how to write a book review for university uk

Department of History

Guide to writing book reviews.

start with full bibliographic details of the book discussed in the heading;
summarise the structure, method and main points of the work, which may include some direct quotes (identified by inverted commas and the relevant page no following in round brackets);
discuss how the author's arguments fit into other writing on the subject;
comment on the range of sources used and how they contribute to the argument;
explain the strengths and weaknesses of the book from your point of view;
assess whether / how the work will advance relevant debates;
acknowledge other sources of information in footnotes and a bibliography.

Many websites and discussion fora also offer reviews and related materials, see e.g.:

Guide to reviewers issued by the Humanities and Social Sciences internet platform H-Net (esp. passages on 'effectiveness', 'content', 'evaluation', 'professionalism')
' JStor ' (database of reviews from numerous journals)
' Reviews in History ' (compiled by the Institute of Historical Research in London

Assessment and marking criteria - while similar to regular history essays, particular importance is placed on:

critical evaluation of methodology, argumentation and conclusions of the book concerned;
ability to relate a work to the wider historiography of the field;
clear structuring and lucid presentation of your review.

A first-class review will excel in all these aspects, an upper second will demonstrate good competence in them, while lower marks will reflect limited critique, historiographical coverage and lucidity of argument.

The following is not a definitive list but merely suggestive of books you might like to review. If you have other ideas please discuss them with me:

Leeds University Business School
Research and innovation blog

How to write a book review

Dr Stefania Romano is a Lecturer in Enterprise, Educational Leader at the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies (CEES), Co-track Chair of The Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE-CIE) Creative Industries Entrepreneurship Special Interest Group and Co-Track Chair of European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) Critical Management Studies Special Interest Group (EAEPE).

Why you should write a book review

Writing a book review is an opportunity for you to share academic knowledge on a particular topic to both an academic audience (those within the same field of study as the subject matter, and also interdisciplinary academics interested in related subjects) and a wider audience, such as policy makers and business practitioners.

Here are some worthwhile motives to write a book review. First, by writing a book review a scholar acknowledges the importance of the field. It is an investment of time to develop further knowledge in an academic arena and by writing a review, you are showing that you think the topic is worthwhile reading and sharing further. Second, it helps you not only to develop sharpness in your writing and critical thinking , but also accuracy, analytical skills, and knowledge of the field of study. Third, doing something different can help you to engage with a community. For example, even if you’re not writing a journal article at the moment, by reading and doing a book review, you are still engaging with the field. As Huff reminds us , “writing is a conversation”. By this we mean that you are connecting with other articles and reviews; you are building on previous knowledge and providing a platform for others to add to your input. Finally, it can boost your academic confidence. The more you write, the more able you are to get used to the writing process, as well as conversing with editors and receiving feedback on your work.

If you are approached by an editor asking for a book review, you should grasp this opportunity and see it as a rewarding investment for your future career. Even if you decide it’s not your cup of tea, you at least have had the experience and now know it’s not for you.

7 steps for writing a book review

Set up a plan to dedicate physical space and time to read the book and write the review.

Read the book and take notes. Think about what makes the book unique and what the reader will gain from reading it. What are the “ 5 W’s ” - who, what, where, when and why?

In your introduction, give an overview of what the book is about and what you will be including in your review.

Use your notes to present key information in a succinct and informative style.

Connect key points of the book with existing knowledge by using your expertise in the field.

Draft your impression of the book and ask for feedback e.g. from colleagues or a mentor, particularly if you’re not writing in your first language.

Check your final draft, ensuring it fits the publisher’s guidelines and that you have included all the information needed for your submission.

Getting it published is not the end of the story. Once your review has been published and submitted, make sure you share it – (e.g. social media, email signature, staff profile) to help build your academic reputation. You can then enjoy a cup of coffee and start planning your next writing experience!

Photo taken by Stefania Romano

My experience

My opportunity to review a book arrived when I received an email from a research network on cultural policy. The editor was looking for volunteers to review different books. I immediately replied to review the book A Research Agenda for Creative Industries by Stuart Cunningham and Terry Flew which is published in Cultural Trends. My research interest is to understand and map the evolution of research contributions in the field of creative industries and this was an excellent opportunity to broaden my knowledge in the field. Reading the book and writing the review allowed me to discuss cutting-edge research within my existing research community at ISBE-CIE (Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship – Creative Industries Entrepreneurship) but also to connect with a wider audience nationally and internationally to share knowledge, expertise and create opportunities for potential research collaborations.

The book includes various contributions from academic scholars, industry and policy leaders on historical legacies of the creative economy from different geographical regions in the last two decades and the future research and policy maker directions in the years to come. The blend of various stakeholders’ perspectives makes it a worthwhile read for anyone interested in exploring creative and cultural value in our society.

A decade ago I moved to the UK to complete my research on the content of books published in the field of creative industries to map its evolution. By reading A Research Agenda for Creative Industries, I have realized how the creative economy has shaped our world by being a key economic and social factor for different geographical landscapes. It has not only incrementally innovated cities, regions and countries but also created synergies among historical and economic values. For me, it was a great opportunity to really focus my mind on the fact that research requires collaborative mindsets, encouragement and support to leverage our intrinsic motivations as researchers and educators in a business world characterized by highly technological and social changes.

Writing the book review allowed me to write in a different style, which I enjoy, although it can be challenging to switch between writing for journal articles, book reviews, grant applications, lecture slides, and blog posts! I hope people will be encouraged by this blog post to review academic books and gain something from the experience.

You can read Stefania Romano’s review of A Research Agenda for Creative Industries in “Cultural Trends”.

How to Write an Academic Book Review

4-minute read
22nd January 2019

For researchers and postgraduates , writing a book review is a relatively easy way to get published. It’s also a good way to refine your academic writing skills and learn about the publishing process. But how do you write a good academic book review? We have a few tips to share.

1. Finding a Book to Review

Before you can write an academic book review, you need to find a suitable book . There are two main ways to do this:

Look to see which books journal publishers are seeking reviews for.
Find a book that interests you and pitch it to publishers.

The first approach works by finding a journal in your field that is soliciting reviews. This information may be available on their website (e.g. on a page titled ‘Books for Review’). However, you can also email the editor to ask if there are book review opportunities available.

Alternatively, you can find a book you want to review and pitch it to journal editors. If you want to take this approach, pick a book that:

Is about a topic or subject area that you know well.
Has been published recently, or at least in the last 2–3 years.
Was published by a reputable publisher (e.g. a university printing press).

You can then pitch your review to a journal that covers the same subject as the book. Some publishers will even give reviewers access to new books. Springer, for example, has a scheme where reviewers can access books online and receive a print copy once a review is published.

2. Follow the Style Guide

Once you know the journal you’re hoping to write for, look for the publisher’s style guide. This might be called the ‘Author Instructions’ or ‘Review Guidelines’, but it should be available somewhere on the publisher’s website; if it is not obviously available, consider checking with the editor.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

And when you have found the style guide, follow its instructions carefully. It should provide information on everything from writing style and the word count to submitting your review.

3. Don’t Make It About You!

You’d be surprised how often academics begin a review by summarising the book in question, only to then abandon it in favour of explaining their own ideas about the subject matter. As such, one important tip when reviewing an academic book is to actually review the book .

This isn’t to say that you can’t offer your own thoughts on the subject matter, especially if they are relevant to what the author is arguing in the book. But remember that people read reviews to find out about the book being reviewed, so this should always be your focus.

4. Questions for an Academic Book Review

Finally, while the content of a review will depend on the book, there are a few questions every good book review should answer. These include:

What is the book about? Does it cover the topic adequately? What does the author argue? Ideally, you will summarise the argument early on.
Who is the author/editor? What is their field of expertise? How does this book relate to their past work? You might also want to mention relevant biographical details, if there are any.
How does the author support their argument? Do they provide convincing evidence? Do they engage with counterarguments? Try to find at least one strength (i.e. something the book does well) and one weakness (i.e. something that could be stronger) to write about.
As a whole, has the book helped you understand the subject? Who would you recommend it to? This will be the concluding section.

If you can cover these points, you should end up with a strong book review. All you need then is to have it proofread by the professionals .

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Writing an academic research review such as a book review or an assessment of a report

A research review is a summary, evaluation and critique of a book or other work, like a report or a collection of research articles. Its purpose is to comment on the state of knowledge on a topic and/or to evaluate a particular theory or contribution. The first task you have is to define what it is you are looking at. A book in academic terms is a very different text than a report. They are produced for different aims and audiences. A book review is the most common format, and that is why I am leading with that.

Writing a book review

A book review is your take on the book’s contribution. It shows how the book fits into an existing narrative or debate, stakes out new ground, and moves our understanding forward. There are two approaches you can take: the first a conventional review largely contained within the territory the book itself stakes out. The second is a review essay which sets the book in a wider context.

Each approach draws on similar questions, which I have set out below. Each question asks you to assess the book’s contribution to the theoretical or research problem it is part of. Depending on your approach the balance will change between them. For example, if you were reviewing the memoir Spare you would not just summarise what it says but ask what it tells you about monarchy, and about how insiders write about it. How is the book’s perspective both enhanced and limited by that? What effect does it have? How does it shape our public discourse about monarchy in general and the British royal family in particular? You would also want to assess how it achieves its aims. Is the writing convincing? Does it reveal more about the author than he intended? How does it fit into a particular idiom? A book is always part of a bigger project or discourse, is more than itself.

How do you start a book review? Reading the book might be a good way to go. But a book is very big. You want to begin with a reading template, a set of keywords or concepts you will look for in the book. Identify themes you will look out for, keywords that trigger your interest. As you read, note points you want to return to to clarify or check against later claims. If the book sets out hypotheses early on, then see that they are met later on. Develop a reading template, a plan of points to look for in the book. For example, for the book Rahman M (2019) Homicide and Organised Crime: Ethnographic Narratives of Serious Violence in the Criminal Underworld I have prompted you to look for what it has to say about masculinity and habitus, so look for where he discusses those themes, note down both what he has to say and how he says it. Note the contexts he refers to and the kinds of masculinity and habitus in evidence. You can show how these concepts connect to each other. How might different ideas of masculinity relate to each other and to violence?

Another template you could use is to categorise the types of narrative the book uses. Some books are very narrative driven, and others let the argument flow through the evidence. In an academic book not all the content has the same purpose. Some of the writing establishes the authors’ bona fides, while other sections demonstrate and elaborate on their argument. The questions I have set are to help you do this, to give you points to look for throughout.

When writing it, ensure you cover these points:

Start out with a bit about the author or authors

Say who they are. Look at their Google Scholar profile. Have they written other books or papers on this topic? Are they known for taking a certain angle? Do they belong to a theoretical school that shapes what they say? Often they will say this in the introduction.

If you are taking the book review essay approach you will want to highlight the problem or question the book tackles more than what the book itself claims.

Summarise the book.

A book is written with a purpose so start by stating what that is. What are its aims and agenda? What is it trying to say? What is it aiming to do? What problem does it want to solve? What evidence is it producing, if any? Some books aim to be theoretical or thought leader contributions. They want to shape the debate on this topic and set an agenda. They say what should be. Others are reporting on research projects and so are more like a statement of what is, and what matters. How is the book structured? Depending on how you want to write the review, you might spend more or less on this part.

Situate the book.

Each book is part of a bigger conversation happening in its field. Usually you will know this because it will tell you a lot. What kinds of debates is it influence, what problems is it addressing? Find who else has intervened in this debate and from what perspectives. Is the author arguing against them? Books usually comment a lot on existing research and you might want to say how effectively they have done that.

Evaluate the book.

Say what you liked about it. How did you feel while reading it? What does it contribute, what are its strengths and weakness. Does it meet the challenges it sets? Look at how it gathers and uses evidence. Are there limits there? Think of common strengths – a wide selection of cases and a desire to look for evidential counterpoints shows a willingness to disagree and reflect. It makes for a more resilient set of findings. Limited case selection might indicate limits to the argument. Make a critical reading of the text. Authors often use terms inconsistently, to mean different things at different times, which can make the meaning hard to pin down, but illuminating.

For instance, a book that examines masculinity and crime: does it define masculinity in terms you are convinced by? Is it consistent? Does it understand how masculinity evolves sociologically? How is the term applied in relation to the empirical evidence it uses? Let us say the study is looking for manifestations of masculinity, are you convinced by how it does that? Use other framings you have come across in the course. If discussing organised crime, does it rely on police definitions of what organised crime is? Outline the limits of doing that.

Say what concepts are being used incidentally but need to be thought through. Gangs is one we see often in the research. The concept has a lot of assumptions build in as to what gangs are, who belongs to them and how they function. The book index is useful here.

How does the author know what they claim to. What sources of evidence are being used and how should they be evaluated? What are the limits of Rahman’s ‘dashcam ethnography’ for example?

Was there anything you did not like? Did you feel the book addressed you well as a reader? Is there anything missing from its agenda or approach?

When reading the book be guided by your response to it. You will respond to any academic text intellectually and emotionally, and in my view we cannot separate those elements. How you read the book matters as much as what it says, and what it says to you matters as much as what it says to the topic of criminology or whatever it might be. Your response is a valid good guide to what it is saying – are there parts that are intriguing, or recognisable, or captivating, or alienating? Did anything make you laugh? Always say why that was.

A good way to end is to suggest where we might go from here. Is it worth pursuing the agenda they lay out and what might be needed to do that?

Reviewing a report

Reviewing a report such as a document published by Europol is different from a book because of the way in which it is written and the purpose for which it is written. A report like one of Europol’s threat assessments serves several functions. It is a statement of the organisation’s purpose and a justification for its existence and strategy. In the case of Europol it is a political document, in the sense that it seeks to influence the aims and strategy of members. It is a case for action. Reports can also serve other functions. A report on past investigations might say ‘this is how things should be done. This is the best way of doing them.’ It might explicitly identify problems to be fixed.

A report is an institutional document, unlike a book, which is a personal document. Therefore, when reviewing a report, you would want to say why it was being written, and for what purpose. What function of the institution is being served by this report? In one sense, a report is also saying something about what the institution is as well as what the problem. In one sense, a report is also saying something about what the institution is as well as what the problem or challenge is. If you know the work of if you know the work of Weber on bureaucracies and how they act you will be very familiar with this idea. It is not too conspiratorial to assess that anything produced by bureaucracy is in some way going to be justifying the bureaucracy’s existence or purpose.

That does not mean it is without value. It does mean that there are going to be other takes on the issue which might might not be represented in the report. Do you have a way of finding those out or representing them? Also, consider the audience. A report like those produced by Europol is not going to spend a lot of time discussing the produced by Europol is not going to spend a lot of time discussing the ins and outs of different definitions of organised crime. It will say a lot more about it is it is and what we should be worried about.

You will find that reports present evidence in a very different way to an academic book or article. Academics talk a lot about how we arrived at our conclusions, reports are focused much more on what the conclusions are. Academics should present the evidence in a way that allows you to reach your own conclusions. Reports often do not do that. You can see that at work in reports by activist groups which are often highly selective and need to be read with a critical eye.

Author: Angus Bancroft

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How to... Write a book review

Book reviews are a special form of academic writing. They have well-known structures with familiar components.

Here, Emeritus Professor James Hartley of the School of Psychology, Keele University, UK, consulted with academics on writing the perfect book review and presents a potential checklist for book reviewers.

When writing book reviews colleagues use a variety of phrases that carry hidden meanings. Consider, "This is a surprising book" or "This is a useful book for the library". What these phrases really mean are, "This book is better than I expected" and "This book is not worth buying for your personal use".

When we are familiar with the format and the hidden meanings of sentences we know that we are reading a particular text genre – in this case a book review. Essentially, we can always tell we are reading a book review from the language and the structure that it employs. Writers of book reviews typically progress through four stages, as follows:

1. Introduce the book:

Outline the general topic Indicate who the book is for
Place the book in its field.

2. Outline the content of the book:

Give a general view of its the organisation
State the topic of each chapter/section.

3. Highlight parts of the book:

Select particular chapters or themes for evaluation
Critique the argument of the book.

4. Evaluate the book:

Comment on aspects of the content
Indicate how it meets the readers’ needs
Remark on its format, price, and value for money
Make recommendations for purchase or otherwise.

Looking closely at book reviews we find that most, if not all of these components are present, even if they are not always given in the order listed. Some reviewers, for example, like to start with items from Stage 4 – evaluation – then move to Stages 1–3, and finally conclude by justifying their original opening evaluation.

"I usually read completely the books I am reviewing (so as to be sure that I do not misunderstand them), marking parts that I think are particularly meaningful. Then I start by saying what the book is about and the intended audience (since having this information first may allow readers who are not interested to skip the rest of the review, and readers who are interested to raise their attention). Next, I outline how the topic is developed, as concerns facets of content and depth of treatment. Then I point out what are in my opinion the points of strengths and weaknesses of the book. Finally, I try to give a global evaluation of my appreciation and possible usefulness of the book. Finally, I polish the form and try to bring it to the required length. This writing phase lasts usually around two hours."

"I read the book through, marking on it possible points for inclusion on

What the author says the book is about
Possible key findings
Controversial statements.

I then decide on which of these to include and which bits of the book to write about and what to leave out (because of space limitations). I produce an initial draft, which is usually too long, and then I rework and refine it through careful editing –until it emerges, in my view, as a highly polished piece of prose!"

I have reported elsewhere the results that I found when I sent an electronic questionnaire on reading and writing book reviews to groups of academics in the arts, sciences and social sciences (Hartley, 2006). Approximately 50 people in each group replied. Almost two-thirds of these respondents recalled reading a poor book review. Some of the things said about such reviews were that they were:

Pointless, uninformative, indecisive and boring
A mere listing of the contents
Pretentious, unkind, careless
Personally abusive about the author’s credentials
Written to cherish the reviewer’s ego.

Generally speaking, book reviews were not highly regarded if they simply outlined the content of a book, in a chapter-by-chapter format. On the other hand, approximately 55 per cent of the respondents recalled reading an outstanding book review. Here it was thought that such reviews:

Gave a balanced critical evaluation of the text
Made seemingly dull topics interesting
Were well written, succinct, and informative
Displayed awesome scholarship
Made people want to buy the book.

How then can authors write such "outstanding" book reviews? Respondents to my questionnaire were reluctant to say. Most argued that it depended on the book in question. One, however, wrote: “I use a basic sort of ‘recipe’ that touches on all the information that I think readers of book reviews need.”

Two stages appear to be needed here. The first stage involves reading and thinking about the book. Sometimes this is done before putting pen to paper, but some reviewers start making notes from the outset. At this stage then reviewers are concerned with selecting and thinking about information that will be relevant to the four-stage writing procedure outlined above. Next comes the actual writing of the review. Here different writers have different preferences. The quotations given in the above panel provide but two examples. Whatever the procedures, it is important that a book review contains a number of key features. The checklist below might prove useful in this respect. In my experience, however, rather than just summarizing a text, better book reviewers spend more time critiquing it.

Make sure that your review contains:

An early paragraph saying what the book is about, and putting it in context
Information about the intended audience
A critique of the argument/content of the book
Remarks on the strengths and limitations of the book
A note on the format, length and price (or value for money)
A note (if appropriate) on how well the text is supported by tables/diagrams/illustrations
Any supporting academic references

If the following details are not supplied for you, please make sure that your review contains:

Accurate details of the authors’/editors’ names and initials
Title of the publication
Date of publication
Publisher and place of publication
ISBN number
Format (hardback, paperback or soft cover)
Number of pages

Try to make your review readable and entertaining. Write it in the first person, as though you are describing the book in a letter to a close friend.

Hartley, J. (2006), “Reading and writing book reviews across the disciplines”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , Vol. 57 No. 9, pp. 1194-1207.

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June 25th, 2019

How to write a book review of an edited collection.

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Reviewing an edited collection can seem a daunting task, presenting different challenges to a review of a monograph. In this piece, LSE RB Managing Editor Rosemary Deller shares five tips for writing a review of an edited volume, including examples of how contributors to the LSE RB blog have approached their reviews. If you are interested in this topic, you may also like to read this feature on writing introductions to book reviews.

While contributors to the LSE RB blog often feel reasonably confident about writing a review of an academic monograph, the prospect of reviewing an edited collection can provoke more uncertainty. A question that I typically get asked is: how could I possibly comment on all this content and do it justice in 1000 words? Whether the collection has a relatively concise eight chapters or is one of the dauntingly mammoth Oxford Handbooks, this concern is shared by many of those undertaking a review of an edited volume. In this piece, I share five tips for approaching a review of an edited book.

Accept that you can’t comment on all of the chapters – and your review will be stronger for it

One of the key anxieties when it comes to reviewing edited collections is the fear of not being able to cover all of the content. However, accepting that you cannot review each individual chapter in a volume doesn’t jeopardise your capacity to do justice to the book; rather, it enhances it. Since any book review can be considered a judicious balancing act between the right amount of description and evaluation (with more weight typically on the latter), then the risk of trying to review all or even most of a book’s chapters in a review is that the resulting piece – especially in our concise reviews of 1000 words – ends up providing a flat descriptive overview, rather than an insightful critical commentary on a collection’s strengths and possible shortcomings. For this reason, it is neither feasible nor constructive to try to comment on all of the essays in a volume. To narrow in on a selection of chapters is not a failing in a book review of an edited collection, but integral to critical engagement.

Narrow in on chapters that exemplify or demonstrate some of the overarching themes or concerns of the collection

With that in mind, how to select the best or most appropriate chapters to comment on? One suggestion is to focus on those that exemplify a collection’s overarching themes, shared methodology or political outlook. A noteworthy example can be found in Ekaterina Svetlova’s review of Uncertain Futures (edited by Jens Beckert and Richard Bronk), where she discusses a couple of chapters that illustrate the volume’s two main themes. Faced with the task of writing a review of The Sage Handbook of the 21 st Century City (edited by Suzanne Hall and Ricky Burdett), which has 37 essays, Frederik Weissenborn structures his review around what he considers the three central contributions to the collection. Taking a slightly different approach, Fabrizia Serafim in her review of Feminism and the Politics of Childhood (edited by Rachel Rosen and Katherine Twamley) discusses chapters that demonstrate two key themes she identifies in addition to those explicitly signalled by the editors. This method of choosing chapters is likely to be particularly useful for edited volumes that have been organised following a conference or which explore a specific topic across a small number of disciplines, where there are connective tissues between the chapters that can be drawn out for discussion.

Don’t be afraid to showcase your own research interests and expertise when picking chapters to focus on

Although it can be useful to select chapters that reflect some of the commonalities across a collection, it may be that an edited interdisciplinary volume presents more diverse offerings. Here, it can be productive to select several chapters that speak to your own research interests, especially if you contextualise this choice within the body of the review. A great example can be found here in Jim Reynolds’s review of Looking Back and Living Forward: Indigenous Research Rising Up (edited by Jennifer Markides and Laura Forsythe). Reynolds narrows in on the chapters on Indigenous law, which is his own area of expertise, while also identifying a couple of additional contributions that caught his eye. In a different vein, in her review of Decolonization and Feminisms in Global Teaching and Learning (edited by Sara de Jong, Rosalba Icaza and Olivia U. Rutazibwa) Fawzia Mazanderani discusses how one of the contributions prompted her to reflect on her own teaching. Reviewing through the lens of your expertise and practice is not self-aggrandising: it can help your own evaluative voice to come to the surface and it gives the added value of casting an informed and knowledgeable eye on the book’s treatment of a particular topic.

Remember that edited volumes are not the same as monographs – make sure you attend to these differences, and the collective labour involved, in your review

From reading drafts of reviews of edited collections, it can be easy to forget that they have a different format to a monograph: for instance, collections don’t have an author; instead, they have an editor/editors and contributing authors. Although questions of structure, what to include and what to exclude are components of writing any book, they take on particular significance in an edited collection. Remember to appraise the holistic organisation of the volume in the review, including the work of editing – have the editors done a good job in selecting the contributing authors? Have they organised the chapters in a logical, illuminating manner? Do the introductions and conclusions provide an effective entrance into the text and a satisfying close to it? Do the essays speak to one another; is there repetition of content? In his review of On Race , edited by George Yancy, Leonardo Custódio does a great job of appraising Yancy’s editorial approach, including some critical reflection on the geographical reach of his selected contributors. In a related vein, remember to give the names of the contributing authors when discussing their chapters to ensure that you acknowledge the collective labour that goes into an edited volume, as Jodie Matthews does so well in her review of Posthuman Glossary (edited by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova).

Flag scholarship by early career researchers and emerging scholars, not just the recognised big names

It is not uncommon for edited collections to feature a particularly big name in a chosen field. While it can be tempting to focus on that chapter due to the potential familiarity of the contributing author, edited collections can often be the place where postgraduate students and early career researchers publish for the first time. So if a chapter by an emerging scholar catches your eye, a review of an edited volume can be a great place to draw attention to their work and flag its value to other readers and researchers.

About the author

Rosemary Deller is the Managing Editor of the LSE Review of Books blog. She received a PhD in English and American Studies from the University of Manchester in 2015 for her thesis looking at co-constructions of gender and animality through representations of meat in contemporary culture. Prior to this, she studied Politics at undergraduate level at Newcastle University and has an MA in Gender Studies from Central European University, Budapest.

This post originally appeared on LSE Review of Books . If you would like to contribute to the series, please contact the managing editor of LSE Review of Books, Dr Rosemary Deller, at [email protected] .

Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our comments policy if you have any concerns on posting a comment below

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https://usbookreviews.com/ probably has the best team of reviewers, a highly recommended one! Definitely a good place to start as it offers sharp and precise book reviews along with other relevant content for book lovers. I’m glad other people have a great experience as I did! Check out their website https://usbookreviews.com/

Thank you for this article. I was so lost when I was tasked to book review work with several contributors and this article has given me the clarity I need.

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How to Write a Book Review in 5 Steps

By Hannah Yang

If you love to read books, you might be looking for ways to share your opinions about your recent reads.

Writing book reviews is a great way to engage with the book-loving community. If your reviews gain a large enough following, you might even get paid to read books—every reader’s dream come true!

So how exactly do you write book reviews?

This article will explain what a book review is and give you a step-by-step guide for writing a good one.

What Is a Book Review?

How to review a book in 5 steps, best book review examples, how to be a book reviewer.

A book review is a critical assessment of a recently published book. Looking at book reviews helps readers figure out which books to read next and which books to avoid.

The average book review is around 300–750 words. It includes a quick summary of the book, the reviewer’s evaluation of the book, and a recommendation about who should read this book.

It’s important not to confuse book reviews with book reports. A book report is a summary that proves you understood the book, often assigned to elementary school or middle school students.

Book reviews, on the other hand, should offer a unique perspective on a book. They’re often assigned to undergraduate or graduate students.

Professional book reviews can be published in academic journals, on the reviewer’s personal blog, or on platforms like Goodreads.

Here are five steps you can follow to write your own book review.

1. Briefly Summarize the Book

If you’re wondering how to start a book review, the answer is simple—start by summarizing the story!

A quick and objective summary, similar to the one you might find on the book jacket, gives your readers a sense of what the book is about. That way, they have enough context to understand the rest of your review.

If the book is nonfiction, you should include the major questions the book examines, the ways the book tries to answer those questions, and any relevant details about the author’s credentials.

If the book is a novel, you should include the genre, the main character, and the events that launch the main character into the story.

However, it’s important not to spoil the story for people who haven’t read it yet. A good rule is not to mention anything that happens after the midpoint of the story. Leave the rest for the readers to discover on their own.

2. Evaluate the Book’s Qualities

Once you’ve explained the premise of the book, it’s time to provide a more subjective evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the book. What do you want other readers to know about this book?

Here are some different aspects of a nonfiction book you can evaluate:

Key takeaways (e.g. What did you learn? What’s the book’s argument?)
Readability (e.g. What background knowledge do readers need to understand this?)
Prose (e.g. How are the points communicated? What’s the author’s writing style?)

Here are some different aspects of a novel you can evaluate:

Characters (e.g. How well-developed is the protagonist? The villain? The love interest?)
Plot (e.g. Are there surprising twists? Subverted tropes? Plot holes?)
Worldbuilding (e.g. Is the world of the story immersive? Unique? Original?)
Theme (e.g. What questions does the story examine? How does it answer those questions?)
Prose (e.g. Is the writing lyrical or plain? Funny or serious? Dense or digestible?)

Many reviewers focus on one aspect for each of the paragraphs in their review.

As much as possible, try to balance the good with the bad. If the entire review is glowing, or if the entire review is critical, it won’t feel as objective as one that mentions both positive and negative qualities.

Also, make sure you include spoiler warnings if you’re going to mention anything that happens after the midpoint of the story. Some book review platforms let you hide those passages of your review until readers click on them.

3. Include Quotes from the Book

Quotes from the book can serve as useful supporting evidence for your key points. If you say the book includes lyrical prose, make sure to include a passage that represents the lyrical style of the book, so your readers can see what you mean.

You can include well-written passages that showcase the author’s talent. If you disliked the book, you can also choose quotes that showcase what you disliked most.

4. Rate the Book

Many book review platforms, such as Goodreads, let you give a star rating to each book you review.

You can develop your own rating system if you’d like. For example, you could rate books on a scale of 1–5, 1–10, or even 1–100.

Some reviewers break down their ratings into multiple categories. For example, you might give a book five stars for its characters, but only two stars for its plot.

5. Give Your Recommendation

Finish your book review by stating whether or not you would recommend this book to others. That’s the main purpose of a book review, after all—to convince readers either to read the book or to skip it.

It can be helpful to say exactly what kinds of readers you’d recommend it to.

For example, you might write, “This book is perfect for anyone who loves swing dancing and slow-burn romance,” or “Don’t read this if you don’t like slow, atmospheric books that focus more on vibes than on plot.”

You can also recommend other books in the same genre that you think fellow readers will enjoy if they liked this one. “If you liked A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, we recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.”

One way to learn how to write great book reviews is by reading them. Let’s look at a few examples of great book reviews you can use as inspiration.

Kirkus Reviews is a well-known American book review magazine. Here’s the beginning of their review of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , a historical fiction novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

An aging starlet with seven marriages behind her generously offers the rights to her memoir to an inexperienced writer—at a heartbreaking cost. Monique Grant is stunned when Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo grants an exclusive interview to her over more seasoned journalists, but when she’s also chosen to publish Evelyn’s final confessions after her death, she learns that the 79-year-old actress has enough life experience for them both. Growing up poor in Hell’s Kitchen, young Evelyn Herrera trades her virginity for a ride to Hollywood, changes her name, and climbs the rungs of the entertainment-industry ladder one husband at a time until she hits Oscar gold. To write her off as being calculating and fickle would leave out the difficulty of being a woman, especially a woman of color, trying to get by in the late 1950s without a man’s blessing.

Emily May is a UK-based book reviewer who’s one of the top-ranked reviewers on Goodreads. Here are the first few paragraphs of her Goodreads review of The Poppy War , a fantasy novel by R.F. Kuang.

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.” Holy hell, what did I just read?? A fantasy military school A rich world based on modern Chinese history Shamans and gods Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters Adorable, opium-smoking mentors That’s a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Finally, Book Geeks is a website that describes itself as “India’s best book blog.” Here’s the beginning of their review of Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 SUBJECT: 4/5 CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5 RELEVANCE: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 Eat Pray Love is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from Amazon and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be—maybe more like a chick-lit but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things—Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name—EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India), and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia).

There are many benefits to becoming a consistent book reviewer.

After you establish a following, many publishing houses will send you books for free in exchange for a review, which can be a huge perk. In some cases, you can even get paid for your reviews.

So how do you become a book reviewer? Here are a few tips:

Develop your own book reviewing style to give your reviews a more personal touch. Do you want to leave funny reviews that make readers laugh? Personal reviews that include anecdotes from your own life? Serious reviews that readers can trust for an objective opinion?

Start taking notes every time you read a book you’re planning to review. Recording your initial reactions can help you develop more insightful critiques.

Finally, set book reviewing goals and stick to them. For example, you might decide to start by reviewing one book a month. That way, you can turn reviewing into a consistent practice.

Good luck, and happy writing!

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Hannah Yang

Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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This is Writing

How to Write a Book Review

By Kara Hutchings

A great book review is one that helps a reader decide whether they will pick up the book and read it. This article will provide guidance on how to write a book review. It will answer the question ‘what is a book review’, help you choose which book to review and explore the key elements that form a successful review.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional, student, or brand new to book reviewing, here’s our strategies and suggestions for writing an effective book review.

What you’ll learn in this article

The purpose of this article is to teach you how to write a book review. By reading this article you will learn the following:

What is a book review?

How to choose a book to review
How to critically analyse a book
The key elements of a book review
Rating a book
FAQs about book reviewing

Before you even pick up the book, it’s important to understand exactly what a book review is.

A book review describes, analyzes and evaluates a book based on elements including writing style, plot, characters, significance, impact and fitness for purpose. The criteria for evaluating a book are explored in more detail below.

The most important part of a book review is the analysis and evaluation. A book review requires a critical evaluation meaning you must form an opinion about the book and support your opinion with evidence. Evidence from the book can include direct quotes, writing techniques, themes and character dialogue.

To ensure you are critically evaluating a book, it’s important to avoid falling into the trap of simply describing the plot and characters. Your opinion must be clearly stated, whether it’s positive or negative. The following is an example of a simple description, without any analysis or evaluation:

“The unnamed narrator, a woman writer, lives in Vienna with a man named Malina who works at a military museum, and she is conducting an affair with a Hungarian man named Ivan, who lives nearby and has two young children.” [1]

Book reviews can vary in tone and style, depending on the author of the review (i.e. whether you’re an academic writing a scholarly review, a journalist, or an amateur reviewer, etc) and the book you are reviewing.

However, there are key elements that should always be addressed in order to create an effective book review. These include:

a summary of the book,
a critical assessment, and;
a conclusion, including whether or not you would recommend the book to your audience.

You can read more about the key elements of a book review below.

Choosing a book to review

The first and probably most important step of writing a book review is choosing the book you would like to review.

If you’re considering writing a book review then you most likely already have a book in mind. But if not, a good place to start is by thinking about your favourite author, or genre, and finding books in this area.

Don’t be afraid to choose a book from an author you love. Some people can feel intimidated by well-respected or famous authors and hence avoid being overly critical of them. But it’s important to choose a book that you’re actually interested in.

Reviewing a book you don’t really want to read will feel too much like a school project.

If you’re truly interested in the book before you, you’ll find the time to properly research, carefully read, and form ideas about the book – all elements of a good book review.

If you’re hoping to get your review published online, it’s also best to select a recently published book. A newer book is less likely to have already been reviewed by another book reviewer and therefore more likely to get published.

Writing the book review

Now the fun part begins. Getting your opinion out there for the world to see. But there’s much more to a book review than simply writing. A sound structure, supported by thorough research, will ensure your book review gets the credibility it deserves.

Here’s how to get started:

Before you start writing

Before you jump into writing, it’s important that you do your research. It’s easy to know whether you do or don’t like a book. But why you have that opinion needs to be supported by research and evidence (i.e. the elements that inform your critical evaluation ).

Download sample book reviews

A great place to start, particularly if this is your very first book review, is to read other reviews. Most of the reviews you read will follow a similar structure and touch on similar points, so use others as a guide for how you should be setting out your work. If you come across a book review that you find really engaging, ask yourself why it was so impactful and try to reproduce those elements in your own work. Because if the review was persuasive enough to encourage (or dissuade) you to read the book, it’s a successful book review.

You can browse professional book reviews from writers all around the world on websites including:

The Telegraph (UK) website
The New York Times Sunday Book Review
The New York Review of Books
National Library of Australia website
The Australian newspaper website
Kirkus Book Reviews
This Is Writing

As you’re reading through the book reviews make sure to take notes on factors that will form the basis of your review

What are the common elements of the book reviews you have read?
What do you like about the reviews?
Do you prefer reviews with controversial opinions?
Do you like when a serious tone is used, or do you prefer a more casual review?
What could you do better?

2. Do your research

A good book review is one supported by thorough research.

Understanding the context in which a novel was written will help you form an opinion later when you start writing.

It’s difficult to form an argument about the author’s choice of language, for example, if you don’t understand the time period in which the novel was composed. If you’re reading a vampire mystery book, how can you evaluate the structure of the storyline if you don’t understand the elements of that genre?

There are a number of complex and competing elements that will influence the choices an author has made, so it’s crucial to understand the reasons behind their choices in order to form an opinion about things like style, tone, character development, plot and language. Here is a great example of a book review which considers the historical context in which the novel was composed.

To help you with your contextual research, use the below template as a starting point:

Who is the author?	Qualifications, education, reputation, nationality, personal history, historical context, social and political ideals, influences, etc
What is the genre?	Does the book conform or depart from the traditional conventions of the genre?
What is the purpose of the book?	Why was the book written? What is the author trying to achieve?
What is the thesis of the book?	What are the major themes and how were they revealed?

In addition to the above criteria, you should also be reading actively and critically. As you’re reading, ask yourself questions like;

how did the author structure their argument and how did they support it?
has the book helped you understand the topic?
And most importantly, would you recommend this book to others?

We will explore how to form an opinion and making recommendations more in-depth below.

How long should a book review be?

The length of your book review depends on why you are writing the review and who it is for. Is it simply to provide your opinion to your social media followers, or are you trying to get published online? Is it for an academic purpose? Perhaps it is a university assignment.

Generally, book reviews are around 500 words. However, professional and academic book reviews can be thousands of words in length. If you’re interested in writing a professional book review, check out example book reviews on The Guardian online to get an idea of length. Ultimately, the more words you use, the more thorough your analysis can be. But always be conscious of keeping your writing concise and to the point.

If you are opting for a longer review (around the 1,000 word mark), you can break up long paragraphs of text by using headings and sub-headings. This helps make the content more digestible for the reader.

The elements of a book review

Now that you’ve finished reading the book, made extensive notes, and completed your research, it’s time to begin writing.

Any writer would know that a high-quality piece of writing is well structured. Your arguments should be developed in a logical manner, beginning with the context of the novel and a general overview of the plot, followed by an exploration of the author’s argument, your own opinions about the book, and ending with a conclusion – what rating do you give the book and would you recommend it to others.

The three key elements that you should include in your book review are:

A summary of the content – including the plot, context, author’s argument, etc. (i.e. all the information you gathered in your initial research).
A critical assessment of the book – your reaction to the book and whether or not it was effective in meeting its purpose.
A recommendation – whether or not the audience you are writing for would appreciate the book.

Here’s a breakdown of each point:

1. Introduction

Your book review should begin with a captivating introduction to draw your reader in and make them want to continue reading. Generally, it’ll be around one sentence in length and give a quick overview of the main theme of the book. Here are two examples of short and snappy introductions that hook the reader in:

“For every child kidnapped, another must be taken. Otherwise The Chain will be broken.” [2]

“Throughout college, Evvie, Maggie, and Topher were the best of friends. But time and the mistakes that come with simply being human may strain their love to the breaking point.” [3]

While trying to keep your introduction short, it’s important to also be concise. A complicated introduction can turn your reader away before they’ve even gotten to your analysis.

By trying to contain the introduction to a single, lengthy sentence , the below opening line is complicated and overloaded with commas, making it difficult to read:

The English nature writer Robert Macfarlane’s new book, “Underland: A Deep Time Journey,” has a title that evokes a burrowing theme park ride or an IMAX movie, and indeed, like Alice in Wonderland or Orpheus in the underworld, down we go. [4]

2. Describe the plot

Your introduction should lead into a description of the plot. In a few sentences, Include a description of the book’s setting, the main characters, and a loose summary of the plot. An outline of the storyline will help your audience decide whether or not they’re interested in reading the book.

However, make sure your introduction doesn’t give everything away. There should be just enough details to make the reader want to pick up the book, without giving away the whole story.

Not only do you want to touch on the plot of the book in your introduction, but you will also need to set the context. What is the historical, political, and/or social context in which the novel was written? What is the author’s background? What genre is the book written in? These questions set the scene for your critical assessment. Whether the author was successful in meeting their intended purpose will be informed by the reasons behind writing the novel.

3. Avoid spoilers

It almost goes without saying. Don’t spoil the book!

While your readers will want to know what the book is about, don’t rob them of experiencing genuine emotional reactions to the shocks and plot twists of the book. For example, if the main character dies at the end of the book, keep those details to yourself. There’ll be no point in your audience reading the book if they already know what happens.

It can be really tempting to reveal spoilers in your book review, because more often than not, the big shocks of the book are those that you want to talk about. When forming an opinion of the book’s effectiveness, your emotional reaction to surprising details are likely to be the evidence you need to prove the book’s effectiveness.

But it is possible to review a book without completely revealing the details if you choose your words carefully. After all, the purpose of your book review is to encourage others (or discourage if you didn’t enjoy the book) to read the book, and no-one is going to want to read the book if you’ve already told them the ending.

For example, ‘I Let You Go’ by Clare Mackintosh is renowned for having two ‘absolute stunner’ plot twist , however, this review on The New York Times only alludes to the twist enough to entice the reader to want to pick up the book, without completely giving it away:

“The big plot twist in Clare Mackintosh’s first novel, I LET YOU GO, is genuinely shocking. The jolts that follow, right up until the last page, are pretty good too. And if you’re the kind of genre geek who jumps back to the beginning of a book to work out how you’ve been hoodwinked, you’ll find that the author has played fair and square.”[5]

4. Form an opinion

By far the most important part of writing a book review is forming an opinion. As we touched on earlier, your critical evaluation is what takes your writing from a simple summary of a book, to a review.

Keep in mind your critique doesn’t have to be all negative or all praise. A well-balanced book review would explore both sides so that the reader of your review gets the whole picture. A one-sided book review can give your audience the impression that your critique is an unfair assessment. Remember, a bad book takes just as long to write as a good one and every author deserves fair treatment. Even if you hated the book, you’ll be able to find some positives. And ultimately, make sure you are reviewing the book you read, not the book you wished the author had written.

Think back to the list you wrote when you were first reading the book. Here’s where those considerations come into play – the author’s background, the genre, the purpose of the book and the main thesis of the work are all elements that inform your opinion. Whether you did or did not enjoy the book can be supported by opinions based on factors such as whether the author effectively subverted traditional elements of the genre, or whether the author’s thesis didn’t challenge your way of thinking.

