Book Review Format Example
A book review offers a comprehensive evaluation of a specific book. It assesses the book content, style, and relevance. The 4 parts of a book review include the book introduction, outline, highlights from seleted particular chapters or themes, and a detailed analysis or evaluation. When you have read books saved from free ebook download sites or borrowed from local libraries, you can write an engaging book review and share it with your readers to expand your knowledge. Depending on your chosen style and audience, various book review examples can also help you write one.
Here's a book review outline and structure example to tell you what a review looks like and what it should contain.
Basic Information: Provide basic information, such as the author's name, publication date, genre, page count, and other relevant details.
Content Outline: Introduce the plot, narrate how the story is developed, and focus on the characters and their role in moving the story forward.
Discuss the Themes: Discuss the elements in depth to explain the significant events and the relationship dynamics between characters and themes. Bring the added insight by understanding the complex structure of the plot.
Detailed Analysis and Evaluation: Share your take and opinion on the book and how it made you feel and invokes which strings of emotions. Explain why you would or wouldn't recommend this book to others. Also, don't forget to give it a rating.
2 Book Review Examples for Kids
According to the format of a book review, when you write one for kids, focus on the storyline but refrain from revealing the ending or any spoilers. Give your outlook on the book and use simple adjectives to describe it. Focus on the crucial aspects, like what the book is about, the characters, and your opinion of the plot.
Write a book review example like this:
1) Jeff Kinney's one of the most popular books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, was released on 4th November 2014 in the U.S. This 217-page book tackles the exemplary American family road trip. Here, the plot proceeds when Greg Haffley's mother finds a catchy article in a parenting magazine and has a starry-eyed vision of the adventure she could engage in with her husband and three boys. You and your kids are in for a wild ride as you venture out on this classic family vacation with the Heffleys. The illustration will keep you glued until the end. After reading this, you can get spontaneous with your adventure and relish the dream of becoming a travel planner. It is suitable for ages eight and above.
2) Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American classical literature, published in 1884, calling out racism. The storyline proceeds with Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, who essentially takes to the river with Jim, his friend. However, Jim is a black and escaped slave, so they're on this mission to help Jim become a free slave in the free states and get him across the state lines. However, Huck is also trying to escape institutions; he's escaping the institution of a religion that conforms to society and what they want him to be. Mark Twain is trying to convey the life lesson of moral education by showing the mentality that Huck goes through as the story progresses, how different people are raised, how they behave based on that, and how people treat each other.
1 Critical Book Review Example
A critical book review carefully analyzes the strengths and plotholes of a book. It talks about the key themes, character development, and particularly the writing style of the author. Ensure that your evaluation is clarified and that you offer a balanced opinion supported by examples. Evaluate the book's impact or relevance, but don't go negative; instead, offer praise and constructive criticism.
Check out this beautiful example of a book review with a critical approach.
Example of a book review:
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is a story of hope and grit that revolves around three main characters, beginning with Santiago, an old fisherman. Luck is not in his favor, and he has been unable to catch a fish for 84 days, but he is hopeful that he will see a fish soon. The second one is Manolin, a teenage boy who has known the old man since he was 5. They went fishing together many times all these years. Santiago is more of a mentor to Manolin. But now Manolin's father asks his son not to stay with Santiago as he has not caught a fish for many weeks. The third one is Merlin, an 18-foot-long fish, who Santiago ventures out for fishing but ends up bringing only its skeleton back home. The novel masterfully explores the themes of determination and the attitude of human beings never to give up.
1 Book Review Essay Example
A book review essay particularly focuses on its essential role in summarizing the plot, analyzing key themes, and evaluating the author's style and effectiveness. Personal opinions and critical insights add depth to the review.
While many essay book report examples are available online, here's our take on writing an essay book review.
Book review sample:
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel centered around racism and the loss of innocence. The plot focuses on Scout, a six-year-old girl, Jeremy, her brother, and a neighbor who comes every summer. They go on several adventures, and their adventure is really limited to one man, and that's currently for at least a neighbor who has several allegations against him. The problem arises when a black man is accused of raping a white woman, and Atticus, Scout and Jem's father, is appointed to fight in favor of the black man. The author's writing style, chosen plot, and how she weaved the entire story so beautifully made it a sensational classic. Lee's simple yet evocative writing style explores morality and empathy from Scout Finch's perspective. It highlights the key themes of racism, discrimination, justice, and good versus evil.
2 Academic Book Review Examples: for College Students
When writing a college book review, focus on giving opinions of what the author should have overlooked while writing and those they overstated. Read the contents of the book and give relevant recommendations to such works. The parts of an academic college book review thesis example include citation and price, summary, analysis and significance, methodology, sources, recommendation, your name, and University.
Here are some Scholarly book review examples for college students that can help you get started.
