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How to Write a Book Critique: Step-By-Step Guide & Examples

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A book critique is a written evaluation of a book that provides an objective assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. Its purpose is to help readers understand the book's content and provide a thoughtful analysis of its quality.

Preparing book critique entails reading a piece of writing and describing the author's overall purpose and intent to the reader. You can also pose a question to readers, who might look through the novel, to spark their curiosity.

Drafting a good book critique is not easy, as you should take into account different aspects of writing. In this article, we will give you a breakdown of how to write a book critique from beginning to end. Additionally, you will find some proper book critique examples that may help you write a piece that genuinely reflects your personal opinion on any author's works. Need professional assistance? Consider hiring a proficient book report writer who will tackle your assignment according to the highest academic standards.

What Is a Book Critique?

A book critique is a critical analysis of ideas expressed by an author in a publication. It is an assessment of the novel's strengths and weaknesses, its style, structure, the author's use of language, and effectiveness of its major themes and ideas. Book critiques can be written by a professional book reviewer or an ordinary reader who just wants to share their opinion. It usually includes a book summary, an evaluation of its content, and a discussion of its significance.  Writing a book critique may also be used as an academic assignment for students. In this case, they will be expected to demonstrate their ability to analyze and evaluate a novel using critical thinking skills and providing evidence to support their arguments.

Purpose of a Book Critique

The primary purpose of a book critique is to allow the audience to interact with the author's text and analyze it carefully. It can be used to offer feedback to writers on the quality of their work or to contribute to literary criticism and analysis. A book critique is aimed at helping readers decide whether or not to read a particular publication. Instructors also use it to evaluate their students' critical thinking skills more precisely.

Book Critique Outline

An outline of a book critique is a summary of your write-up's content in a less detailed manner. It helps you logically organize and structure your text. The importance of an outline lies in its ability to help writers clarify what needs to be included in their essays, along with things that should be left out. This is one aspect you need to get right when learning to critique a book or, basically, when writing any complex, lengthy work. Generally, outlines are used by authors to organize their thinking patterns for a paper at the very beginning of essay writing process. Here is an example of a book critique template outline.

• Brief introduction of the novel and its author
• State the genre or novel's purpose
• Summarize the author's key points
• Thesis statement
• Give a summary of the publication
• Provide arguments that support your statement of purpose
• Support your logic with evidence from the novel
• Give your objective opinion
• Summarize your arguments
• Restate thesis statement
• Give your recommendations

Follow the tips from a book report writing service outlined below to nail your task. 

Book Critique Introduction

Writing a book critique introduction is important in providing readers with an overview of the publication you will be critiquing. The introduction should preview what readers can expect from your critique and give some context for the publication itself. To write a book critique preface that accurately serves its purpose, consider following steps:

• Start by providing a title and a brief overview of the book's plot, characters, and setting.
• Give some background information about the author, historical period in which the novel is set, or any cultural or literary influences that may have inspired the writer.
• State your thesis. It should be the last element of an introduction.

Book Critique Thesis Statement

The thesis statement for a book critique aims to provide readers with a clear summary of the arguments you will address further. Thesis is usually developed after you read the novel and understand its contents. It should be clear and concise and touch on the main idea you want to get across. It consists of one or two sentences and is normally placed at the end of your introduction. Understanding what constitutes a strong thesis is vital for writers since it is an integral part of every single write-up. As you will see in most book critiques upon doing your research, thesis statement guides your work's structure and lays out a plan for readers to follow.

Body of a Book Critique

The body of your book critique is the meat and flesh of your essay because the most valuable content is located here. Generally, it should contain several paragraphs. Each section should address a specific point you’ve laid out in the outline. As a writer, such structure will allow you to delve deeper into a particular point without any limitations and help to write your book critique much faster. Remember, each paragraph should focus on one main idea, highlight the argument, and support it with an explanation or evidence. However, if a paragraph is too long, you can split it into two for easier reading.

Book Critique Conclusion

This is the final part of book critique writing. One of the easiest ways to prepare it is by going through your work from beginning to end. It helps you highlight the essay's overall point and ensures that nothing important is left out. To prepare a proper book critique conclusion, summarize your main ideas, restate your thesis statement, and give recommendations. You may also include whether or not you agree with the author's presentation of ideas. When writing a conclusion, you should also remember to provide your overall impression of the novel and, optionally, mention it if you want other readers to try it.

