Reading a Novel for Writing a Review

Being interested in a particular book can help you in writing a solid review, and it doesn’t matter whether it is a fiction book review, a book review for a journal, or a book review for a college, so take a moment to select a novel that interests you particularly.

You will have to discover a way to become eventually interested in a certain novel or a book, in case if you are forced assigned, and you should also be aware of the criteria for writing a book review.

Read Critically and Attentively

Do not read only for the purpose to come across some facts or to reveal the writer's core thought. You should evaluate the whole text, highlight or underline important thoughts and smart points of the story. Uncover the message of the novel.

Analyze and Summarize While Reading

Take notes about the concepts and the facts that you have already learned about the subject of a novel.
Here are a few questions to ask, while reading a novel:

• What exactly tells the book’s title about its plot?
• What tells an author of the book in the preface?
• Who are readers of this novel?

Take short notes as soon as you have completed reading a chapter. Try to write down some important points of every chapter in your words in order not to get lost when it comes to actual review writing. Then, you are welcome to take simple notes about specific abstracts that you may discuss in your review.

Assessing the Read Content

Try to break the written text into several parts as you take notes. In the first section, write a brief review on the main ideas and points of the book. In the other section, you may describe your feelings that cause a certain sentence or paragraph in you, write down what you think about this, etc. Therefore, this assessment process works with all types of book reviews – from writing a book review for a scholarly journal to a comparative book review for your University.
Here are several guidelines that may help you to evaluate the story of a book:
Knowing other publications on the same topic, it is possible to compare reasons along with the arguments of the novel set out in the book with all the others, highlighting what is new and what is particularly useful in the novel you are reading.
In any case, you can do some assessment, should you unaware of others published books on the same topic.

For instance:

1. How successful is the novel’s methodology?
2. How efficiently does the novel make its arguments?
3. How convincing is the deposition?
4. For its audience, do you know the strengths of the novel?
5. Is the novel’s story understandable for you?

When you fulfill goals set out by you individually, you will be able to create a genuine work of review art!