Literary Book Reviews

You may have written a book report in high school that was a simple summary of a book. OK, so that ensured (more or less) that you read the book, but was pretty mindless and boring. That is NOT what this book review assignment is about.


The idea of a professional book review is in part to briefly summarize the ideas of the book, but the main focus is to give your opinion about the book’s merits – it is a critical analysis of the book. Just like in the literature critique assignment, ‘critical’ does not imply that you are going to be mean or harsh in your review. It means that you are going to evaluate objectively whether the author(s) have fulfilled their objectives in the book, and whether they have used persuasive and unbiased evidence to support their claims. Did you find the book engaging? Persuasive? Did you agree with it? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to others? What is the intended audience of the book? Does it succeed in reaching this audience?

For further explanation, follow the links below.


Work hard on making your book review very readable to a general audience – it should flow well and be written nicely. You should have an introduction, discussion of the book, and clear conclusion (in other words, your review should have explicit sections responding to the several requirements of the rubric. Your review should read like an essay). Your review should contain all of the elements found in the following rubric:

How to Write a Literary Book Review

Sample Book Review 1

Sample Book Review 2

Book Review Rubric