How to Write a Book Critique?

To write a book critique that is really useful and outstanding, first and foremost, make sure to actually read the novel; no matter how funny it sounds, this is the only core component. Reread as many times as possible to ensure you understand the author's points. That way, you will be able to formulate strong arguments. In some cases, you may find that you do not understand the writer's position or ideas, which may call for some research. Research the author, his personal life, and his experiences. This will help you comprehend his approach and make analysis and evaluation easier. Formulate your thesis statement and have an outline in place. If the process still proves challenging, do not hesitate to ask your peers or tutors for advice or borrow inspiration from numerous online materials on how to write a book critique for college. Further in the section, the critique process will be expounded on in nitty-gritty details.

1. Choose and Read the Book

Before starting your analysis, you need to identify the piece you are going to read. It would be better if you read the novel at least once or twice to internalize its contents. Remember to highlight main points and reasoning behind them when reading. This will help you formulate arguments to include in your book critique. It is also crucial to take notes while reading, as it will help you avoid forgetting key points and tightly grasp chronological order of events. Furthermore, it will aid you in creating an outline, which is vital in book critique writing.

2. Do Research on Author's Background

Researching the author's background is necessary before writing book critique. It can help you understand their point of view. For example, we all know the environment one grows up in influences so much of their behavior. You may, for instance, find that writers raised in the countryside and those from urban areas have different interpretations of the same things in life. Understanding the author's views and hypothesis is key as it will inform your arguments. You can also check their credentials, competencies, and corpus (bibliography). Knowing this will help you better formulate the book's summary in introduction and body paragraphs. After doing preliminary research, you will be equipped with all the necessary information to actually critique a book using fundamental assessment "tools" - analysis and evaluation.

3. Analyze and Evaluate the Book

Analysis and evaluation will majorly inform how your critique flows. Evaluation involves an in-depth study of all points in a particular piece. Consider how the characters are developed and ways in which they contribute to a story. While assessing the plot, note whether there are any twists to the narrative. Evaluate whether the story is original and engaging to readers. Just like in a literary analysis , you need to examine its general impact, if it achieves its intended purpose, its thoroughness, objectivity, accuracy, and timeliness. Finally, develop your arguments, forming the foundation for writing a book critique. Remember to be fair and objective in your assessment.

4. Build a Book Critique Outline

Creating a book critique outline can help you organize your thoughts and write clear and comprehensive text. This is where you use notes you gathered earlier while researching and evaluating. These notes will guide you in penning down your thoughts chronologically, starting from introduction to conclusion. Your outline need not be too detailed but should include the primary info you intend to use in your essay. However, do not limit yourself too much as well. While drafting outline for a book critique, ensure it is wide-ranging to avoid missing any parts. Above, you can find an example of an outline to use as a template for creating your own.

Read more: How to Write an Outline for an Essay ?

5. Introduce a Book and Details of an Author

This section is rather straightforward. You need to provide readers with brief background information. In your book critique introduction, discuss the publication, any recurring themes presented, and the purpose it intends to serve. You can also highlight similar titles the author has written, but not too many to not get side-tracked here. In the introduction for a book critique, include clear reasoning behind why the author engages with specific topics in the first place. For example, it could be a result of their own experiences or just stories from other people. You can also consider how the authors attempt to differentiate themselves in the genre without alienating or missing their intended audience.

Book Critique Introduction Example

The introduction paragraph should set pace for the rest of your paper. It should grab the reader's attention and encourage them to read your essay. It is important to note that this is not a summary of your paper but rather just a preview. Here is an example of a book critique introduction.

In literature, you may come across many novels that leave you with lasting impressions, either good or bad. Such is the case with "Romeo and Juliet", a play by William Shakespeare written in the years 1591 and 1595 that is considered one of his most popular and frequently performed plays. This blockbuster of a tragedy has been met with mixed reviews, with some readers finding it a masterpiece while others deeming it a disappointment. In this critique, I will delve into the author's writing style, plot, characters, and themes, ultimately providing a comprehensive evaluation of "Romeo and Juliet". I will also determine whether it is still worth reading in the 21st century.

Read more: How to Start an Essay ?

6. Create a Thesis Statement

Creating a strong thesis statement is vital when you want to critique a book as it provides readers with a clear overview of your position or arguments. Proper thesis statement, in this case, should capture your overall evaluation of the author's work. Here are some general tips to help you write a good thesis statement for a book critique.

• Identify the text's main components, including the author's writing style, plot, characters, and themes.
• Determine your stance on the author's work. Is it good or bad, and what specifically makes it so?
• Using information from the publication, write a sentence summarizing your evaluation.

Thesis Statement Sample

A thesis statement can comprise one or two sentences. You must ensure that it is clear, concise, and arguable. It should be delivered in the form of an idea that provokes opposition, instead of being a factual statement. Here is an example of a book critique thesis statement.

"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare offers an intricate exploration of love and nature of human choices, masterfully brought to life through rich, well-developed characters and compelling narrative.

7. Write a Book Summary

When prewriting critique of a book, a summary will be one of the key components in your outline. It is important because your critique might be read by people who have never heard about the publication, so a properly detailed summary will initially introduce the novel to your audience and explain what it is generally about. Most common way to write a book critique summary is by giving a brief overview of the themes, characters, and main ideas. It requires careful reading, analysis, and the ability to articulate one's opinions about the author's work in a clear and concise manner.

8. Write Your Book Critique

The main part of your book critique is the body. This is the longest part of your essay as well. The goal here is to take the reader through your arguments and evidence supporting your thesis statement. Here are some steps to guide you through book critique writing.

• Provide arguments that support your statement of purpose This entails determining the publication’s strongest and weakest points, analyzing the author's success in formulating ideas and developing themes. Use textual proof to support your views.
• Evaluate the author's purpose in writing the novel What message were they trying to convey? Is the publication intended to entertain, inform, persuade, or educate? Does the writer achieve their purpose? In addition, assess the author's writing style, book's plot, narrative, flow and make a character analysis.
• State your overall opinion of the book Do you think the novel is well-written and engaging? Would you recommend it to others? Be sure to back up your opinion with evidence from the book.

Book Critique Body Example

Below is a book critique body sample for a fictional novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett , The Secret Garden.

“The Secret Garden” is a beautifully written classic that explores the power of nature, friendship, and self-discovery. The story is set in a grand estate in England and follows the journey of Mary Lennox, a young girl who is sent to live with her uncle after parent's death. Its setting is described in rich detail, painting a vivid picture of the estate. Descriptions of the natural world are enchanting and bring the story to life in a magical way. Characters in “The Secret Garden” are well-developed, making it easy for readers to connect with them on an emotional level. Mary, the main character, is a determined young girl who learns to face her fears and find joy through her experiences in the garden. Supporting characters, such as Colin and Dickon, are equally compelling and add depth to the story. Writing style is poetic, with an intense mood that makes readers feel like they are right there with Mary. Themes, such as power of nature and importance of friendship, are woven seamlessly into the narrative, making them both subtle and well-pronounced. In conclusion, the book's deliberate pace allows readers to fully immerse themselves in the secret garden world. Its climax is satisfying, bringing the story's themes to a fitting end.

9. Give Your Opinion and Recommendations

Consider different aspects of the text when giving your opinion, including its plot, theme, setting, and purpose. For example, you can look at whether the author addressed the main idea as per themes and whether his content meets its central purpose. Do not fear to give an opinion as any reader is entitled to have one, and this is, basically, what writing a book critique is majorly intended for. After all, you may even find that many other readers agree with your views! Once you learn how to give an objective opinion, it will be safe to say that you know how to critique a book.

Book Critique Recommendations Example

When writing a book critique for college or university, you must always have a conclusion in your essay. This is where you give your final thoughts on the piece, whether it was good or bad. It will be best if you also provide reasoning for your opinion to make it convincing. Here is a book critique conclusion example.

Overall, "Romeo and Juliet" is a thrilling and enjoyable read that will appeal to fans of tragedy and love story novels. The author's skillful use of language and well-constructed plot make this a must-read for anyone. It highlights human flaws present in our societies and consequences of our choices. One must be keen not to idealize the purity of main characters' love but also look at external forces such as anger and hate that play a big role in their story. Whether you are a fan of tragedy novels or enjoy well-written love stories, this is a text you will surely not want to miss.

