is poorly written. It could be that you didn’t quite like the writing style of the author, or the story but someone else out there does.
What I will suggest is instead of writing a negative review, review the good points of the book and then add another section to discuss about how the book could have been better/improved.
I know it probably doesn’t make much difference to you, but it does to your readers and the author. You readers wouldn’t take you as an extreme critic while the author will not be offended for your constructive feedback instead of negative criticism.