8 Different Ways To Write A Book Review

If you scroll through Goodreads or browse different blogs, you will see so many different styles of writing a book review. Everyone writes their reviews differently, and that’s what makes reading them fun! Book reviews are a big part of being a book blogger (but not necessary at all!) and I’ve seen a lot of people struggling with them.

Some people love writing book reviews, while some hate it. Some bloggers write tons of book reviews, while some only write a few, and some write none at all. It’s all up to the person!

As for me? I struggle with book reviews. They are, a lot of the time, my least favorite posts to write. But sometimes, I love them! I love talking about books (obviously) and I love recommending my favorites and critiquing ones I didn’t like as much.

But often, I find writing them to be repetitive and boring. And so I switch up my review style. A LOT.

You may have noticed how almost every review of mine is different! I’m not very consistent with my review styles. I know almost every other blogger is, but I don’t like to be, so this is what works for me.

But today, in this post, I’m going to be talking about # common ways to write a review. If you’re struggling with your reviews or just feel like seeing different styles, this is the post for you!

The links to my reviews will lead you to the review itself, and the links to other blogs will lead you to their review archive.

1) Likes and dislikes list

This review is where the blogger will make two lists: one of things in the book that they liked, and one that they didn’t. While I used to love writing reviews like this, I don’t anymore, but I absolutely adore reading them.

Examples in my reviews: Days of Blood and Starlight, The Night Circus

Examples in other blogs: Brittany’s Book Rambles, Paper Fury

2) Break-it-down-by-section review

In this style of review, the blogger will organize it into sections of plot, character, pacing, etc. Each section will get a paragraph or two describing what they thought of that particular aspect of the book.

Examples in my reviews: Six of Crows, Winter, Illuminae

3) Bullet point list

In this type of review, the blogger will simply make a bullet list of their feelings for a book!

Examples in other blogs: Spoilers May Apply

4) Divided into spoiler and non-spoiler sections

This is a very helpful review style in which the blogger will organize the post into a spoiler part and a non-spoiler part. This way, while reading the post, the reader won’t see any unwanted spoilers, but a person who HAS read the book can read that part and discuss with the blogger!

Examples in other blogs: Next Page Please!

5) GIF review

While I personally am not a fan of using GIFs in my posts (it makes me feel unprofessional, although I wouldn’t exactly call my blog professional *winks*), they can make reviews fun! I couldn’t find a blog that does ONLY GIF reviews, but I did one as an example.

Examples of different posts: Mary Had A Little Book Blog’s GIF review of Gemina

6) Multiple paragraph review

Often, #2 on this list is very similar to this, but I included both because they’re slightly different. The reviewer will just…talk. Their sentences will turn into paragraphs, and those paragraphs will normally be themed like #2, but they don’t have specific labels! To me, it seems like this is one of the more popular styles of reviews.

Examples in other blogs: A Book and a Cup of Coffee, Princessica of Books, Fiery Reads, Blank Slaters

7) 5-reasons-why-you-should-read-this-book review

This type of review is really fun, because you get to really see EXACTLY why you should pick a book up. It’s just like what it sounds like: the blogger writes a number of reasons to try to persuade you to read the book!

Examples in my reviews: The Serpent King, Blackhearts

8) Sections according to major themes and literary devices (Thanks, Josephine!)

While this is similar to #2 as well, it’s different because instead of using the same headings for each review and book “plot, character, writing”, it varies from book to book and goes into more detail. “Fast paced” might be a heading. “Engrossing, easy to understand world” might be a heading.

This is what my reviews are transitioning into, as you will see by my upcoming review of Nevernight! As of right now, this is what works best for me.

Examples in my reviews: A Court of Mist and Fury

Examples in other blogs: Nose Graze, Word Revel

How do YOU write your reviews? Which style do you most enjoy reading? Do you like writing reviews, or is it a struggle? Have you always stuck to the same style, or did you used to write your reviews differently?

Thanks for reading!

Ava