10. Proofread Your Critique of a Book

Proofreading is an important step in the writing process. Good book critiques should be clear, accurate, and free of errors. This helps you make a strong impression on your audience and effectively communicate your ideas. By taking the time to go through your critique, you demonstrate that you take your writing seriously and value reader's experience. Here are some useful editing tips.

• Look for spelling and grammar errors Use a spell-check tool and carefully read your book critique to eliminate any possible mistakes.
• Check for consistency Ensure your tone is consistent throughout your essay.
• Verify facts Ensure any facts or quotes you include in your critique are accurate and properly cited. Check our guide on how to cite a quote from a book , in case you need any help.

Book Critique Examples

Before you begin working on your assignment, it is advisable to look through a few book critique samples to understand better how it may be done. This will help you write an excellent paper. Look for a book critique example online to borrow ideas on arranging your work. You should be keen on appropriate articles and narrow your search until you get an example of a good book critique that will be worth your time. Example of a book critique 1

Book critique sample 2

Book critique example 3

Book Critique Format

When writing a book critique, the content of your work must be orderly. Quality of presentation is largely informed by how you arrange your paper. Different formats are used for literary works, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago. Depending on your educational institution, your teacher will guide you on what book critique format to use. Upon knowing the structure, follow it to the letter to ensure that your work has a consistent style. In most cases, by looking at the format for a book critique, you can tell whether you are about to read a good piece.

Book Critique Writing Tips

Here are some extra tips on how to critique a book.

• Know your audience Consider who you are writing the book critique for and what they are interested in reading. For example, if you are composing a review for a literary magazine, you will want to focus more on the novel's stylistic elements.
• Be objective While a book critique writing assignment is a chance to investigate and express your opinions, staying accurate and avoiding overly personal attacks on the author or text is also essential.
• Use credible evidence to support your opinions Whenever you make a statement about the text, back it up with examples. Reliable proof refers to information that majority of readers would deem authentic.
• Maintain an organized structure Good book critiques are well-organized and have a good flow that is easy for an audience to follow.
• Avoid spoilers While including key details in your summary is essential, avoid giving away the ending or plot twists.

If you're a book lover, you might also wonder how to write a book review .  But what if you're also interested in learning how to critique an article ? Check out our blog, which provides tips and strategies for analyzing and evaluating all types of works.

Bottom Line on Book Critique Writing

When writing a book critique, you are not merely describing the book's contents but also critically examining it. After briefly introducing the book and summarizing its contents, proceed to comprehensively review its advantages and disadvantages. This can involve analyzing the author's style of writing, the persuasiveness of their arguments or narrative, and the book's influence on readers. If necessary, use examples from the text and outside sources on how to do a book critique to bolster your analysis. Furthermore, consider that book critiques are subjective, and your viewpoint counts. In your assessment, be forthright and truthful, but also refrain from disparaging the writer or their work in any other way. Best of luck!

Try our expert academic writing service for high-quality work and top-notch grades. Receive quick book review help and achieve success worry-free. 

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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How to Write Critical Reviews

When you are asked to write a critical review of a book or article, you will need to identify, summarize, and evaluate the ideas and information the author has presented. In other words, you will be examining another person’s thoughts on a topic from your point of view.

Your stand must go beyond your “gut reaction” to the work and be based on your knowledge (readings, lecture, experience) of the topic as well as on factors such as criteria stated in your assignment or discussed by you and your instructor.

Make your stand clear at the beginning of your review, in your evaluations of specific parts, and in your concluding commentary.

Remember that your goal should be to make a few key points about the book or article, not to discuss everything the author writes.

Understanding the Assignment

To write a good critical review, you will have to engage in the mental processes of analyzing (taking apart) the work–deciding what its major components are and determining how these parts (i.e., paragraphs, sections, or chapters) contribute to the work as a whole.

Analyzing the work will help you focus on how and why the author makes certain points and prevent you from merely summarizing what the author says. Assuming the role of an analytical reader will also help you to determine whether or not the author fulfills the stated purpose of the book or article and enhances your understanding or knowledge of a particular topic.

Be sure to read your assignment thoroughly before you read the article or book. Your instructor may have included specific guidelines for you to follow. Keeping these guidelines in mind as you read the article or book can really help you write your paper!

