How to Review a Book, by sci-fi writer Glenn Lazar Roberts
Reviewing a book is not quick and easy. Saying ‘I liked it’ or ‘I didn’t like it’ is not a review but laziness. Are you qualified to review the topic? Are you literate or do you read just to kill time at the beach? Can you compare two different books on the same subject? Did you read the entire book or stop on page two? Reading the whole book is important because pleasant surprises may lurk deep within.
Did you make an effort to follow the plot? ‘I got bored and stopped reading’ tells one more about the ‘reviewer’ than about the book. Can you spell? If you misspell words throughout your review, then you are broadcasting an inability to comprehend what you read.
Do not reveal the plot because this will spoil the book for others. Competent reviewers do not post spoilers. A reader once posted on Amazon every plot development in one of my books extending to several thousand words, a lengthy essay. He liked the book but his posting was still a disservice. I had to ask Amazon to remove the review even though he gave the book 5-stars.
It should go without saying that a review should not be an assassination attempt on the author. If you dislike the author and cannot separate the author from the work, then you should write nothing at all because a book is an entity wholly distinct from who wrote it and should be considered separately. To merge one with the other is collective punishment, or the literary equivalent of ethnic cleansing. A good reviewer is willing to learn from people with whom he or she disagrees.
Are you familiar with the book’s genre? Can you recognize a work that is unique and does not belong to a genre? Don’t write ‘This isn’t my kind of genre, but…” If you aren’t familiar with the book’s genre, then you should not be reviewing the book. Good books may invent their own genre rather than follow existing genres like sheep. Great books create entirely new genres.
Another no-no: if a book is part of a series, then do the intelligent thing and read the first book in the series before reading the others. Don’t start midway through the series and then complain that you didn’t understand the plot. I had a Mensa reviewer do that with one of my books. Ignoring my explicit advice to be sure to start with Book One or she won’t understand what is happening, she started with Book Two, then complained in her review that she did not understand the plot. That’s not reviewing, that’s laziness and a slap in the face of the writer.
Finally, don’t be a troll. Trolls are self-styled reviewers whose one purpose in life is to shoot down books without making the slightest effort to comprehend them. Be considerate of the author. Keep in mind that good writers can spend literally years, even decades, composing their works. You should be prepared to spend more than a few seconds thinking about their studied, measured, and often inspired results. If there is something you didn’t understand, it may be you who are missing something rather than the writer.