{"id":2161,"date":"2016-08-30T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T10:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:38","slug":"a-simple-formula-for-book-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/a-simple-formula-for-book-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Formula for Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gavel,<\/a>I love to read.\u00a0 And after I read a book I often post a book review of it at the major book buying sites and at GoodReads.com.\u00a0 If I like the book, I like to say so.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t like the book, I need to be able to say why I didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 In order to facilitate my reasoning in either case, I\u2019ve developed a simple formula for reviewing a book on the 5-star scale.\u00a0 This is primarily for fiction, but non-fiction can be done the same way, you just have to substitute presentation and knowledge for dialogue and characterization.<\/p>\n

Here is my formula for scoring a book review on a five star method:\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Technical Proficiency<\/h2>\n

Is the book free of grammatical errors, typos and editing mistakes?\u00a0 Even a compelling story will become a chore to read if I am repeatedly pulled out of the story by obvious errors in punctuation, grammar, inept word choices, and typos.\u00a0 These are things that any serious writer will fix before publishing a book.\u00a0 Generally these require a second set of eyes.\u00a0 I firmly believe that few, if any, authors are able to effectively edit their own work.<\/p>\n

This is a deal killer in my world.\u00a0 A book that is so poorly edited that it becomes a chore to read will get set aside and abandoned as I move on to the next book on my list in hopes that it will be a more enjoyable reading experience.<\/p>\n

This type of problem is becoming more and more prevalent with the burgeoning of self-publication; especially in eBooks.\u00a0 In their rush to get their books published and become millionaires, some authors neglect the editing phase entirely.<\/p>\n

Characterization<\/h2>\n

If the book is well edited and a pleasure to read; are the characters well developed and believable?\u00a0 Cardboard characters and caricature characters will stop even a compelling plot line dead in it\u2019s tracks because you can not relate to or identify with them.\u00a0 Even alien creatures, if they are a major player in the story, need to be believable.\u00a0 Do you care what happens to them?\u00a0 Are they so two-dimensioned that they just don\u2019t seem real?<\/p>\n

Dialogue<\/h2>\n

Is the dialogue natural, adding to the story not getting in its way?\u00a0 Stiff, forced, or corn-ball dialogue adds nothing to a story and does nothing to make a character more real.\u00a0 Likewise, each character needs to have it\u2019s own voice, and that voice should suit the characters, well\u2026 character.\u00a0 If all your characters talk just like you do, knowing who is talking is difficult and even if you are a scintillating conversationalist, having all your characters speak the same way is boring.<\/p>\n

Failure on any of these first three points will cause me to lay the book aside.<\/p>\n

The Storyline or Plot<\/h2>\n

Is the story or plot compelling – is it a page-turner?\u00a0 Well developed characters who engage in great dialogue but don\u2019t do anything interesting will not make a good book.\u00a0 You must have a good plot; it needs to withhold enough to make discovery fun, it needs a few twists tossed in to spice things up, and it needs to end every chapter leaving you wanting to read the next to see what happens next.\u00a0 The best books are those into which you can immerse yourself and lose track of time until you\u2018ve come to the last page.<\/p>\n

The Something New Factor<\/h2>\n

Does the story show innovation or cleverness in the happenings of the story?\u00a0 Even historical fiction can put a new spin on things by adding a clever twist, something no one has thought of.\u00a0 It is fiction, you are allowed to be original.\u00a0 But it must be believable and substantiated — unless you\u2019re writing fantasy, then you can pretty much just say \u201cBecause this is the way it works here\u201d and get away with it. \u00a0Any book that incorporates a Sci-Fi element is especially subject to this; the science needs to hold up under scrutiny or it fades into fantasy.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Scoring a book is easy: one star for each heading that it does well.\u00a0 Mediocre performance in a category gets no star, something between mediocre and great gets a half-star.<\/p>\n

I never try to dissect a book and give a chapter by chapter analysis of the story.\u00a0 Nor will I explain what the story is all about.\u00a0 What I will do is to say whether I liked the book or not and why.\u00a0 If a book earns all five stars and some aspect of the book just wows me, I\u2019ll talk-up that aspect in the book review.<\/p>\n

Also, if reviews left by others gushed about how this author is the greatest in history and their story is so amazing, and I find it to be just not so, I will mention their having \u201cput their thumb on the scale\u201d by having friends and family post overly exuberant, if not outright false, claims about this author\u2019s work so that the book turned out to be a major disappointment to me.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I do a book review.\u00a0 What methods do you use to \u201cscore\u201d a book you\u2019re reading?\u00a0 Whether you plan to review it or not, you will be deciding if it\u2019s a good book or not.\u00a0 How do you decide?\u00a0 Knowing how readers decide these things should help authors decide what needs special attention in their writing.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love to read.  And after I read a book I often post a book review of it at the major book buying sites and at GoodReads.com.  If I like the book, I like to say so.  If I didn’t like the book, I need to be able to say why I didn’t like it.  … Continue reading “A Simple Formula for Book Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3,8,14],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools","tag-books","tag-ebook","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19298,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/19298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}