Also, note where the work connects with what you’ve studied in the course. You can make the most efficient use of your reading and notetaking time if you are an active reader; that is, keep relevant questions in mind and jot down page numbers as well as your responses to ideas that appear to be significant as you read.

Please note: The length of your introduction and overview, the number of points you choose to review, and the length of your conclusion should be proportionate to the page limit stated in your assignment and should reflect the complexity of the material being reviewed as well as the expectations of your reader.

Write the introduction

Below are a few guidelines to help you write the introduction to your critical review.

Introduce your review appropriately

Begin your review with an introduction appropriate to your assignment.

If your assignment asks you to review only one book and not to use outside sources, your introduction will focus on identifying the author, the title, the main topic or issue presented in the book, and the author’s purpose in writing the book.

If your assignment asks you to review the book as it relates to issues or themes discussed in the course, or to review two or more books on the same topic, your introduction must also encompass those expectations.

Explain relationships

For example, before you can review two books on a topic, you must explain to your reader in your introduction how they are related to one another.

Within this shared context (or under this “umbrella”) you can then review comparable aspects of both books, pointing out where the authors agree and differ.

In other words, the more complicated your assignment is, the more your introduction must accomplish.

Finally, the introduction to a book review is always the place for you to establish your position as the reviewer (your thesis about the author’s thesis).

As you write, consider the following questions:

• Is the book a memoir, a treatise, a collection of facts, an extended argument, etc.? Is the article a documentary, a write-up of primary research, a position paper, etc.?
• Who is the author? What does the preface or foreword tell you about the author’s purpose, background, and credentials? What is the author’s approach to the topic (as a journalist? a historian? a researcher?)?
• What is the main topic or problem addressed? How does the work relate to a discipline, to a profession, to a particular audience, or to other works on the topic?
• What is your critical evaluation of the work (your thesis)? Why have you taken that position? What criteria are you basing your position on?

Provide an overview

In your introduction, you will also want to provide an overview. An overview supplies your reader with certain general information not appropriate for including in the introduction but necessary to understanding the body of the review.

Generally, an overview describes your book’s division into chapters, sections, or points of discussion. An overview may also include background information about the topic, about your stand, or about the criteria you will use for evaluation.

The overview and the introduction work together to provide a comprehensive beginning for (a “springboard” into) your review.

• What are the author’s basic premises? What issues are raised, or what themes emerge? What situation (i.e., racism on college campuses) provides a basis for the author’s assertions?
• How informed is my reader? What background information is relevant to the entire book and should be placed here rather than in a body paragraph?

Write the body

The body is the center of your paper, where you draw out your main arguments. Below are some guidelines to help you write it.

Organize using a logical plan

Organize the body of your review according to a logical plan. Here are two options:

• First, summarize, in a series of paragraphs, those major points from the book that you plan to discuss; incorporating each major point into a topic sentence for a paragraph is an effective organizational strategy. Second, discuss and evaluate these points in a following group of paragraphs. (There are two dangers lurking in this pattern–you may allot too many paragraphs to summary and too few to evaluation, or you may re-summarize too many points from the book in your evaluation section.)
• Alternatively, you can summarize and evaluate the major points you have chosen from the book in a point-by-point schema. That means you will discuss and evaluate point one within the same paragraph (or in several if the point is significant and warrants extended discussion) before you summarize and evaluate point two, point three, etc., moving in a logical sequence from point to point to point. Here again, it is effective to use the topic sentence of each paragraph to identify the point from the book that you plan to summarize or evaluate.

Questions to keep in mind as you write

With either organizational pattern, consider the following questions:

• What are the author’s most important points? How do these relate to one another? (Make relationships clear by using transitions: “In contrast,” an equally strong argument,” “moreover,” “a final conclusion,” etc.).
• What types of evidence or information does the author present to support his or her points? Is this evidence convincing, controversial, factual, one-sided, etc.? (Consider the use of primary historical material, case studies, narratives, recent scientific findings, statistics.)
• Where does the author do a good job of conveying factual material as well as personal perspective? Where does the author fail to do so? If solutions to a problem are offered, are they believable, misguided, or promising?
• Which parts of the work (particular arguments, descriptions, chapters, etc.) are most effective and which parts are least effective? Why?
• Where (if at all) does the author convey personal prejudice, support illogical relationships, or present evidence out of its appropriate context?

