: Re: What are the ingredients for a good book review? I've recently started writing book reviews. I am doing this for numerous reasons, most importantly perhaps is to be able to express in a clear

@Phylliss352

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Your list is pretty good, but it's missing something a bit fundamental.

Most reviewers tend to think that they're trying to help someone make up their mind whether or not to buy a book based on the what they think of the book's contents.

This is only half the equation.

What a reviewer also needs to do is show that their opinion is worth a damn. Who cares if you didn't like the book? Lots of people like and dislike books, so why should I care what you have to say?

A successful review is one that demonstrates to me that the writer is an authority that I should pay attention to and, perhaps more importantly, someone I can identify with in terms of likes and dislikes. If the reviewer has similar tastes to mine, it's a sure bet I'll be a lot more interested in what they have to say.

So, these are some of the questions you need to answer for the reader:

What other work can you compare this book to that I may have read?
How does this book stand in relation to its genre?
Is the author established enough that I may have read some of his previous work, and if so, how does this book compare to those other works?
If the book is derivative, unoriginal, or isn't good, what would you recommend as being similar, but far superior?

All of these give me hints and clues as to what your preferences and tastes are, which in turn helps me decide whether your opinion actually matters. That's the trick of a good review.

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