Start your book review by mentioning the name of the book and the name of the author somewhere in your opening paragraph. This information can appear anywhere within the paragraph but is important in making sure your audience knows what you are discussing. This step is relatively universal in all book review formats.
Determine the focus and space for your review. If you are publishing your review in a newspaper or letter, you may have limited space to get your point across. If you are publishing online, you may have more space to work with. Knowing your space can help you determine your focus. Greater space may mean you wish to examine the book in greater detail while smaller space may require you to make your points quickly and close.
Make a list of the points you want to make. Regardless of the space you have available, you must have some reasons for wanting to write this review. Ask yourself some questions to help guide your thoughts. Los Angeles Valley College provides some good questions to ask yourself as you go through this process, such as : What was the main message of the book? What were some important points that the author was making? What kind of book is it? The questions and answers you come up with are what makes your review different from any other.
Write your review with your questions and answers in mind. Writer Rodman Philbrick suggests writing one paragraph for each point you wish to make, beginning with the main theme of the story. If you have the space, adding a few quotes from the book that support your ideas is helpful to the reader and provides you with some credibility. Try to stick to objective concepts in the main body of your review, allowing your reader to make their own assessment based on what can be found in the book.
End your review with your own opinions. Obviously, the points you chose to focus on about the book are based on your subjective opinion, but this last segment is where you allow yourself to talk more openly about what you liked or didn't like about the book, where you thought the author didn't do enough research or where you would have liked to see more action.