Keep your opinions distinct and cite your sources

Remember, as you discuss the author’s major points, be sure to distinguish consistently between the author’s opinions and your own.

Keep the summary portions of your discussion concise, remembering that your task as a reviewer is to re-see the author’s work, not to re-tell it.

And, importantly, if you refer to ideas from other books and articles or from lecture and course materials, always document your sources, or else you might wander into the realm of plagiarism.

Include only that material which has relevance for your review and use direct quotations sparingly. The Writing Center has other handouts to help you paraphrase text and introduce quotations.

Write the conclusion

You will want to use the conclusion to state your overall critical evaluation.

You have already discussed the major points the author makes, examined how the author supports arguments, and evaluated the quality or effectiveness of specific aspects of the book or article.

Now you must make an evaluation of the work as a whole, determining such things as whether or not the author achieves the stated or implied purpose and if the work makes a significant contribution to an existing body of knowledge.

Consider the following questions:

• Is the work appropriately subjective or objective according to the author’s purpose?
• How well does the work maintain its stated or implied focus? Does the author present extraneous material? Does the author exclude or ignore relevant information?
• How well has the author achieved the overall purpose of the book or article? What contribution does the work make to an existing body of knowledge or to a specific group of readers? Can you justify the use of this work in a particular course?
• What is the most important final comment you wish to make about the book or article? Do you have any suggestions for the direction of future research in the area? What has reading this work done for you or demonstrated to you?

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17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

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Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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How to Write a Critical Book Review

Your review should have two goals: first, to inform the reader about the content of the book, and second, to provide an evaluation that gives your judgment of the book’s quality.

Your introduction should include an overview of the book that both incorporates an encapsulated summary and a sense of your general judgment. This is the equivalent to a thesis statement.

Do NOT spend more than one-third or so of the paper summarizing the book. The summary should consist of a discussion and highlights of the major arguments, features, trends, concepts, themes, ideas, and characteristics of the book. While you may use direct quotes from the book (make sure you always give the page number), such quotes should never be the bulk of the summary. Much of your grade will depend on how well you describe and explain the material IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You might want to take the major organizing themes of the book and use them to organize your own discussion. This does NOT mean, however, that I want a chapter-by-chapter summary. Your goal is a unified essay.

So what do I want, if not just a summary? Throughout your summary, I want you to provide a critique of the book. (Hence the title: “A Critical Book Review.”) A critique consists of thoughts, responses, and reactions. It is not necessarily negative. Nor do you need to know as much about the subject as the author (because you hardly ever will). The skills you need are an ability to follow an argument and test a hypothesis. Regardless of how negative or positive your critique is, you need to be able to justify and support your position.

Here are a number of questions that you can address as part of your critique. You need not answer them all, but questions one and two are essential to any book review, so those must be included. And these are ABSOLUTELY NOT to be answered one after another ( seriatim ). Don’t have one paragraph that answers one, and then the next paragraph that answers the next, etc. The answers should be part of a carefully constructed essay, complete with topic sentences and transitions.

• What is your overall opinion of the book? On what basis has this opinion been formulated? That is, tell the reader what you think and how you arrived at this judgment. What did you expect to learn when you picked up the book? To what extent – and how effectively – were your expectations met? Did you nod in agreement (or off to sleep)? Did you wish you could talk back to the author? Amplify upon and explain your reactions.
• Identify the author’s thesis and explain it in your own words. How clearly and in what context is it stated and, subsequently, developed? To what extent and how effectively (i.e., with what kind of evidence) is this thesis proven? Use examples to amplify your responses. If arguments or perspectives were missing, why do you think this might be?
• What are the author’s aims? How well have they been achieved, especially with regard to the way the book is organized? Are these aims supported or justified? (You might look back at the introduction to the book for help). How closely does the organization follow the author’s aims?
• How are the author’s main points presented, explained, and supported? What assumptions lie behind these points? What would be the most effective way for you to compress and/or reorder the author’s scheme of presentation and argument?
• How effectively does the author draw claims from the material being presented? Are connections between the claims and evidence made clearly and logically? Here you should definitely use examples to support your evaluation.
• What conclusions does the author reach and how clearly are they stated? Do these conclusions follow from the thesis and aims and from the ways in which they were developed? In other words, how effectively does the book come together?
• Identify the assumptions made by the author in both the approach to and the writing of the book. For example, what prior knowledge does the author expect readers to possess? How effectively are those assumptions worked into the overall presentation? What assumptions do you think should not have been made? Why?
• Are you able to detect any underlying philosophy of history held by the author (e.g., progress, decline, cyclical, linear, and random)? If so, how does this philosophy affect the presentation of the argument?
• How does the author see history as being motivated: primarily by the forces of individuals, economics, politics, social factors, nationalism, class, race, gender, something else? What kind of impact does this view of historical motivation have upon the way in which the author develops the book?
• Does the author’s presentation seem fair and accurate? Is the interpretation biased? Can you detect any distortion, exaggeration, or diminishing of material? If so, for what purpose might this have been done, and what effect does hit have on the overall presentation?

