How to Write a Book Review

While book reviews are one of the best ways to support your favorite authors, many readers are reluctant to leave a review, even when they enjoyed the story.

There are four main reasons I’ve seen why readers don’t leave a review:

1. They think they don’t have time to write a review.
2. They don’t know how to review a book or what to say.
3. They didn’t have strong feelings (positive or negative) about the story.
4. They agree with what others have said, and don’t think another similar review matters.

If any of these statements resonate with you, read on! We’ll unpack each of these in order.

There’s Always Time to Share Your Thoughts

If time is the major reason you don’t review the books you read, you may be overthinking your reviews. Unless you are a book blogger, you can write a helpful book review in 2-3 sentences.

Think about it; when you’re evaluating a purchase, how often do you read the reviews that include several paragraphs?

Anyone Can Write a Helpful Book Review

The only thing you need to write a useful book review is your opinion of the story, and why you did or didn’t enjoy it. Your reading experience is valid, even if it differs from the experience other readers had.

Because opinions are subjective, the key to making your book review helpful for other readers is offering the reasons behind your opinion. If your review convinces even one reader to buy or not buy the book, you’ve helped!

A Book Review is Not a Book Report

While many readers begin their reviews with a summary of the book, writing a synopsis is unnecessary. The author has already done so in the book’s description. Your review also doesn’t need to identify or describe the themes, how the story contributes to the genre, or any of the other “work” they taught us to associate with reading.

The most basic review you can write is as easy as “I enjoyed/disliked this book because __________.”

Ideas for Your Book Review

If you want to write a review that is more than a single statement, I’ve provided a sampling of questions for you to consider. These are not exhaustive, but provide a starting place. I use these primarily for fiction, but many could apply to non-fiction too.

Remember, your goal is to express and support your opinion. Even if you agree with many other reviewers, your opinion will help shape how the next potential reader feels about the book. It can also help the suggestive algorithms help identify who the website should show the book to.

No one is expecting an essay, so don’t feel you need to answer more than one or two of these!

When you enjoyed the book, here are useful questions to address in your review.

• What drew you to the book?
• What did you enjoy most?
• What were your favorite tropes?
• Why did the book speak to you?
• Who was your favorite character?
• Who do you think would enjoy the book?

If you disliked the book, here are critical questions to consider.

• What detracted from your reading experience?
• Did you finish the book?
• What tropes diminished your experience?
• What themes or content were problematic for you?
• How did the story make you feel?
• Who do you think should avoid the book?

If your experience was neutral, or you want to round out your review, here are a few more topics that may be useful.

• Was the ending satisfying?
• Did the story remind you of another book, film, play, or show?
• How were the tropes handled?
• How complicated was the reading experience?
• Why the book did (or didn’t) meet your expectations?
• If part of a series, would you continue to the next book?

Avoid Writing Unhelpful Book Reviews

Because the purpose of a review is to help another reader decide if they should or shouldn’t read the book, I admit some reviews are unhelpful. Note, by unhelpful, I’m not talking about reviewers who rate a book low.

For me, unhelpful reviews include criticisms that are not about the book. For example, “I give this book 1 star because the retailer delivered it late.”

I also find a review unhelpful when the reviewer doesn’t support their opinion. For example, “I didn’t like this book.” The issue here is not that they didn’t enjoy the story, but that they didn’t tell us why.

To be honest, when I read reviews where the reviewer has an agenda other than reviewing the book, I wonder why they bothered. These reviews often include statements such as “I don’t enjoy mysteries and hated this mystery book too.”

Similarly, I skip reviews that talk about what they wish the writer had written instead of the book the writer produced.

Last, don’t include spoilers! While some review sites (like Goodreads and Reddit) provide a way to hide spoilers, please don’t spoil the plot twist or ending for other readers.

What to Do with Your Book Review

Once you’ve written your book review, post it! Besides Amazon and Goodreads, you can post your review at other retailers such as Barnes & Noble, and at book promotion sites such as Bookbub. You can also cross-post your review on multiple sites!

Consider also posting your review on your social media accounts. There are vast communities of readers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, CounterSocial, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest who enjoy seeing book reviews.

Like anything, the more books you review, the easier it gets, but don’t let a lack of experience stop you!

Your opinion and reading experience matters, so share it! Even neutral and negative reviews, when supported, help readers decide if they want to invest their time or money in a book.

And I promise your reviews will matter to us authors too! What was the last book you wrote a review for?

Header Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash