There is a common situation when, before buying or borrowing a book from the library, you want to know a third-party opinion about it. A good book review acts as a guide, showing the pros and cons of the publication even before the first page is opened.
What is a book review?
This is understood as a critical analysis of the work designed for future readers. As part of the review, the following may be considered:
- book as a combination of text, illustrations, and typographic implementation
- only the work or the text of the monograph, without taking into account the printing embodiment and design elements. This option is more common.
If it is difficult for you to make an analysis of a book and write a review, it is better to get help. You can do it on a book review writing service like essayshark.com. A writer will analyze the book, compare it with other similar works (if needed), and write a well-structured review.
What book can you write a review for?
There are no restrictions. If desired or necessary, you can prepare reviews for the following types of books:
- Artistic, including books for children and collections.
- Educational.
- Cognitive literature of various types.
- Scientific monographs.
- Albums on fine arts.
- Reference books and encyclopedias.
Each of these types has its own specifics for preparing a review, but the general principles of writing are identical. Usually, a review is written in order to tell a wide audience about a new product. In the scientific community, this is also a way to evaluate a published monograph.
Scope of the review
It is believed that the review should include 600-2,000 words. With a smaller volume, this will be a reader’s feedback, with a larger one – a full-fledged critical article. Exceeding the volume is acceptable if it is justified by the goals that the reviewer sets for themselves (for example, to talk about innovative scientific work), but they should take into account that this may reduce the number of readers who do not want to read a long text.
Structure
Depending on the situation and place of application, the composition of the review may vary, and it may not include individual blocks (for example, the pros and cons of the publication). At a minimum, this may include only one section – an analytical analysis of the book.
Description of the review object
The bibliographic information about the edition is given here. The main ones include:
- name and surname of the author
- book title
- publishing house
- year of issue
- number of pages.
For example, this is what the minimum edition information looks like:
Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland,” Dragonfly, 2020, 144 pages.
Additionally, basic information can be supplemented with the following information:
- name and surname of the artist
- similar information about the translator (for translated publications)
- ISBN (international identification number);
- binding type.
Annotation
The volume of this small section should not exceed 2-3 sentences. In the annotation, it is not necessary to try to bring the entire plot of the book; it is enough to indicate the main direction of the action, for example:
On a beautiful summer day, Alice finds herself in a magical land. On the way, many adventures await her – she almost drowns in a sea of tears, grows to unprecedented sizes, and even … almost loses her head. Each new event is interesting and unexpected, making you wonder again and again how the girl will get out of this story this time.
The annotation does not refer to mandatory structural elements, but it helps the reader to imagine from the very beginning what the work is about. We must not forget that, unlike the author of the review, the reader may not be familiar with the book.
Personal impressions
This is also an optional element, but this section helps to understand the author’s further logic, especially if a negative review is expected. In addition to the impressions of the work, a passage about how justified the expectations that the reviewer had before reading it would look good here.
Analytical analysis
This is the main component of the review, which, for this reason, occupies the largest volume (60% of the total text). Analysis may include:
- The plot of the book.
- The novelty of the idea in the monograph.
- The composition of the work.
- Language and style of presentation.
- Analysis of typography and design of the publication.
Analyzing the individual components, the review’s author considers how successful their implementation was, considering the opportunities the author (or the publisher) had. Comparisons with other similar works (or publications, if we are talking about printing implementation) will look very good here.