Writing a short book review can be challenging yet frustrating. For an amateur, mastering short book reviews is a reasonable possibility; you need specific approaches and tactics to be professional. So, if you are searching for short book reviews for students, this blog is your need. So, let’s head your writing journey from an immature to a proficient writer and help you master short book reviews with ease. By the end of this blog, consider choosing a book reviewing career as a profession might be your initial goal.
So, let’s start your journey to success from basics to expertise.
What Is A Book Review?
The book review summarises your book, its strengths, weaknesses, and in-depth analysis. To write an outstanding book review you need to explore the plot of the book, you need to identify its central theme, you need to understand its characters. Only then can you evaluate its quality and suggest its impact.
The book review is a brief plot summary that must be 1500 words. So, within this word bracket, a book reviewer must evaluate the book and suggest recommendations for the audience. The fundamental essence of a book review is to suggest to the audience whether they should read the book or not, but with a specific tone and style. You can opt for an informal, personal or formal tone; it depends on the audience you are referring to.
How To Master A Short Book Review?
Grasping the essence of writing short book reviews for students is easier than you can even think of. You need the following tips and strategies to attain proficiency:
Read The Book Thoroughly:
To review anything, you need to understand it first. Therefore, read the book carefully and pay close attention to the details of the story setting. More than the book title, story, and characters are needed; you must observe its writing style, relevance, candidness, entertainment quotient, and story plot. Once you have read the book thoroughly, it’s time to move on to the next phase.
Briefly Summarize The Book:
Your book review should begin with a summary and narrate the story with the basic story setting. Review the basic plot with the main characters. Discussing the characters is essential, relate them with the real-world settings. Commend the ones you liked and discuss the ones that needed more attention. Remember, you cannot narrate every detail in your book review, so make it as precise as possible.
Express Your Feelings:
It’s time to spice up your review with your feelings, opinions and thoughts. You need to declare it as either a book with a powerful story or a book you would least advise. Your honesty counts here; recommend it if you enjoyed reading the book.
Highlight The Strengths And Weaknesses:
One of the most crucial elements of book reviews is its strengths and weaknesses. You need to praise the book’s strong points and point out its shortcomings but with respect. Praise the story’s plot, descriptions, theme, characters, and strengths openly. Be honest, but don’t bombard with criticisms and sarcasm. You are meant to review it, not criticize or degrade it. So, mention its weaknesses and don’t highlight them.
Review According To Your Target Audience:
While writing a book review, you need to consider your target audience. Choose a formal writing style and tone if your target audience is formal readers. Moreover, you must suggest the book to a specific target audience while writing a book review. You need to recommend the book to a prescribed audience; a particular age group, a specific reader with precise interest. A fictional reader may not be interested in a non-fictional book, or a romance reader will not be attracted to a technology-savvy related book. So, a book reviewer must consider the target audience while writing and suggesting the book. Do mention the genre of the book; if the book holds more than one genre, list them. Your review would make a lot of difference.
Recommendation:
The most crucial part of the book review, your recommendation to the readers, is essential. The audience would want to know if it is a suggested book to read or not. Remember, recommendation matters a lot; it assists the readers in their decision-making. Reading is a good habit, but you must start the right book to save time and interest. The right decision for the right book starts with a good book review. It would save you time and hassle. If it will save you time, it will also benefit others.
So, you will save a lot of readers with your proper judgment and recommendation for a specific book.
Editing Time:
Before sharing your review, remember to make it error-free. Your review should be organized and straightforward and follow a specific pattern with no grammar or spelling mistakes. Once you have cross-checked your work, now its time to publish it and share it with your audience.
Your review matters to a wide range of audience. The reader’s likeness and willingness to read a particular book depends on your review. So, keep it straight and honest. Help others decide with ease.
Short Book Reviews Examples
Review of a Fiction book
Kirkus Reviews on a Fiction Book Three Days Before The Shooting by Ralph Ellison
“An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.
His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an “invisible man”. People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy’s dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.
