If there’s one activity every author should at least try, it’s reviewing books. The book can be ten years old or newly released, but the process remains the same. The fundamentals which constitute an entertaining story have changed little in the last hundred years—you may even be of the opinion they’ve remained the same for the past several hundred. With that in mind, there are several areas to explore when judging a book, including character development, plot, prose, and pacing. If the book was written in the 1800’s, or is meant for children, grammar and prose may differ. That aside, most stories can be judged by the fundamentals. What’s more, whether you share this review with others or not, it becomes a useful tool in any fiction writer’s arsenal—something I’ll elaborate on once we’ve gone through the primary questions.
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There are six areas a reader should consider when reviewing a book, each integral to the whole, and each affecting the other.
1) Character Development
When reading a book, do all of the characters feel well developed? Do their actions align with who they seem to be? Are they skilled, but flawed? Most importantly, are they interesting? Not all characters need to be likable, but it’s possible the protagonist has crossed a line your audience won’t forgive. If they kill puppies, they’ve likely gone too far, and many readers won’t be able to root for them—even if the writer wants people to.
The best characters should also feel distinct: they should have a recognizable wardrobe; a certain walk style or speech pattern; differing opinions on religion and politics; common interests with their friends; a defined career and hobbies; and a colourful physical appearance.
These attributes should also be shown through a) action or b) the comments of other characters. If they’re listed by the author and never brought up again, the book you’re reading has yet another problem.
2) Show VS Tell
Another meter to measure a book by is whether or not it tells it’s story, or shows it. The best books feel like a film, revealing character through action and allowing the story to unfold without explaining it. If you had to write a movie, something people could only see, how would you go about delivering need to know information?
If a book lists a character’s traits like they’re a grocery list, then the book is hitting the reader over the head with an exposition dump. A little telling is okay, but if a book tells everything the narrative suffers, and too much exposition is a sign the writer needs more practice.
3) Prose
Prose is made up of multiple moving parts. You have standard grammar rules, redundant adjectives, unnecessary descriptions, typo surpluses, and even instances of repeated information, or exposition. Prose is a book’s basic readability. While the story is still key, it needs to be delivered effectively. This will differ by author, and a review may even be determined by a reader’s personal preferences, but a book, at it’s core, should say what it needs to say a) clearly and b) concisely.
If the same information can be delivered in one paragraph instead of three, it should be—unless the author has a specific justification for dragging it out. The information should also be clear. If you’re frequently left confused, then the writer needs to show more scenes or dialogue sequences to support the point they’re trying to get across to you.
Sometimes the story does everything it needs to but, because of either an obsession with words or a lack of confidence in the readers’ comprehension, the author will throw in redundant adjectives. If you come across sentences like, “He shouted angrily,” or “She wept sadly,” or even a statement like, “The little girl was talkative,” after showing through dialogue that she was, you’ve encountered adjectives that should be cut.
If a character hardly speaks, it’s not necessary for the author to add, “He wasn’t a verbose person,” even if the author’s been dying for an excuse to use that word.
4) Dialogue
Dialogue is the next best thing to revealing the plot after action; it’s also instrumental to revealing a character’s…well, character. Dialogue can deliver exposition or need to know information in a way that’s more subtle, assuming it’s executed well. Dialogue reveals character traits, such as shyness or arrogance. It’s a method by which characters bond, sharing their hobbies or pasts, and otherwise getting to know each other.
Dialogue is where information is shared, and character friendships are solidified. Every writer has a different style, but when judging a book it’s important to look at what the author was trying to achieve with their speech, and if they achieved that goal.
Could you tell characters apart, when they didn’t have dialogue tags? Could you hear their voices in your head? Did the dialogue make you feel anything, whether that was anger or amusement, or did it just feel like filler?
Was any of the dialogue unnecessary? Like adjectives, dialogue can run into the trap of being redundant. Having every “hello” and “goodbye” thrown in neither advances the plot nor reveals anything about the characters—unless they do either in a unique way. Even if someone’s catchphrase when departing is “toodaloo,” no more than one or two of these need to be shared throughout the entire book—unless the author has a reason for doing so, such as showing how much it annoys the other characters, thus supporting the tension between them and the said “toodalooer.” This is a pretty specific exception, though.
5) Pacing
How did the book “flow” while you read it? Were there passages that felt too slow? Were there areas you skimmed through, in hopes that the action would start soon?
