Welcome back to my blog, fellow readers!

So, a few months ago now, I wrote a post about why you should never, ever, EVER give any book a 1-star review. Because, among many reasons of which I am very passionate about, it hurts writers (mentally and financially), and it does nothing truly productive.

And now, as a bit of a piggyback off of that post… I’d like to share some of my best tips with you all about how to actually write a thorough book review!

Because, of course, I realize that not all readers are writers at heart, and figuring out the proper way to construct a constructive book review (that points out all the positives and negatives–because nobody is perfect, but there is also just about always a good side to everything, including books and writers) can be difficult. So, I’m here to help.

Let’s dive right in, just step by step, shall we?

1. Plan a Placement for Your Book Review

Assuming you want other people to be able to access and read your review, you should decide where you want to “publish” the review. Don’t panic, though–I’m just talking about places like Goodreads, a personal blog (like this one), or the online place where you got the book from.

Generally, you can post any review of any book on your own blog or on Goodreads. However, when it comes to posting your review on an online retailer’s site, you should remember that some online retailers only allow users with a verified purchase of the book to post a review. As an author myself, I personally prefer retailers to do this because it vets out all the spam and fake reviews by people who I know never even touched my book.

However, there is one valid case where I believe it is okay to post a review on a site where you did not originally purchase the book from–and that is when you rent a book from a library.

Now, with some library apps, you can post a book review for other library app users to see, but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, you can leave a rating for the book but not a review. And, if you want to share a full, in-depth review with a wider audience elsewhere, that’s usually okay so long as you state in your review that you rented the book from a library.

Here’s a list of some popular online book retailers and information on whether or not you can leave book reviews without purchasing a book through them (as of the publishing of this post)…

• Amazon: Yes, with an Amazon buyer or seller account (will not show as a verified purchase)
• Apple Books: Yes
• Audiobooks.com: No
• Barnes & Noble: Yes
• Chirp: No
• Google Play: Yes
• Rakuten (Kobo): Yes, with a Walmart or Rakuten account
• Scribd: Yes
• Smashwords: No
• Spotify: No reviews accepted for any audiobooks, but ratings can be given by all users

2. List Your Review’s Main Points

Now, I don’t want this post to turn into a general writing course, but I do want to share this good point (of which I kind of just came up with off the top of my head): good writing, no matter the topic, is purposeful.

Basically, I’m just trying to say that you should always write your book reviews with a purpose in mind. While it’s fine to just leave a one-sentence “it was okay,” when the review website requires you to leave a message with your rating, it’s not really the most insightful review for other readers to see. On the other end of the scale, you should also restrain from leaving an endless rant of criticism because, although that kind of writing does technically have a purpose, it can also be difficult for other readers to actually read, which, ironically, can defeat its purpose.

So, to keep your review organized and well-thought-out, plot out all of your main points before you actually take pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

You can do this while you read a book, too, to save time; I like to flag pages in a book when I know I’ll be writing a review later for easy reference. I know other readers like to have a notebook or digital notepad for note-taking on-hand while they read for the same reason.

When you plot out your main points, whether its during your reading or right after, be sure to jot down the positives and the negatives–because that’s exactly what we’re going to go over next!

3. Write, Write, Write… Constructively

Now, it’s finally time to physically create your book review! Have fun with it, and don’t pressure yourself to make, like, the best book review in history. Because, after all, it is just a book review… not a book.

While you write though, keep things constructive. Ever heard of constructive criticism? Yeah, that’s what we’re aiming for here.

So, while I don’t want to give a whole conference-style presentation on how to give constructive criticism, I do want to give you just a few tips, like…

• Balance the positive with the negative, and give light to both sides, even if you believe a book is 100% amazing or 100% awful… because, 10 times out of 10, it’s not 100% anything.
• Focus on the book, not the author, though it is fine to mention the author’s other works, too.
• Give “feedback” as necessary by explaining points of the book that could have been executed differently.
• Be specific, and don’t say a piece of the book was great or terrible without specific examples.
• Use “I” statements, and remember that your review is a reflection of your opinions–not everyone will agree with you, and that’s okay.

And, as with all writing projects, you may encounter a case of writer’s block while writing your review. But, don’t worry, I got you covered on that, too!

4. Get Unstuck with Writing Prompts

It’s okay, dog, we all get stuck sometimes when it comes to writing. It’s normal, and it’s certainly fixable.

If you have trouble constructing your book reviews at any time, just ask yourself these questions, and start your next review based on your responses…

• What was your favorite scene in this book? Your least favorite?
• Did you “get along” with the main character? Why or why not?
• Was this book difficult to finish, or did you race through to the end of it?
• Was the ending of this book a surprise, or did you expect it to end as it did? Did the ending satisfy you?
• Do you believe this book is “overrated” or “underrated”?
• Would you ever reread this book? Do you think you would read it differently the next time?

These are just a few sample prompt questions, too, and you could certainly find more out there, especially if you Google something like “book discussion questions.”

5. Share Your Review with the World

Now, if you’ve completed the writing of your book review, give yourself a pat on the back and share it wherever you’d like. You can also share a review to more than one place, but I would refrain from posting it on more than one online book retailer site since, like I said, you should really only post it on the site where you got the book from. However, if you just can’t stop yourself from sharing it farther and wider, I’d recommend also posting it on Goodreads, which is a broad online reading community.

If you don’t really feel comfortable sharing your review with the whole world, that’s okay too! You can still keep a journal of all your book reviews for personal reference, or you can keep a small collection of reviews to share with a local reading group.

And, if you’d like to get your hands on a (free!) digital reading journal where you can store those reviews, click below!

And, lastly, if you need some inspiration for writing your next book review, check out some of the book reviews I’ve written and published here on my blog. You may even find your next favorite read, who knows!

Now, dear readers… I encourage you to go out and write reviews upon reviews upon reviews!

–Kari