This review of the novel ‘Malina’ provides an example of the reviewer evaluating how the author’s academic experience influences her language style and the overall readability of the novel:

“Taken in bites, Bachmann’s prose is often lucid and powerful, enlivened by her poetic gifts. At length, she can be tough chewing. She wrote a doctoral dissertation on Heidegger and was a devoted reader of Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,” though she’s nowhere near that tough. For every aphoristic dart she throws at the human condition (“the world is sick and doesn’t want a healthy force to prevail”), there is a sentence or meaning that remains tightly knotted, and a general lack of clear orientation prevails. Whatever verifiable facts about the plot and characters might exist beneath the novel’s psychological static, you can imagine Bachmann insisting, are none of your business.”[6]

Your book review will include multiple different arguments, so aim to break them down into separate paragraphs that each deal with individual aspects. And each paragraph should contain an evaluation with an example from the book to support it.

The following criteria can be used to help you form an evaluation:

objectivity
thoroughness
usefulness for intended purpose.

5. Include your favourite quotes

When making an argument you need examples to support your opinion. The easiest way to do this is by directly quoting the book.

For example, one of the key themes of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird , is prejudice and the following quote directly illustrates this theme:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” [7]

The main thing to consider when quoting the book is to keep the quotes short. A lengthy quote will take up too many words and potentially overpower your review. A short quote will help to get your point across while still letting your work shine through. The purpose of including quotes is to simply bring your argument to light.

6. Provide recommendations to your audience

Would you recommend the book to your audience?

In order to recommend the book, you need to determine who your audience is. Who are you writing the book review for? Not every book is suited to every reader. For example, a book written under the magical realism genre, wouldn’t be recommended to an audience that enjoy non-fiction.

This goes back to the point above, it’s important to remember that your individual tastes don’t necessarily reflect those of your readers. Even if you didn’t enjoy the book, there may be readers out there who it would appeal to so make sure you consider diverse tastes when making a book recommendation.

If you’re reviewing children, teenage or young adult books, it’s a good idea to give an ‘age-appropriateness’ recommendation. It can be tricky for parents when buying books for their children to know whether the book would be appropriate or not, so do the hard work for them. Check out Common Sense Media for ideas on how to give an age-appropriateness rating – this site rates books by age and learning value.

A captivating way to make a recommendation is to also compare the book to other similar ones. If the book you are reviewing has similar themes, characters, writing style, or is even composed by the same author, you will be able to make a recommendation based on how it compares to other work. You might write something along the lines of ‘If loved XXX book, you will love this one’. If your audience has already read the other book, they will be able to get a good idea of whether they will also like your book based on this comparison.

7. Rate the book

You might wonder if you’ve already expressed your opinion about the book throughout your review, why give it a rating as well?

Attaching a rating to your book review is a great way to give your audience an immediate sense of how you felt about the book. Before they even begin reading your review, they already know whether you’re recommending it or not.

The simplest way to rate a book is using a star rating. Goodreads uses a 5-star book rating system.

You can see the most popular books published in 2018 here based on the star rating. If you intend for your book review to be published on a website such as this, you will need to use the rating system provided by the site.

But if you’re self-publishing the review, you can choose whatever rating system that works best for you. You could break your rating system down into categories – maybe the book deserves four stars out of five for writing style, but only two stars for the plot development. It’s up to you.

8. Write a conclusion

The conclusion to your book review is the last thing your audience will read so you want to make sure it leaves them with a lasting impression. A reader has most likely come to your review to decide whether they will or won’t read the book, so if you want them to read the book, make it clear.

Your conclusion should follow general conclusion writing guidelines. The University of Melbourne suggests a conclusion should :

Summaries the key points made in reaching your position; and
Make a final comment on the topic.

While summarising the key points you should aim to balance the strengths and weakness of the book. What did the author do well? What could be improved upon? And remember, no new information should be included in the conclusion. Any interesting points you want to make about the book should be included in the body of your text.

This review of Laura Lippman’s ‘Lady in the Lake’ wraps up the book in the following short and sweet sentence:

The racism, classism, and sexism of 50 years ago wrapped up in a stylish, sexy, suspenseful period drama about a newsroom and the city it covers. [8]

9. Bibliographical details

A professional book review will also include a bibliographic citation of the book. Check out some examples on Kirkus Reviews to get an idea on how you can format your citation.

Here are the bibliographic details you should include in your review:

Title: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Place of Publication: USA
Date of Publication: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Date of publication edition: August 31, 2010
Number of pages: 496
ISBN number*: 978-1416975861

*ISBN or ‘International Standard Book Number’ is a unique identifier for books . It is used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, internet retailers and other suppliers for ordering, listing, sales records and stock control purposes. It identifies the registrant as well as the title, edition and format of the book.

10. Editing

After you’ve completed the first draft of your book review, it’s time to start the editing process. Step away from your work for at least an hour to give your brain a rest. When you come back to review your work with fresh eyes, look out for the following:

Is the paper well-organised?
Are the transitions between paragraphs smooth?
Have you backed up each point with evidence?
Is there an introduction and a conclusion?
Have you cited all your references?

Take the time to rewrite your work and make any changes necessary to improve it.

There are also some great tools that can assist in editing such as the Hemingway App . Copy and paste your work into the app and it will give you a readability score as well as highlight sentences that are too long and complicated.

Another useful tool is Grammarly . Grammarly is a handy application that detects spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice, plagiarism and style, and suggests corrections. It’s also available as an app for both iOS and Android.

11. Proofread

The best way to undermine your credibility as a book reviewer is with spelling mistakes. To critique the work of another writer with a piece of writing that is littered with typos and incorrect punctuation tells your audience you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Before publishing your work, read over it a few times to catch any spelling or grammar errors, as well as double-checking your facts – including double-checking that the quotes and character names you referenced from the book are accurate, as well as the facts you’ve included about the author’s background.

If you’re not feeling confident in your proofreading skills, test yourself by reading this article from The Writing Centre . It contains seven errors (two punctuation errors, two grammatical errors and three spelling errors). See if you can spot them, then refer to this handout with the errors marked in red .

It might even be worthwhile also having another person proofread your work. Once you’ve read over your own work a few times it can be easy to miss things, so a fresh set of eyes could be useful in picking up any errors you haven’t.

12. Have fun!

While it might seem like there are a lot of rules that go into writing a high-quality book review, the most important thing is that you enjoy what you’re doing! Your passion for the book you are reviewing will shine through in your writing.

If you have been book reviewing for some time and begin to feel burned out, take a break and remind yourself why you started writing book reviews in the first place – to share your love of reading with your fellow readers all over the world.

What is the objective of a book review?

The main purpose of a book review is to help a reader device whether to read the book themselves. For this reason, a book review should include a brief summary of the book’s content, characters and setting, as well as a critical evaluation on the success or effectiveness of the book.

Book reviews save other readers time and offer them a chance to connect with the book before they even pick it up. They help validate the worthiness of a book – if someone else enjoyed the book, I might enjoy it too .

Book reviews are also very important to authors . They give a book greater visibility and a higher chance of being found by readers whether it’s online, in bookstores, among book clubs or blogging communities. A book review is a great opportunity for an author to expand their reach, as well as a platform for other books written in a similar style or from the same genre to be found.

Can you use ‘I’ in a book review?

Whether or not you use first person to write your book review will ultimately come down to why you are writing the review.

An academic piece of writing, for example, would not use first person. So if you’re writing your review for a school, university/college assignment or to be published in an academic journal or magazine (for example, the Oxford Academic Journal of Communication ), avoid using first person.

If you’re writing the review for your personal blog or website, or writing customer reviews online, then it’s okay to be a little more casual. Depending on your writing style and the purpose of your website, first-person can make your review more personal and relatable for your audience. It’s easier to give an opinion about how you felt about a book when writing in the first person, for example – ‘I loved the way the author used XYZ to ABC’.

Where can I get my book review published?

If you’re looking to get your book review published, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to:

Identify where you want your book review to be published

There are a number of journals devoted to book reviews if you’re interested in having your book review published in a scholarly journal like the Oxford Academic Journal of Communication , Cambridge University’s Historical Journal , or the Australian Book Review .

If you’re not interested in going down the academic route, there are a host of websites where you can publish your book review, including This is Writing. A quick Google search will help you find websites where you could potentially have your review published, or check out our list of ‘Book Blogs and Review Websites for Book Lovers ’.

Otherwise, you can self-publish your book review on your own website or blog.

Reach out to the editor Once you’ve decided where you’d like your book review to be published, get in contact with the journal or website. Your email to the editor or website owner should include a brief introduction about yourself, the book you intend on reviewing and why you’d like to write a review for the publication.It’s important to do your homework before contacting the editor or website owner. If you have a book in mind, do a quick search of the journal or website to make sure the book hasn’t already been reviewed by someone else. It’s recommended to select a book that has been published in the last two years, as anything earlier has likely already been claimed by another reviewer.And above all else, be confident! Even if you’re brand new to book reviewing, it’s perfectly alright to reach out to editors to ask them to publish your work. Conta c t us at This is Writing to have your book review featured.
Read the book and write the review Once the editor or website owner has accepted your proposal to write a review for their publication, it’s time to get started. Refer to our recommendations on how to structure your book review above. If you’re writing for a journal you might even be lucky enough to be sent a free copy of the book.
Submit and wait After you’ve completed the final proofread of your work it’s time to submit it to the editor or website owner. Be sure to read the journal or website submission guidelines thoroughly. Each publisher will have unique submission guidelines relating to criteria such as spelling and grammar, and offensive content, etc. Most book review journals and websites will receive a large number of submissions, so if yours doesn’t meet the guidelines it’s not likely to be considered for publishing.If you haven’t heard back after a month, it’s worthwhile following up. Send a second email asking the editor or website owner if they’ve received your submission and tell them you’re looking forward to hearing from them. The most important thing is to keep it polite and respectful. And make sure to check the website’s submission guidelines first to see if there’s a general timeline for feedback before you start harassing them after only a few days!

Can I get paid to write book reviews?

Yes. There are a number of websites that will pay writers to create book reviews for their website.

If you’re just getting started and looking for a bit of unpaid book reviewing experience, a great place to start is by writing customer reviews on websites that sell books, such as Amazon . These websites allow customers to give a star rating for the product as well as leave a comment. On Amazon, others can then mark your review as ‘helpful’ so you’ll be able to get a good idea on how people feel about your reviewing. Interacting with other book lovers and reviewers can also help improve your own reviewing style and build an audience.

You can also share your book reviews via your social media platforms, or start your own website or blog to publish your book reviews. Check out these tips on how to create a website from the Queensland Government.

The book I have chosen to review is not the first book of the series, does it matter?

No. As mentioned earlier in this article , if you want your book review to be published, you should be aiming to review a recently released book. The newer the book, the less likely it has already been reviewed by another review. If the first book of a series was released five years ago, and the second book released this year, review the second book. Chances are, the first book has already been reviewed to death. Reviewing book two is a chance to create brand new content for your audience.

Despite this, it’s still worthwhile touching on the storyline of the novels that have come before your book in the series as this provides context on the effectiveness of the book. Was book two a good sequel to the first book? What was different? What was the same? If the reader of your review has already read the first book, a comparison between the two will help them decide if they want to read the next book of the series.

