Learn How to Write Honest Book Review in 6 Steps

As words do magic for the book so does the words in a post for the ‘Book Review’. Writing a book review is an intelligent task as you have to put across the insights of the book in your words.  Book reviews are vital for any book be it paperback book, eBook or a book published on digital platforms like Blogchatter in eBook Carnival, Juggernaut, Pothi.

 

Today we are going to focus on up on few pointers that enhances the book review. So let’s see what it takes to construct an honest book review.

 

1.     Understand the motive of the book:

 

Be it a fiction book or non-fiction book author has a message to convey and it is clearly mentioned in the book blurb. If it is a non-fiction book that message is the drive to that book is written for. Know that first and begin the book so that you are sailing in the authors thoughts ship.

 

For fiction books the genre is specified for the book and get in to the groove of the genre and start reading the book, this will help you frame your book review. If you are thriller lover and reading a romance-based book then you shall open doors for romance genre and read. This activity will help you frame your review in honestly for that genre and for that criteria the book falls in.

 

2.     Start reading without preset notions:

 

Keeping your preset notions at bay for the author and the publications is a huge task you need to do before start reviewing the book.

 

Consider a famous author releasing a new book, just because you loved 3 books earlier it doesn’t mean that author’s present work will also be your favorite. And you giving grace points just because author has excellent previous work is like being biased in your review. Similar thing is true for publishing house, publishers also can come up with a book that doesn’t connect with audience whereas there 100’s previous books did well in market.

 

Start reading a book with a fresh mind just like a clean slate and let the author draw an image of the book likewise a painting on clean canvas.

 

3.     Focus on important elements of the book

 

The main elements of the book are book cover, title, plot, and the vocabulary.

 

It is an old saying that don’t judge book by its cover but my friends book cover has vital role to play initially when you start reading the book. And in the book review you can always mention how book cover was apt or book cover was concealing few hidden things which you only noticed after completing the book.

 

Coming to the title of the book, it has a larger impact as you are living with the title throughout the book reading. Title has also to do justice with the book, it is more for connect with the readers. For Nonfiction books, the title has surely to tell the purpose of the book and for fiction books readers should be able to relate with it as there could be no other title for that book.

 

Plot has its major role and a good plot is the one where all characters of the story stay fit with a storyline. Any inclusion and exclusion of a single scene could either make or break readers interest. Plot is the soul of the book and it has to remain from start to finish, any miss in between is a point to note for the book reviewers.

 

Vocabulary is the key to readers heart, like a right word does magic and leave you mesmerized with the thought and you read and re-read how well the lines mean the perfection in the book. A bad vocabulary is like make you feel disgusted even for a clean romantic scene or make you feel awful for a thriller section.

 

4.     Make a note of major milestones in the book

 

Book reviewer need to have a notepad beside while reviewing the book, so that you can make a note of things that are turning points of the book. Noting the pointers need not be done in between reading but you can do once you end reading for the day. These pointers help you frame your review in detailed manner and it also give insights to the author of their work.

 

5.     How did book make you feel at the end?

 

At the end when you complete the book, analyze your feeling towards it.

Did you learn something new?

Did book did justice with the cover, title and the plot?

Does blurb of the book resonate with the book?

Did you cry and laugh with characters of the book?

If you recommend this book, then why you would do and on what basis?

 

These above pointers will help you make your review be honest, as now you analyze them on the scale without any preset notions.

 

6.     Writing cons in constructive tone

 

It is true each book has some or the other point that you wish it improved so that it could have perfect 5/5. Find that through the above pointers discussed in the post and write them in constructive tone and in words so that author and readers get the message plus it is not harsh to read.

 

For example, you can always say “the plot got dragged after chapter 5 which had high pace before it “instead of “the plot got lethargic after chapter 5”. And for instance, “character ‘Shreya’ could have been better portrayed giving her more thoughts than ‘character Shreya was useless in the plot”.

 

Being critic yet at same time showing light with your constructive tone helps the readers and especially for author who are looking for feedback in constructive way.

 

So, if you follow these 6 pointers for the book review then you can surely write a book review post that is honest and useful. We have around 70 plus book reviews on our blog and on social media. Receiving notes from the authors saying that they could gain an insight from our book reviews and keeping our pointers in their notes makes all our effort win.  We are doing book reviews since 2014 with major blogging platforms like Blogchatter, Blogadda, WritersMelon & BookTasters. We are avid readers, so book reviews are one of the posts that is constant in our timeline. Check out our Instagram page where every 3^rd feed is about books.

 

 

@MeenalSonal