Book Reviewing Essentials

The 3 Important Details That Every Great Book Review Must Have!

Have you ever read a book review and felt that it was incomplete or too revealing? Many times when people write book reviews, they fail to include the most important points that make the book review successful. This is usually because they have misunderstood the purpose of writing a book review. Before you sit down to write, reflect on why people even write book reviews to begin with. Normally, it is because they want to tell a potential reader something about the book before they read it themselves. For this reason the 3 most important details to include in your review are; 1.) Descriptive points about the book (but don't give too much away. 2.) Your unique interpretation of the book's content 3.) A recommendation or "call to action" for the review reader. To read or don't read, that is the question!

Creating A Fantastic Review

Description of The Book

Within your review there should be a description of the books details. These details, without giving away any major plot points, should describe the who, why, when, where's, and how's of the book. This means that the main characters should be listed as well as the location and timeline of the story. If you can't find a way to include these details in your description without spoiling the book's plot then it is okay to omit specific points. However, you do want to try to be descriptive enough so that the review reader can understand what the book that you are reviewing is actually about.

Your Opinions On The Book

Book reviews are meant to be based on the reviewer's own opinions. This means that you want to give the book an honest evaluation that can be logically justified. For example, you are entitled to say that the "book was bad" in your review IF you can provide solid examples of why you thought it was bad. This is why it is important that the writer use evidence from the book to back up there opinions within the review. Once again keeping in mind that you do not want to give away the book's plot to the review reader.

A Suggestion or Recommendation

Based on your opinions, which have hopefully been backed up with strong examples from the literature, you can conclude your review by making a recommendation to the reader. Flat out, you want to tell them whether or not you think that they should read the book themselves or not. Once again you will want to back your opinion up with logical reasoning and use examples to justify how you came to this conclusion.