This is Ellison’s first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.”
Review of a Non-Fiction Book
Kirkus Reviews on a Non- Fiction Book Mistress Of Life And Death by Susan J. Eischeid
“The life of a Holocaust criminal.
Eischeid, a performer and teacher who specializes in the music of the Holocaust, has researched the life of Maria Mandl (1912-1948) for more than 20 years. Some of Mandl’s surviving contemporaries have been willing to talk, and Mandl herself added to the massive documentation on the Nazi years. She was born to a close-knit, middle-class Austrian family who passed smoothly through the 1920s but suffered during the Depression the following decade—although her father, a shoemaker, kept working. When the Germans marched into Austria in 1938, they were greeted with enthusiasm, although Maria’s father did not join in. That same year, Maria moved to Munich, joined the concentration camp bureaucracy, and rose to perhaps its leading post for a woman: director of the women’s camp at Auschwitz, where she oversaw the murder of perhaps 500,000 deportees and both witnessed and personally participated in unspeakable brutality. Eischeid relies heavily on testimony from survivors, who mostly deliver horrifying descriptions of camp life and sadistic treatment from guards. Even as the top official, Mandl continued to enjoy personally abusing prisoners. Due to the steady stream of suffering, torture, and death, some readers may feel the urge to skim. Nearly half the book recounts Mandl’s postwar capture, trial, and execution. The last two events took place in communist Poland, so there was no doubt about the outcome, but it was a sober, well-managed affair, although the media (American included) sensationalized her as “a beast in a gorgeous woman’s body.” Eischeid agonizes over but never explains how an apparently normal person could turn into a monster. One survivor offers a frighteningly reasonable explanation: “She was a nobody. Suddenly she was a somebody. That explains it.”
The author provides few novel insights on the Holocaust but does deliver a vivid, painful record.”
Review of Realistic Fiction Romance Book
Lyndsey Review on a Fiction Book Stolen by Lucy Christopher on Goodreads.
“This book completely reaffirmed my fascination with the beautiful land that is Australia.
But the people who live there seem to want everyone to think it’s a lot like this:
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Or this:
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Or even this:
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Gemma, just a regular 16 year old school girl, has been captured by a handsome and alluring young Australian man named Ty. Although Gemma seems to think so, it never feels like she’s in any imminent danger, from Ty at least. From the environment – yes.
The stakes and suspense don’t seem that high, as I fully believed that he never intended to hurt her. Regardless, the author managed to draw me in with every single word.
The story itself is incredible, as is the the writing and character development. I just worry that it’s glorifying kidnapping. Cause really, how many child abductors are 20-something sexy Australian men with supermodel looks and a hot bod, who only want to be loved? If I was Gemma, I can’t say I would mind.
I mean, I picture him looking a bit like this:
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Whoopsie!! Not the right picture! That’s from my secret stash… *blushes*
Here the right one:
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But our girl is very stubborn and never seems to be giving up on getting away from him. She’s resilient and strong and everything you expect the heroine of a young adult novel to be.
And whew! The male lead character Ty, our captor, is really hot. Come on, Gemma. The scene with the paint where he leans in and asks (referring to the paint of course) “Do you want some?” I couldn’t help but think heeeeeeeeck yeah.
I imagine if any other girl in the world had been there, she’d be jumping up and down with her hand raised saying “I do, I do.”
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Ty is extremely charming and a bit of a paradox. He is multiple layered character, who although seems unsocial and outdoorsy, is good with words and can completely make you swoon.
Though most of this is a result of brilliant writing, a lot it also comes from the talented narrator of the audio book.
I know the book alone is amazing, but this one is really worth listening to on audio.
It is the most well read book I have listened to in a long time, probably EVER. The voice of Ty isn’t even noticeable as being read by a women. The narrator and the author are both on the exact same wavelength and both nail the complex nature of our male lead as well as the strong willed Gemma.