[1] John Williams. “ A Postwar Love Triangle in Which One Partner May Be Pure Fantasy ”. The New York Times . July 24, 2019. Viewed 25 July 2019.

[2] “ The Chain ”. Kirkus Review. Viewed 29 July 2019.

[3] “ The Friends We Keep ”. Kirkus Review . Viewed 29 July 2019.

[4] Dwight Garner. “ ‘Underland’ Offers Excellent Nature Writing From Deep, Dark Places ”. The New York Times . Viewed 29 July 2019,

[5] Clare Mackintosh. “ Clare Mackintosh’s ‘I Let You Go’, and More ”. The New York Times . Viewed 25 July 2019.

[6] John Williams. “ A Postwar Love Triangle in Which One Partner May Be Pure Fantasy ”. The New York Times . July 24, 2019. Viewed 25 July 2019.

[7] Harper Lee. “To Kill a Mockingbird”. J. B. Lippincott & Co . Chapter 3.

[8] “ Lady in the Lake ”. Kirkus Review . Viewed 27 July 2019.

Scott Mullins

Critical review

You may be asked to write a ‘critical review’ of any type of text, such as a book, a journal article, or a chapter in a book. A critical review is often set to help you develop skills identifying an argument and judging its merits. You may be given specific criteria to use for reviewing the text, so do check your own assignment brief.

Scroll down for our recommended strategies and resources.

Summary and evaluation

Most critical reviews will involve some summarising of the main argument of the text and some judgement about the quality and usefulness of the argument. The evaluation and judgement parts normally count for more marks. This guide gives you questions to help prompt both your summary and evaluation, plus an annotated example of a critical review:

Difference between summary and evaluation (Academic English UK)

Read the text carefully a number of times. Take notes on the author's argument and how well they have made this argument. Both of the guides below have useful questions to help structure your reading and your writing when doing a critical review. The first guide is suitable for most texts, and the second guide focuses on reviewing a journal article that presents primary research:

Writing a critique (IOE Writing Centre, UCL)

Planning and writing a critical review (University of Southampton)

Critical thinking

The basis of any critical review is being able to think critically about what you are reading. Have a look at our critical thinking page for more:

Critical thinking resources (Centre for Academic Development)

Book review / critical appraisal?

Confusingly, some names for assignments can overlap or be used to mean the same thing. You may have been asked to do a book review or a critical appraisal . While these often have similar approaches, there are some specific differences depending on your subject. Check with your lecturer if you aren’t sure what you are being asked to do.

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How to Write a Literature Review

Samuels, P. (2016) How to Write a Literature Review. Technical Report. ResearchGate, Birmingham, UK.

A literature review is not just a sequence of summaries or critiques of selected sources (this is known as an annotated bibliography). Rather, it should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories, methods and findings. It should analyse and synthesise relevant published works.

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In this section...

Literature reviews: Home

Reviewing for research.

Stand-alone review
Scoping and planning
Screening and appraising

The process of reviewing

Planning a search strategy

Literature reviews

The writing of a literature review is an essential part of academic work. Most undergraduate students will need to undertake one as part of their final year dissertation or independent project. For most this will take the form of a traditional review which requires you to select appropriate literature to position your topic in its wider field and justify your research choices. For others, particularly those in health sciences, a systematic review is needed which has a completely different methodology with specific criteria for including and excluding material. Sometimes, a stand-alone literature review is set as an independent assignment. Whichever type of review you need to undertake, this guide should help.

Dissertations & projects

Stand-alone reviews

How are they different?

Systematic reviews

Help and advice

Selection/evaluation/synthesis

Plan a search strategy

The five stages

Literature Review Workshops (NOT systematic) Trimester 1 only

External literature reviewing resources.

Literature reviews Useful information from the Royal Literary Fund.
Avoiding the laundry list literature review Blog post from the brilliant Pat Thompson. Aimed at postgraduates but this is great advice for undergraduates too.
Synthesize E-Lecture Handouts from the Harvard University E-lecture on synthesizing in literature reviews
Conducting a Literature Review: Synthesize From Central Michigan University - includes downloadable matrix

Related books and eBooks from our collection

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How to write a book review

Author Luisa Plaja offers her top tips for how to write a brilliant review of the latest book you read - whether you liked it or not.

Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books you've read. Whether you've loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them.

If you're stuck on what to say in a review, it can help to imagine you're talking to someone who's asking you whether they should read the book.

1. Start with a couple of sentences describing what the book is about

But without giving any spoilers or revealing plot twists! As a general rule, try to avoid writing in detail about anything that happens from about the middle of the book onwards. If the book is part of a series, it can be useful to mention this, and whether you think you'd need to have read other books in the series to enjoy this one.

2. Discuss what you particularly liked about the book

Focus on your thoughts and feelings about the story and the way it was told. You could try answering a couple of the following questions:

Who was your favourite character, and why?
Did the characters feel real to you?
Did the story keep you guessing?
What was your favourite part of the book, and why?
Were certain types of scene written particularly well - for example sad scenes, tense scenes, mysterious ones...?
Did the book make you laugh or cry?
Did the story grip you and keep you turning the pages?

3. Mention anything you disliked about the book

Talk about why you think it didn't work for you. For example:

Did you wish the ending hadn't been a cliffhanger because you found it frustrating?
Did you find it difficult to care about a main character, and could you work out why?
Was the story too scary for your liking, or did it focus on a theme you didn't find interesting?

4. Round up your review

Summarise some of your thoughts on the book by suggesting the type of reader you'd recommend the book to. For example: younger readers, older readers, fans of relationship drama/mystery stories/comedy. Are there any books or series you would compare it to?

5. You can give the book a rating, for example a mark out of five or ten, if you like!

Luisa Plaja loves words and books, and she used to edit the book review site Chicklish. Her novels for teenagers include Split by a Kiss, Swapped by a Kiss and Kiss Date Love Hate. She lives in Devon, England, and has two young children.

More writing tips

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Wendy Laura Belcher

How to write an academic book review.

This article “Writing the Academic Book Review” was originally written by Belcher to aid participants in a workshop sponsored by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center in February 2003 and to encourage book review submissions to Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies . Book reviews in the field of Chicano studies can be sent to the journal; for information, see the new submissions page. The article was updated in 2015. Cite as Belcher, Wendy Laura. 2003. “Writing the Academic Book Review.” Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Last Modified 2015. Retrieved from https://www.wendybelcher.com/writing-advice/how-to-write-book-review/ on [month year]. See also the best-selling book of advice on writing, now in its second edition: Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success.

Why Write a Book Review?

Writing book reviews is not only the easiest and quickest route to publication, it is a good way to improve your writing skills, develop your analytical skills, learn how the journal publishing process works, and get to know editors. Since some libraries can’t buy books unless they have been reviewed and many individuals won’t buy books unless they have read a review, reviewing books can definitely advance your field. Indeed, scholars in smaller fields sometimes get together and assign books for review so that every book published in their field is reviewed somewhere. Just remember that book reviews do not “count” as much on a curriculum vitae as an academic essay. If you are doing more than two book reviews a year, you may be spending too much time on book reviews and not enough on your other writing.

Choosing a Book

Think about what kind of book would be most useful to you in writing your dissertation, finalizing a paper for publication, or passing your exams. Since book reviews do take time, like any writing, it is best to chose a book that will work for you twice, as a publication and as research. Alternatively, some recommend that graduate students focus on reviewing textbooks or anthologies, since such reviews take less background knowledge and editors can find it difficult to find people willing to do such reviews. Although the traditional book review is of one book, editors will often welcome book reviews that address two or more related books–called a review essay.

Choose a book that (1) is in your field, (2) is on a topic for which you have sound background knowledge, (3) has been published in the past two or three years, and (4) has been published by a reputable publisher (i.e., any press affiliated with a university or large commercial presses).

Books on hot topics are often of special interest to editors. It can also be rewarding to pick an obscure but useful book in order to bring attention to it. To avoid complications, it is best not to review books written by your advisor, spouse, or ex!

To identify a suitable book in your field:

Look up the call number of the favorite book in your field and go to the stacks of your university library. Do a shelf search around the call number to see if anything similar or related has been published in the past couple of years.
Go to any book database—your university library on-line, Worldcat , Amazon.com , the Library of Congress —and search using two or three keywords related to your field (e.g., Chicano fiction, Chicana politics, Latino demographics, Latina high school education) to find books in your area.
Read magazines that review books before publication—such as Choice , Library Journal, or Kirkus Reviews —to get a sense for interesting books that will be coming out. You can get copies of books for review before they are published. Editors especially like reviews of just published books.
Read those academic journals that list books recently received for review or recently published in their area.
Ask faculty members in your department for recommendations.

Once you have identified several books, locate copies and skim them. Pick the book that seems the strongest. Do not pick a book that has major problems or with which you disagree violently. As a graduate student, you do not have the protection of tenure and may one day be evaluated by the person whose book you put to the ax. If you really feel strongly that you must write a negative review of a certain book, go ahead and write the review. Academia is, after all, quite oedipal and young scholars do sometimes make their reputations by deflating those who came before them. Just realize that going on record in such a public way may have consequences.

Choosing a Journal

Identify several leading journals in your field that publish book reviews. One way to do this is to search an on-line article database or something like Book Review Digest , if your library has access. Using several key words from your field, limit your search to book reviews and note the journals where the results were published.

Before starting to write your review, contact the book review editor of one of the journals. This is important standard practice; in particular because most journals do not accept unsolicited reviews. You do not want to write an entire review of a book and send it to a journal, only to be told that they don’t accept unsolicited reviews or that a review of that very book is to appear in the next issue.

So, send a short e-mail to book review editors at prospective journals (most journals have websites with such information) identifying the book you would like to review and your qualifications for reviewing it. This e-mail need not be longer than two sentences: “I am writing to find out if you would welcome a review from me of [ Book Title ], edited by [editor] and published in 2012 by [pubisher]. I am currently writing my dissertation at Stanford on the history of the field of [name of a field related to book].”

Another reason why you want to contact the book review editor is that they often can get you the book for free. Publishers frequently send books for review straight to journals or, if the book editor directly contacts them, straight to you. Of course, you don’t need to wait for the book to start your review if you have access to a library copy. If you get a free book, make sure to write the review. A book review editor will never send you another book if you don’t deliver on the first.

If the book review editor says yes, they would like a review of the book from you, make sure to ask if the journal has any book review submission guidelines. In particular, you want to make sure you understand how long their book reviews tend to be.

If the book review editor says the book is already under review, move on to your next journal choice or ask the editor if they have any books on the topic that they would like reviewed. You are under no obligation to review a book they suggest, just make sure to get back to them with a decision. It is perfectly acceptable to say “Thanks for the suggestion, I’ve decided to focus on writing my prospectus/dissertation.”

Reading the Book

It is best, when writing a book review, to be an active reader of the book. Sit at a desk with pen and paper in hand. As you read, stop frequently to summarize the argument, to note particularly clear statements of the book’s argument or purpose, and to describe your own responses. If you have read in this active way, putting together the book review should be quick and straightforward. Some people prefer to read at the computer, but if you’re a good typist, you often start typing up long quotes from the book instead of analyzing it. Paper and pen provides a little friction to prevent such drifting.

Take particular note of the title (does the book deliver what the title suggests it is going to deliver?), the table of contents (does the book cover all the ground it says it will?), the preface (often the richest source of information about the book), and the index (is it accurate, broad, deep?).

Some questions to keep in mind as you are reading:

What is the book’s argument?
Does the book do what it says it is going to do?
Is the book a contribution to the field or discipline?
Does the book relate to a current debate or trend in the field and if so, how?
What is the theoretical lineage or school of thought out of which the book rises?
Is the book well-written?
What are the books terms and are they defined?
How accurate is the information (e.g., the footnotes, bibliography, dates)?
Are the illustrations helpful? If there are no illustrations, should there have been?
Who would benefit from reading this book?
How does the book compare to other books in the field?
If it is a textbook, what courses can it be used in and how clear is the book’s structure and examples?

It can be worthwhile to do an on-line search to get a sense for the author’s history, other books, university appointments, graduate advisor, and so on. This can provide you with useful context..

Making a Plan

Book reviews are usually 600 to 2,000 words in length. It is best to aim for about 1,000 words, as you can say a fair amount in 1,000 words without getting bogged down. There’s no point in making a book review into a 20-page masterpiece since the time would have been better spent on an academic essay that would count for more on your c.v.

Some say a review should be written in a month: two weeks reading the book, one week planning your review, and one week writing it.

Although many don’t write an outline for an essay, you should really try to outline your book review before you write it. This will keep you on task and stop you from straying into writing an academic essay.

Classic book review structure is as follows:

Title including complete bibliographic citation for the work (i.e., title in full, author, place, publisher, date of publication, edition statement, pages, special features [maps, color plates, etc.], price, and ISBN.
One paragraph identifying the thesis, and whether the author achieves the stated purpose of the book.
One or two paragraphs summarizing the book.
One paragraph on the book’s strengths.
One paragraph on the book’s weaknesses.
One paragraph on your assessment of the book’s strengths and weaknesses.

Writing the Review

Once you’ve read the book, try to spend no more than one or two weeks writing the review. Allowing a great deal of time to fall between reading the book and writing about it is unfair to you and the author. The point of writing something short like a book review is to do it quickly. Sending a publication to a journal is always scary, sitting on the review won’t make it less so.

Avoiding Five Common Pitfalls

Evaluate the text, don’t just summarize it. While a succinct restatement of the text’s points is important, part of writing a book review is making a judgment. Is the book a contribution to the field? Does it add to our knowledge? Should this book be read and by whom? One needn’t be negative to evaluate; for instance, explaining how a text relates to current debates in the field is a form of evaluation.
Do not cover everything in the book. In other words, don’t use the table of contents as a structuring principle for your review. Try to organize your review around the book’s argument or your argument about the book.
Judge the book by its intentions not yours. Don’t criticize the author for failing to write the book you think that he or she should have written. As John Updike puts it, “Do not imagine yourself the caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in any ideological battle, a corrections officer of any kind.”
Likewise, don’t spend too much time focusing on gaps. Since a book is only 200 to 500 pages, it cannot possibly address the richness of any topic. For this reason, the most common criticism in any review is that the book doesn’t address some part of the topic. If the book purports to be about ethnicity and film and yet lacks a chapter on Latinos, by all means, mention it. Just don’t belabor the point. Another tic of reviewers is to focus too much on books the author did not cite. If you are using their bibliography just to display your own knowledge it will be obvious to the reader. Keep such criticisms brief.
Don’t use too many quotes from the book. It is best to paraphrase or use short telling quotes within sentences.

For further advice about writing for publication, see Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success by Wendy Laura Belcher (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

Writing the Academic Book Review

I no longer teach this course , but you might want to think about teaching it, so I provide the information here.

This workshop aids students in actually writing and publishing a book review for a peer-reviewed journal. At the first session, students receive instruction on why graduate students should (or should not) write book reviews, how to choose a book for review, how to chose a journal for submission, how to read a book for review, how to plan and structure a book review, and five common pitfalls of reviewing. Students also form small groups to discuss the book each plans to review.At the second meeting, students bring a draft of their book review for exchange and feedback. At the third meeting, students arrive with a final version of their essay to submit to an editor for publication.

This workshop is sometimes offered by a particular journal with the editors serving on a panel the first night to provide students with specific advice for submitting reviews to their journal. I did such a workshop for Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies , with the editors Chon A. Noriega and Alicia Gaspar de Alba.

Session 1, Week 1

Introduction to book reviewing
Selecting an appropriate book to review
Five essential elements of any book review
Typical errors graduate student reviewers make

Session 2, Week 10

Assignment: First draft due
Discussion of the writing process and challenges
Exchanging and critiquing first drafts
Some instructions on revising

Session 3, Week 16

Assignment: Final draft due
Working with editors and the publication process
Refreshments

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Writing: Sample Paper Reviews

Paper Reviews
Sample Paper Reviews
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Sample Paper Reviews: Overview

Wondering what to expect from your paper review appointment? Below are the types of assignments we review, along with sample feedback. Feedback will vary among writing instructional specialists but will consist of some of these:

Explanations of errors
Links to resources
Questions or reactions from a reader’s perspective
Recommended next steps
Revision strategies
Highlighted patterns
Models of effective writing
Video clips to watch

The appointment form in myPASS is the best place to tell us your goals and about areas you are struggling with in your writing. Be as specific as possible to get targeted help within the 30-minute timeframe.

Discussion Posts

Decorative: Screenshot of the sample paper review.

Sample Review of a Discussion Post (PDF) This document contains an excerpt of a discussion post with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Undergraduate Papers

Sample Review of an Undergraduate Paper--1000 Level (PDF) This document contains excerpts of a 1000 level undergraduate paper with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.
Sample Review of an Undergraduate Paper--3000 Level (PDF) This document contains excerpts of a 3000 level undergraduate paper with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Graduate Papers

Sample Review of a Graduate Paper (PDF) This document contains excerpt of a graduate-student paper with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Major Assessments

Sample Review of a Major Assessment (PDF) This document contains an excerpt of a student's major assessment with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Revisions of Previously Submitted Material

Sample Review of a Revision (PDF) This document contains an excerpt of a student's revised draft with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Graded Papers

Sample Review of a Graded Paper (PDF) This document contains an excerpt of a student's graded paper with sample feedback. Please click on the file to view.

Recommended APA Style Reference List Entry for This Page

Walden University Writing Center. (n.d.) Paper reviews: Sample paper reviews . https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/academic-skills/paper-reviews/sample-paper-reviews

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It Ends With Us: 10 Big Differences Between The Colleen Hoover Book And The Movie

How does the film compare to Colleen Hoover's novel?

Spoilers are ahead for the book and movie It Ends With Us as well as Colleen Hoover's sequel novel, It Starts With Us .

There’s no question that the release of It Ends With Us was incredibly anticipated, especially for the millions who have read Colleen Hoover’s novel. Now, the movie starring Blake Lively , Justin Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar is out for everyone to see, and while this book-to-screen adaption is faithful to its source material, there are some key differences.

Young Lily looking out a window in It Ends With Us.

The Flashbacks Are Not Framed Through Journal Entries

In the book It Ends With Us – which is told in first person from Lily’s perspective – all of her flashbacks are framed through journal entries. When she was in high school she used to write letters to Ellen DeGeneres in her journal, and as an adult, when her relationship starts with Ryle, she goes back to them. Throughout the book, she reads these entries, and the audience learns about her love story with Atlas. The journals are also a point of contention when Ryle finds them later in the novel.

During the movie, there is a shot of a journal in a flashback, however, we don’t see Lily go back to them as an adult.

Atlas standing with his arms crossed, smiling and looking to his left at Lily who is sitting at a table.

Atlas' Restaurant Is Called Root Instead Of Bib's

Bib’s is the name of Atlas’ restaurant in the book, and it stands for “Better in Boston,” which is something he told Lily when they were kids. So, when he opened his business, he named it after the saying that kept both of them moving forward. However, in the film, it’s called Root.

Colleen Hoover told me during an interview about It Ends With Us with CinemaBlend that she actually really liked the switch:

I actually was relieved when they changed the name of the restaurant. It felt like [Bib’s] didn't translate as well into film. Like in the book, there was a lot more that went into what the word Bib’s meant to both of them, but we couldn't bring all of that onto film. So just relating it to their conversation when they were digging in the flower beds when they were younger, I thought was a beautiful way to rename that restaurant.

The scene the author is referring to shows Atlas and Lily gardening, and her telling him about how important the roots are. It’s a touching conversation that solidifies the two as grounding figures in each other’s lives, so it adds immense meaning to the name “Root,” just like Bib’s did in the book.

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The Boston Magnet Is Not A Big Deal

When Ryle found out that Atlas named his restaurant after his relationship with Lily in the book, he realized that the Boston magnet she had might be connected to her first love. In the confrontation that led to Lily going to the hospital, he asked about the magnet after reading a magazine story where Atlas revealed the name’s meaning.

That, mixed with him reading Lily’s journals is what led to his violent outburst.

In the movie, it’s solely the magazine article that starts the incident that ultimately leads to Lily leaving Ryle to find Atlas and go to the hospital.

Blake Lively as Lily soaking wet lookint at Atlas who is standing in front of her.

Lily Goes To Atlas At Root Instead Of Calling Him

After Ryle’s most dangerous outburst, Blake Lively’s Lily got out of their apartment and found Atlas at Root, that’s how it went down in the movie.

However, in the book, she called him and he picked her up. Just like in the film, Atlas left his phone number in Lily’s phone case. In the novel, however, she memorized it and called him to come get her. Meanwhile, in the movie, we don’t know if she remembered the number or not, she simply went directly to him.

Blake Lively as Lily touching a heart tattoo on her collar bone that has bite marks around it.

Atlas Notices Lily's Tattoo

In the book It Ends With Us , readers know that Lily’s heart tattoo on her collarbone is a symbol of her relationship with Atlas. He carved her an open heart when they were kids, and she got it inked onto her skin when she was in college. However, in the novel, Atlas never saw it.

He saw the tattoo for the first time in It Starts With Us , the sequel to It Ends With Us .

– Spoilers for It Starts With Us ahead. –

In It Starts With Us , Atlas and Lily are dating, and they’re on the way out for the night. When he saw her exposed collarbone, he had a visceral reaction, because while the tattoo is for him, there are bite scars around it that are from Ryle. To that point, here’s how Atlas reacted in the second novel:

‘I heard you tell the nurse he bit you, but I wasn’t close enough to see that…’ Atlas pauses midsentence and swallows hard. ‘I wasn’t close enough to see that you had the tattoo and that he bit…’

In the film It Ends With Us , this whole conversation essentially happened in the hospital scene Atlas is talking about in the second book. While Lily was having her checkup after a terrifying moment with Ryle, Brandon Sklenar’s character saw the tattoo for the first time and asked her about it.

A close up of Blake Lively kind of smiling in It Ends With Us.

Lily's Mom Does Not Move To Boston

Lily’s mom plays a slightly bigger role in the book than she does in the film. After her husband (and Lily’s dad) died, she moved to Boston to be closer to her daughter in Hoover’s novel. It’s never explicitly said if that happens in the film, and when she goes out to dinner with Ryle and Lily, Blake Lively’s character does note that her mother is visiting not moving.

Blake Lively as Lily Bloom in It Ends with Us.

All The Fights Happen At Ryle's Apartment Rather Than Lily's

This change begins with the fact that Ryle has his own apartment next to Marshall and Allysa’s in the movie. In the book, he lives with them. So, both the intimate and violent scenes between Ryle and Lily happen at her apartment in the novel (except the last one, which happened in the new apartment they shared after they got married).

During the movie, all three instances of domestic violence as well as the pair’s intimate moments happen at Ryle’s apartment.

Lily Dosen’t Stay At Atlas’ Home For Days

When Lily went to Atlas, she ended up staying with him for a while before feeling OK enough to go back to her apartment in the novel. This led to her meeting some of Atlas' friends, and learning that Cassie, the girlfriend he mentioned during their first run-in at the restaurant, was not real.

Considering there’s no way the movie could fit every detail from the book into it, it’s not shocking that this piece was cut. In the film, we saw Atlas' home, which looked like an apartment (he’s a homeowner in the book), and the two bond. However, it’s not done in as much detail as it is in the book.

Jenny Slate as Allysa crying and talking in It Ends With Us.

Allysa Tells Lily About Emerson Instead Of Ryle

Much like the novel, it’s revealed that Ryle accidentally shot and killed his and Allysa's brother Emerson when they were kids. In the book, Lily found out about this through Ryle.

This is a major difference in the film. Instead of Ryle telling this story to Blake Lively’s character, Jenny Slate ’s Allysa did. The story comes with Allysa telling her friend that as much as she wished she could forgive her brother, if she didn’t leave him, she wouldn’t talk to her again.

The Last Line Is Different Because Finding Nemo Isn't A Big Part Of Atlas And Lily's Story

One of Pixar’s best movies , Finding Nemo , plays a vital role in Lily and Atlas' story in the book. They both latched onto the saying “just keep swimming,” because they had gone through traumatic experiences when they were younger. So, at the end of the novel It Ends With Us , Atlas tells Lily:

You can stop swimming now, Lily. We finally reached the shore.

There are Easter eggs for Finding Nemo in the film, however, there’s no direct talk about it. So, when we got to that final scene where Atlas and Lily run into each other, this is how their conversation went:

Lily: Are you with anyone?

Atlas: No, not yet.

And that’s how the film ended.

Overall, the film It Ends With Us is quite faithful to the source material, and the overarching story is the same. However, there are a handful of key changes that differentiate this project from Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively from Colleen Hoover’s novel.

To see the project on the 2024 movie schedule for yourself, you can catch It Ends With Us in theaters now.

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel . She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country , and she's enjoyed every second of it.

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Book reviews
Book reviews are common ways for academics to evaluate each others' contributions to the field of research, especially in the arts and social sciences where publishing in books is more usual than publishing in journals. A good review is more than just a summary of the contents. It should include your view on what the purpose of the book is and ...
Guide to Writing Book Reviews
The following is not a definitive list but merely suggestive of books you might like to review. If you have other ideas please discuss them with your seminar tutor: P. Blickle, The Communal Reformation (1992) Th. A.Brady Jr, The Politics of the Reformation in Germany (1997) O. Brunner, Land and Lordship (1995)
Guidelines and examples
Writing for LSE Review of Books. Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash LSE Review of Books is a forum to encourage engagement with the latest academic publications across the social sciences and the humanities. While our main content is book reviews, we also publish other features including bookshop guides, 'Long Read' review essays and 'The Materiality of Research' essay series.
Guide to Writing Book Reviews
Guide to Writing Book Reviews. For our purposes, a good book review should: start with full bibliographic details of the book discussed in the heading; summarise the structure, method and main points of the work, which may include some direct quotes (identified by inverted commas and the relevant page no following in round brackets); discuss ...
PDF How to read and write book reviews
Reading book reviews should not be a substitute for reading a book but may help you focus your reading strategies and help you in understanding the basics of the book's ideas/arguments. Writing a book review. Have you included... Clear bibliographic details. A note about the author and how/why they are qualified to write on this topic (their ...
Book reviews
Book reviews. A book review is more than just a summary of a book's contents. It involves some evaluation of the purpose and approach of the book and its contribution to its field or area of research. You might be asked to write a book review in order to help you develop skills in identifying an author's argument or standpoint, and in ...
Writing a Literature Review
In a PhD thesis, the literature review typically comprises one chapter (perhaps 8-10,000 words), for a Masters dissertation it may be around 2-3,000 words, and for an undergraduate dissertation it may be no more than 2,000 words. In each case the word count can vary depending on a range of factors and it is always best, if in doubt, to ask your ...
How to write a book review
In your introduction, give an overview of what the book is about and what you will be including in your review. Use your notes to present key information in a succinct and informative style. Connect key points of the book with existing knowledge by using your expertise in the field. Draft your impression of the book and ask for feedback e.g ...
How to Write an Academic Book Review
We have a few tips to share. 1. Finding a Book to Review. Before you can write an academic book review, you need to find a suitable book. There are two main ways to do this: Look to see which books journal publishers are seeking reviews for. Find a book that interests you and pitch it to publishers. The first approach works by finding a journal ...
Editor's Column: How to write a book review: writing introductions
The words that launch a book review can often be the hardest to write, but there are many structural devices and stylistic choices that reviewers can employ to engage their reader, writes Amy Mollett.In the first in a series of posts on writing book reviews, Amy highlights some of the most interesting forms that LSE Review of Books contributors have used to attract the attention of their readers.
PDF Book Reviews
in the field. A comparative book review requires you to engage with two or more books, to review them and critically compare them. There is no standard template for writing a review: it is a personal piece of writing in response to a particular book. However, the following questions and suggestions may be helpful prompts for deciding what to ...
Writing an academic research review such as a book review or an
The first task you have is to define what it is you are looking at. A book in academic terms is a very different text than a report. They are produced for different aims and audiences. A book review is the most common format, and that is why I am leading with that. Writing a book review. A book review is your take on the book's contribution.
PDF Writing an Effective Literature Review
he simplest thing of all—structure. Everything you write has three components: a beginning, a middle and an e. d and each serves a different purpose. In practice, this means your review will have an introduction, a main body where you review the literature an. a conclusion where you tie things up.
Write a book review
Book reviews are a special form of academic writing. They have well-known structures with familiar components. Here, Emeritus Professor James Hartley of the School of Psychology, Keele University, UK, consulted with academics on writing the perfect book review and presents a potential checklist for book reviewers.
Writing a Book Review
School of Psychology, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. Search for more papers by this author. Book Editor(s): Mohammadali Shoja, ... Throughout your academic career, you will be invited by various journal editors to write reviews on recently published books. Most often, a free copy of the book in question accompanies the invitation. ...
How to Write a Book Review of an Edited Collection
In this piece, I share five tips for approaching a review of an edited book. Accept that you can't comment on all of the chapters - and your review will be stronger for it. One of the key anxieties when it comes to reviewing edited collections is the fear of not being able to cover all of the content. However, accepting that you cannot ...
How to Write a Book Review in 5 Steps
A good rule is not to mention anything that happens after the midpoint of the story. Leave the rest for the readers to discover on their own. 2. Evaluate the Book's Qualities. Once you've explained the premise of the book, it's time to provide a more subjective evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
How to Write a Book Review
8. Write a conclusion. The conclusion to your book review is the last thing your audience will read so you want to make sure it leaves them with a lasting impression. A reader has most likely come to your review to decide whether they will or won't read the book, so if you want them to read the book, make it clear.
Critical review
You may be asked to write a 'critical review' of any type of text, such as a book, a journal article, or a chapter in a book. A critical review is often set to help you develop skills identifying an argument and judging its merits. You may be given specific criteria to use for reviewing the text, so do check your own assignment brief.
How to Write a Literature Review
Rather, it should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories, methods and findings. It should analyse and synthesise relevant published works. Item Type: Monograph (Technical Report) Dates: Date. Event. 1 November 2016. Published.
Home
ISBN: 9781473967007. Publication Date: 2017-11-23. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and systematic techniques [print book] by Jill Jesson; Lydia Matheson; Fiona M. Lacey. The literature review is a compulsory part of research and, increasingly, may form the whole of a student research project.
How to write a book review
1. Start with a couple of sentences describing what the book is about. But without giving any spoilers or revealing plot twists! As a general rule, try to avoid writing in detail about anything that happens from about the middle of the book onwards. If the book is part of a series, it can be useful to mention this, and whether you think you'd ...
How to Write a Book Review
Reading the Book. It is best, when writing a book review, to be an active reader of the book. Sit at a desk with pen and paper in hand. As you read, stop frequently to summarize the argument, to note particularly clear statements of the book's argument or purpose, and to describe your own responses.
Sample Paper Reviews
Below are the types of assignments we review, along with sample feedback. Feedback will vary among writing instructional specialists but will consist of some of these: Explanations of errors; Links to resources; Questions or reactions from a reader's perspective; Recommended next steps; Revision strategies; Highlighted patterns; Models of ...
It Ends With Us: 10 Big Differences Between The Colleen Hoover Book And
When she was in high school she used to write letters to Ellen DeGeneres in her journal, and as an adult, when her relationship starts with Ryle, she goes back to them. Throughout the book, she ...

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How to Write a Book Review in 5 Steps

What Is a Book Review?

1. Briefly Summarize the Book

2. Evaluate the Book’s Qualities

3. Include Quotes from the Book

4. Rate the Book

5. Give Your Recommendation

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How to Write a Book Review

What you’ll learn in this article

What is a book review?

Choosing a book to review

Writing the book review

Before you start writing

How long should a book review be?

The elements of a book review

1. Introduction

2. Describe the plot

3. Avoid spoilers

4. Form an opinion

5. Include your favourite quotes

6. Provide recommendations to your audience

7. Rate the book

8. Write a conclusion

9. Bibliographical details

10. Editing

11. Proofread

12. Have fun!

What is the objective of a book review?

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Critical review

Summary and evaluation

Critical thinking

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