Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.
― Lisa See
For knowing how to write a book review and be a real pro in this you need to remember only one thing - focus on your personal reflection on everything. At its heart, a book analysis is nothing more than just a clear personal vision regarding all events and circumstances, characters and their deeds that are presented. In other words, it’s all about your own perception, agreement or disagreement, sympathy or misunderstanding, love or hate and so on.
At the same time, a good book review must correspond to general patterns. It is inevitable for you to follow a certain plan and reproduce your own assessment in accordance with all rules. Learning how to compose strong book reviews take time and not a little effort. These book review tips will certainly help you with this task. Just a bit of learning and you will be able to accomplish your task perfectly.
If learning path is not for you, there is a great alternative - hiring professional academic authors to do your academic routine. EduEssayHelper is one of such writing services that offer help in crafting books reflections. What is more, you can also find there a whole slew of useful posts with tips and advice like How to Be a Good Argumentative Essay Writer or Easy Steps to Your A-grade Psychology Paper.
How to Write a Book Review in 2021: What Are Some Do's and Don'ts?
If you are a newbie in writing, you may be mistaken on what the difference between book review and book report. So, the first thing to comprehend is the concept of a book report vs book review.
Next step is acquaintance with the general writing structure and making a to-do plan. Here is a sample with the necessary points to include:
- Reveal general information, author, title, genres elements (fantasy, mysteries and etc.), place and time, where and when the events occur, your opinion about the relevance of those issues that are being considered at the moment.
- Analyze the central characters and try to understand their motivation. If you want to do this task correctly, read this article: Things Students Should Know about Hero Analysis Essay.
- Express your personal opinion about the work as a whole and evidence that it is correct. Here you can bring a couple of points that you think might be of interest to readers.
- Add the conclusion about the work as a whole and the assessment of everything read, both positive and negative (if you have any).
- Share recommendations to whom, at what age you need to familiarize yourself with this work.
Apart from doing the to-do plan, pick out your favorite bookish blog, club, store and follow all the books first releases there. Reading the book's reflections others have done can also help you get a feel for the flow and flavor of it. Consequently, it is highly essential to follow all the trends in 2020 and 2021.
It would also be beneficial to avoid all the following mistakes:
- Do not do the analysis of the book in the subject which you do not understand.
- Don't get sucked into a retelling of the plot, your task is to make an analysis.
- Don't forget to avoid spoilers while analyzing the book to your reader.
- Give a sufficient number of arguments, do not replace them with emotions.
- Do not use slang words, use neutral vocabulary and stick to formal tone.
- Remember that you are writing a book analysis and do not switch to the identity of the author. Don't let the opinion of the author influence the display of his/her work.
As you can see, the key point of the whole system is your vivid impression and it should simply be written and presented to the readers correctly. If this advice was not enough for you and you are hungry to read more walkthroughs, How to Write a Book Review is a great article to learn bits and pieces on this writing routine.
Book Review That Will Please Even the Fussiest Readers
Apart from knowing the anatomy of a book review, you should also remember other tips for catching your readers' attention:
- Read the book
Before you start writing, be sure to read the book. Reading "diagonally" or reading the short content is not enough for a good reflection. Only a complete (and preferably repeated, highlighting the key points) reading will allow you to form your own assessment and confirm it with evidence.
- Focus on Arguments
A good book review needs arguments. Your assessment of the book is nothing without it. The arguments can be quotes from the work; confirmations from other sources; expert opinions; facts of public life and lifestyle (if the book distorts or contradicts them). You should explain why you have chosen all your picks.
- Find the hook for readers
Don’t wait until the center of your writing to try and seize the readers' attention. You can get started by hooking them from the very beginning. Think about what made you pick out the book up, and use that to encourage your own way of writing about it. Reply to all possible questions.
- Uniqueness
Aim at uniqueness, cause this is the exact thing real readers weigh as a masterpiece. Don’t strive to retell authors or somebody else’s words. Turn on your inner voice and imagination. If you follow this rule, you will see how easy it is to compose not only a good book review but almost everything.
- Share your real thoughts
Writing a good book review that will astonish your readers and editors is easier than you think. The main ingredient of success is keeping in mind that you have to tell what you think. And when it comes to your thoughts, forget about finding the vision that will correspond with everyone. Share your real understanding of things and avoid all possible cliches and artificial statements.
All these things will unquestionably help you in crafting really good books reviews that will please even the fussiest readers in 2021. Of course, it is not algebra and geometry but, if you're not sure you have enough amount of time and energy to do it, delegate this task to professionals.