I do wish things had gone a little differently in the end. I’m not sure that what Gemma did is fully representative of what a normal 16 year old would do, but I guess that what happened is what HAD to happen for the story. The romantic in me just wanted things to be different. I also think I’m suffering from Stockholm Syndrome even more so than Gemma was.
I know that a lot of people won’t sympathize with Ty at all. But I’m a sucker for a man with a hot bod and an Australian accent.
Definitely, this is another of my favorite books I’ve read lately. And my favorite audiobook so far!”
Review of a Science Fiction Book
Jennfier Hill Review The Last Advocate by L.J.Goodman on Reedsy Discovery
“In a future, human-damaged Earth the elite live away from the rest of humanity in a crystal-domed city ruled by the Advocates. There they live a life of considerable comfort in a hierarchical order dictated by the generation they have been born into: pre- or post-enhancement. Outside the city is the yellow zone, violent and unstable, where most people live in abject poverty, and a red zone where drought caused by climate change has made life almost impossible. Marcus lives in the crystal city and when Anja the woman he loves inexplicably disappears into the yellow zone, he is delegated to find her. However, a watchful Associate Advocate, called Finch is assigned to accompany him. Subject to attack by pookies (roving criminal gangs) and trying to help Sylvie, an escapee from zone 3, they are grateful for the help of those they meet en route. But there are terrible secrets that Marcus knows nothing about.
I must confess I didn’t enjoy reading this as much as I should have, even though the story itself was gripping. The structure was pretty much chronological and worked well and the characterisation was fine. We were invested in Marcus (kind but naïve), the enigmatic Anya and the brave Sylvie as well as the various characters they meet, like Winter and Harvey. And, although not always entirely natural, the dialogue was ok.
However the effect of the whole was that of being beaten over the head with a climate change hammer. It would have been far more effective to have allowed the condition of the world we are presented with to speak for itself. To be shown but not told. The odd sentence of explanation is fine but whole paragraphs of climate change disaster so frequently and in the midst of the action seems overkill.
In addition, any information given should be relevant to the plot and move the story forward. Ling Ling, for example, is a charming character who comes from Hong Kong. That fact is possibly relevant but a long paragraph telling us that Hong Kong was betrayed by the British in the past is not. It holds the story back just when we’re about to find out how Ling Ling can help Marcus find Anya.
However, there’s a good story in there and if you want to discover more about the dangers of climate change this is the place to look!”
Reviewing The Reviews
Kirkus’s review of a fiction book is short and concise. The reviewer beautifully narrates the story, describes the story setting, highlights its strengths and weaknesses, and, in the end, concludes the story with its opinion. They have kept the review simple and short.
Kirkus reviews of a non-fiction book is also short and concise. They follow a similar pattern in all their reviews. They start the review with a statement sentence and end with the conclusion remarks. Moreover, they have backed up their review by adding different story settings within the review. It enlightens the review and adds interest to the audience.
Lyndsey’s review is entirely different yet interesting. She narrates the story, setting, and plot beautifully, giving personalized statements and opinions where necessary. She has also added images to the review to provide detailed insight into the story. She has used an informal writing style, keeping in mind the genre of the book. She has beautifully reviewed the book, creating interest within the audience and giving its concluding remarks. However, her review exceeds the basic word limit.
Jennifer Hill’s review of a science fiction book is a perfect review for all science fiction book lovers. She has narrated the storyline and described the characters in a perfect story setting and cited her opinion and judgement seamlessly with the flow. She has commented on the dialogues, characters, and story setting and has also highlighted the weaknesses without degrading the author’s capability. Ultimately, she has concluded the review with a recommendation to read.
Conclusion
A book review is a book discussion where a reviewer summarizes the book, explains its plot, mentions its characters, shares its personal opinion, highlights its strengths and weaknesses and concludes with a recommendation. The reviewer shares their opinion and evaluates the book based on its likeliness. The blog mentions many professional reviewers who have reviewed hundreds of books. Professionally experienced reviewers have created excellent reviews on known books. You can look into them and shape up your writing skills.