Books are made up of many parts, all of which effect each other. If the plot is nonsensical, or the dialogue is redundant, both of these defects can, in turn, lead to bad pacing. Too many “hellos” and “goodbyes” expressed throughout dialogue disrupts sentence smoothness, while grinding the actual story to a halt. If the author doesn’t know where the story is going, pacing will be inconsistent; the story will likely jump around. Before the reader can settle in or begin enjoying an idea, the story changes again. Conversely, the author may spend half of the book in one area; after 200 pages of seeing the protagonist hang out with his mother in what was supposed to be a science fiction, the reader will be aggravated.
The bottom line is, if the book made you feel impatient or bored, or even pushed you to skim read, it’s pacing needs work.
6) Plot
Bad pacing is often the product of a disorganized plot. A writer may set out to write a science fiction, only to fall in love with the character of the astronaut’s mother. Now, if the writer wants to write a slice of life science fiction, this needs to be intentional, and such an intention has to carry through to the end of the book.
What’s more, even slice of life stories have to make sense. There needs to be a beginning, a middle, and an end. A problem, even a basic one such as the astronaut fighting with his mom, has to be introduced, and ultimately resolved by the story’s end. A relationship should advance, and do so consistently. The character’s objectives should be clear, and support the story’s theme—even if that’s something as simple as “love conquers all.”
A writer may tell whatever story they want, but for the reader the actual point of the story has to be obvious. If it’s about an astronaut and his relationship with his mother, that has to be shown. If the writer tries to jump too much between the relationship elements and the sci fi elements without showing how either connect, readers will be confused. If anything, the dangers the astronaut faces in his space adventures should affect the relationship, such as by introducing tension when his mother argues against how the job could endanger his life, and later reveal why that matters so much to her. What if her husband was also an astronaut who died tragically, leaving her to raise her son alone before he frightened her with the same dream?
I’ve run away with this article and written a story, but this is my point: you can have several elements, even genres, within a single story, but they should support each other somehow. The plot should support it’s theme, or themes; it’s main plot and it’s sub plots should affect each other as they advance.
Most importantly, it should make sense. Instances of deux ex machina are a general no-no, and problems shouldn’t be solved by a magical sword the hero stumbles upon—unless said sword is foreshadowed throughout the story, and the hero struggles to master it before employing it’s use.
7) Authenticity & Research
This can depend on the reader. When most of us read a book, we accept that guns work the way the author says they do. However, if a gun expert reads the book, and the author’s descriptions are inaccurate, it’s going to break immersion for that reader. Now, it could be argued that doing strenuous research for one person isn’t an ideal use of time, but consider—if a writer presents a topic in a well researched manner, even those who know nothing about the subject will notice how lifelike it feels.
If an author not only introduces guns to their story, but shows how each piece of one works or malfunctions, all readers will appreciate the attention to detail.
A lack of research happens to the most skilled writers. When Rowling penned Harry Potter, an owl expert phoned in to share that snowy owls don’t actually make any noises. Ultimately, the story wasn’t ruined, but for a book so centered around owls, it was inevitable an owl lover would read it.
If a story features cars, guns, animals, boats, or any other subject as a huge component, it’s ideal for the writer to research said subject—not only to lessen the risk of breaking someone’s immersion, but to increase immersion for all readers.
It also goes without saying that more sensitive topics, such as sexuality, should be well researched. If they aren’t, the story, again, can become immersion breaking, as characters or situations lose their ability to be believed by the reader.
In Conclusion
All of these parts work together to make a story great, okay, or downright terrible. Badly written plots can cause poor pacing; unnecessary dialogue, or a lack of it, can lead to bland characters; prose can stifle even a good story, if it adds unneeded adjectives, or drags. When reviewing a book, these are aspects to keep in mind. If you don’t know where to start, ask yourself these questions as you jot down notes. If a book shines in any of these areas, positives should also be written, and contributed to the overall review.
For fiction writers, it might not be immediately clear why writing book reviews is such a good idea. If you’re up for it, writing book reviews and sharing them on YouTube—or Authortube—can be a good way to both create another income stream, and connect with your target audience by reviewing books which sit in the genres you want to write.
However, if you’re terrified of your reviews being seen by others, there’s still a more practical reason to do them for yourself: each review will improve your skills as an editor. As you become more critical of the stories you read, and evaluate their various elements, you’ll become better at addressing the same areas in your own books. This is because the questions I’ve presented here, to be applied to book reviews, are the same you should apply when editing your own novel.
For both avid readers who review stories and writers who want to learn self-editing, these questions are indispensable. As a bonus point, these same questions can even be offered to beta readers if a writer is looking for outside feedback on a project.
What questions do you ask when reviewing a book? Is there any particular area you’d like to see explored further? Let me know!