These questions are derived from Robert Blackey, “Words to the Whys: Crafting Critical Book Reviews,” The History Teacher, 27.2 (Feb. 1994): 159-66.

– Serena Zabin, Feb. 2003

How to Write a Critique Paper: Format, Tips, & Critique Essay Examples

A critique paper is an academic writing genre that summarizes and gives a critical evaluation of a concept or work. Or, to put it simply, it is no more than a summary and a critical analysis of a specific issue. This type of writing aims to evaluate the impact of the given work or concept in its field.

Want to learn more? Continue reading this article written by Custom-writing experts! It contains:

• best tips on how to critique an article or a literary work,
• a critique paper example with introduction, body, and conclusion.

💁 What Is a Critique Paper?

• 👣 Critical Writing Steps

👀 Critical Essay Types

📝 critique paper format, 📑 critique paper outline, 🔗 references.

A critique is a particular academic writing genre that requires you to carefully study, summarize, and critically analyze a study or a concept. In other words, it is nothing more than a critical analysis. That is all you are doing when writing a critical essay: trying to understand the work and present an evaluation. Critical essays can be either positive or negative, as the work deserves.

👣 How to Write a Critique Essay: Main Steps

Starting critique essays is the most challenging part. You are supposed to substantiate your opinion with quotes and paraphrases, avoiding retelling the entire text. A critical analysis aims to find out whether an article or another piece of writing is compelling. First, you need to formulate the author’s thesis: what was the literary work supposed to convey? Then, explore the text on how this main idea was elaborated. Finally, draft your critique according to the structure given below.

Step 1: Critical Reading

1.1. Attentively read the literary work. While reading, make notes and underline the essentials.

• Try to come into the author’s world and think why they wrote such a piece.
• Point out which literary devices are successful. Some research in literary theory may be required.
• Find out what you dislike about the text, i.e., controversies, gaps, inconsistency, or incompleteness.

1.2. Find or formulate the author’s thesis. 

• What is the principal argument? In an article, it can be found in the first paragraph.
• In a literary work, formulate one of the principal themes, as the thesis is not explicit.
• If you write a critique of painting, find out what feelings, emotions, or ideas, the artist attempted to project.

1.3. Make a summary or synopsis of the analyzed text. 

• One paragraph will suffice. You can use it in your critique essay, if necessary.
• The point is to explore the gist.

Step 2: Analyzing the Text

After the reading phase, ask yourself the following questions :

• What was your emotional response to the text? Which techniques, images, or ideas made you feel so?
• Find out the author’s background. Which experiences made them raise such a thesis? What other significant works have they written that demonstrate the general direction of thought of this person?
• Are the concepts used correctly in the text? Are the references reliable, and do they sufficiently substantiate the author’s opinion?

Step 3: Drafting the Essay

Finally, it is time to draft your essay. First of all, you’ll need to write a brief overview of the text you’re analyzing. Then, formulate a thesis statement – one sentence that will contain your opinion of the work under scrutiny. After that, make a one-paragraph summary of the text.

You can use this simple template for the draft version of your analysis. Another thing that can help you at this step is a summary creator to make the creative process more efficient.

Critique Paper Template

• Start with an introductory phrase about the domain of the work in question.
• Tell which work you are going to analyze, its author, and year of publication.
• Specify the principal argument of the work under study.
• In the third sentence, clearly state your thesis.
• