How to Write a Book Review
Here is a checklist of topics to cover in the review (You do not need to cover all of them. They are meant simply as a guide.):
1. Give the basic book information.
What is the title, the author's name, where it can be purchased, ISBN number.
2. Write a few sentences about the plot.
What is the story about?
Who are the main characters?
What do they want?
Who will stop these character from attaining their desires, and why?
Are the characters believable?
3. Evaluate the book.
What is the writer's style: formal, informal, witty, charming?
Was the writing clear, original, concise, forceful, fluid?
Who are the intended readers?
4. If you wish, discuss the author's use of story elements.
How is the story introduced? What is the hook?
How are conflict, climax, and conclusion handled?
Is there a tone or an atmosphere, and how is it evoked?
What is the setting, and does it affect the story and characters?
Are the characters flat or three dimensional?
Does character development occur?
How effective is the dialogue?
Is there a subplot and if so, how is it related to the main plot?
What are the major themes? How are they revealed?
5. Tell how the book affected you.
Did you like the book?
Did it keep your interest?
Could you relate to the characters?
Who was your favorite character?
What was your favorite part of the book?
What was your least favorite part?
Would you recommend this book?
Related Links
- Book Promotion: Blogging
- Blogging is one way of getting your name out before the public, a way of advertising your website, a place to talk about your book. The best time to start blogging is a year before your book comes out; the second best time is now.
- Second Wind Publishing
- "We are storytellers. We have fulfilled an integral role for the human race ever since there was a spoken language. Storytelling is time travel and teleportation; it is prophecy; it is philosophy; it is not just the elimination of barriers but the co-mingling of perceptions; storytelling allows us to emotionally, spiritually and intellectually suspend barriers and relearn our humanity."
- Complete Review
- Links to 200 book review sites.
The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing
Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 11/29/2009) 
Easy Sentence Writing
Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 11/29/2009)
Books I've Read, A Reader's Journal - Coral Hard Cover (prompts on every page, recycled paper, read more...)
Amazon Price: $18.95 (as of 11/29/2009)
The Complete Guide to Book Marketing
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/29/2009)
Bertram's Books
More Deaths Than One
Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in Southeast Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. He attends her new funeral and sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on? And why are two men who appear to be government agents hunting for him? With the help of Kerry Casillas, a baffling young woman Bob meets in a coffee shop, he uncovers the unimaginable truth.
Amazon Price: $16.00 (as of 11/29/2009)
A Spark Of Heavenly Fire
In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable disease called the red death, insomniac Kate Cummings struggles to find the courage to live and to love. Her new love, investigative reporter Greg Pullman, is determined to discover who unleashed the deadly organism and why they did it, until the cost - Kate's life - becomes more than he can pay.
Amazon Price: $18.00 (as of 11/29/2009)
Book Marketing Floozy
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- lostinfiction lostinfiction Oct 19, 2009 @ 11:00 pm
- Another thing I would recommend for writing book reviews is to research their background well, and if possible, even find out who/what influenced their writing. Infloox is one good site specifically geared for that, and usually you can find some very helpful info on the individual authors' websites as well. This technique really helps to give readers further insight into they whys and hows of the book being reviewed.
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- MsSnow4a MsSnow4a Jun 6, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
- great info Thanks :)
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- Laniann Laniann Apr 22, 2009 @ 10:16 am
- Thank you, very useful information. 5*s
