Write the Perfect Book Review

Writing a book review does require you to summarize parts of the book, but that should not be your main focus. Exploring your personal feelings about the book is most important. The first step to writing a review is the most basic - list the important details. Make sure your reader knows the title, author, and genre of the book.

Your next paragraph should involve some summary. Talk about the plot, but don't give any spoilers that will ruin the ending. The people you are reviewing the book for may want to read it for themselves. Your review should serve to encourage or discourage somebody from reading the book, not as a substitute for reading it.

The next step could involve some sort of character analysis. What kind of feelings did you have for the main character? If it's a romance, what did you think of their love interest? Was the character strong enough to carry the plot? Could you relate to them? Analyzing the secondary characters can be just as important. Did they serve to enhance the plot, or substitute for a lacking plot? Which characters change over the course of the book, and how?

You might also want to analyze the point of view from which the story is written. Is it written from the view of the main character, or a third person view? Is the narrator reliable? What could make the narrator less reliable than what's on the surface?

An analysis of the plot, while not giving away any spoilers, can help your reader determine if the book is worth reading or not. You may want to explore whether or not the problems were believable or easily related to.

One of my favorite things to do is to write down or highlight all the universal truths from the book. These often serve to be the major themes in the novel. Examples of universal truths include "The truth hurts", but they could even be less obvious.

You can provide more details about things that you liked or didn't like. Did you like the writing style? Were some parts especially boring, or hard to read? What else should your reader know about the book? Who would you recommend it to?

I also like to end my review with a favorite quote, if I have one. If a few quotes didn't especially stand out to me, I will usually flip to a page and pick a random quote. This can serve to help the reader of your review determine if the reading level and style is something they're interested in. You may also want to share your favorite part of the story. Maybe an especially heated conversation occurred in the book that you would like to share, or maybe a description stood out to you.

If you like to rate the books you read, you may want to tell your reader what kind of scale you use. For example, do you rate 1 out of 5 stars for a horrible book?

This information will help you write an effective book review that will allow your readers to figure out if the book you analyzed is one that they would like to read as well!