How To Write a Book Review

I have read thousands of books, and yet I have only written a very small handful of reviews over the years. It turns out I am not alone. Lots of people don’t write them. And yet, I read the reviews of others all the time. They help me to decide what to read. I decided it was time I pulled my weight and contributed a little more for the benefit of my fellow readers. I also wanted to support authors. By writing reviews, I can help to make their books more visible to others.

So - I have decided 2021 is going to be the year I start writing reviews more consistently. This got me thinking. What should I include? What type of book reviews do I like to read? My general thoughts are that I don’t like them to include spoilers for obvious reasons, and I don’t like them to be scathing and disrespectful of the author - that’s just awful. I do like them to be fairly short without too much detail revealing the plot. If the reviewer liked the book, then a little explanation of why they liked it is helpful and conversely, if they didn’t like it - why they didn’t. These same thoughts should also apply when reviewing a narrator on audible.

After thinking about and attempting to write my first review, I did some research to find guidance as to what is appropriate here. Wow - there is a lot of detail out there about how to write a book review. Rather than get overwhelmed, I decided to keep things simple.

As a novice book review writer, here are some rules of thumb I have chosen as to how best write a book review that I am posting here, for any of you who are interested.

I found many detailed guidelines for book reviews out there. I have created my own simple summary to use as my own guide (see below). You are welcome to use these yourself if you want to.

Book Review Guidelines

Basic Info - Title, Author, Series (if the book is part of a series)

A few sentences to describe what the book’s about. Some people include spoilers with spoiler alert warnings. I prefer no spoilers.

Discuss what I liked and why.

Discuss what I didn’t like and why.

Conclude with a summary of how I felt about the book and the impression it made. Give a rating. I plan to use the same ratings as goodreads, as that is where I post most of my reviews.

General Rules of Thumb

1. Don’t include spoilers. Just don’t. It’s not necessary.

2. Don’t be sarcastic or judgemental, Don’t make personal comments - authors put so much time and effort in. Be respectful.

That’s it! I will come back and edit this as I will no doubt learn as I go, but this is a good enough place for me to begin.

L x