Scholarly book review example for college:
1) In The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, Patricia disproves many misconceptions about America's Western history by demystifying some of the myths of the West and connecting them with sources from multiple different areas of American history. Limerick methodically strips away the nostalgia and alleged innocence to show the complicated nature of Western history and the ignored legacy. It is a synthesis of journalists' articles, specialized books, academic articles, and monographs from urban, Chicano, Hispanic, women's history, and many other disciplines. This book might not be well-suited for a student looking for a complete survey of Western history. Still, the titular argument is vitally essential when coming to terms with and understanding the history of America and its westward expansion.
2) Robert Cecil's book Hitler's Conquest to Invade Russia 1941 examines the content of war diaries written by the OKH, Oberkommando der Heeres, and the OKW, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. During a dinner in August 1941, Hitler discussed lawyers, their potential prey, and corporal punishment. Using an analogy of the moor owners taking care of the game they'll kill during the shooting season, and he compares the lawyers taking care of the criminal class. He also discusses the virtues of war and autocracy in Europe. Here, Hitler is depicted as a person who is madly in love with wars and the building of a fortified German army. Hitler urged the German people to embrace war every fifteen to twenty years. In defending his stance, he exclaims that an army whose only purpose is to preserve peace is like playing with soldiers. It is a synthesis of academic articles and other printed resources. It is highly recommended for international relations and political science students, military enthusiasts, historians, and scholars of World War II.
Chicago Style Book Review Example
The Chicago-style book review focuses on clarity and conciseness. It summarises the book's content, analyzes its themes, and evaluates your personal evaluation. Use Chicago's citation format to ensure proper book citation and avoid overly lengthy descriptions or spoilers.
Check out this Chicago-style example book review.
Book review writing example:
Gabriel Garcia's Love in the Time of Cholera presents conflicting messages about love and relationships. Set in the nineteenth century, it is the story of Florentine Ariza, a telegraph operator who lives in the Caribbean part of Colombia, in a port area where Marquez grew up. He falls in love with Fermina Daza, a very sheltered girl who's taken very well care of by her family. Her father has big plans for her to marry up in society. Florentino Ariza sees her walking to her private school daily and falls in love with her. Initially, they had this correspondence going on between the two of them. She seems to be in love with him as well. But, they are found out… The book centers on their story and their lives. If you are a heavily plot-driven reader, this is probably not going to be the book for you because part of the beauty of this book is the language in which Marquez writes. You get insights into the nineteenth century here and will see how cosmopolitan the world was then, including Latin America.
What Is a Short Review of a Book?
A short book review includes all the relevant main points to give an outlook on the book's existence. For example, provide a brief summary and include the key themes/message. You can explain what you like or dislike and discuss the author's writing style.
Check out this short book and film review example.
Sample book review:
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a dystopian psychological thriller that focuses on a group of young British schoolboys. Their plane has been shot down due to a war, and they are left stranded on a deserted island. The plot then develops with their survival journey without adults. The author portrays a fluid writing style that makes it quick to read. It gives the message about the fragility of the human mind that can deteriorate and stray from general societal standards.
Bonus Tip: How to Write a Book Review on a PDF Book
We have listed some examples of book reviews to give you an idea of how to write book reviews in different styles. While reviewing a book, SwifDoo PDF helps you add sticky notes, hyperlinks, text, blank pages, and more to create your review and print it directly. It is a one-stop solution for all your PDF managing tasks. SwifDoo PDF is an excellent tool for reading and annotating PDF files and ebooks.
You can scan books to PDFs or directly download PDF ebooks from a reliable PDF book downloader to read digitally. Once downloaded, you can notes, highlight, and even write a book review on your PDF on your computer or mobile phone on the go.
Here's how to write a book review on any PDF book using SwifDoo PDF.
Step 1: Download the SwifDoo PDF and click Create at the top-left corner. Choose +Blank to write a book review on a PDF book.
Step 2: Click the Annotate tab in the toolbar and choose Typewriter to annotate the PDF with a highlighter, note-taker, or drawing tool. You can also insert additional text into your book review PDF or change the font size and color in the mini toolbar below the text box.
Step 3: Hover your cursor to the Edit tab and tap Edit. This will bring out all the editable text boxes. You can italicize, bold, underline text, add superscripts and subscripts, and much more to your book review PDF document.
Final Wrap Up
Writing a good book review is complex whether you are a student, educator, or critic. Unless you have the nitty-gritty details of what goes into the writing, you cannot write one despite knowing the plot. Also, excellent analyzing skills and critical thinking are required to crack the nut. While we have discussed 8 best examples of a book review, ensure that you take expert help from review writers when writing one to match professional standards. Once you get it, SwifDoo PDF can be your best bet for starting to write one instantly.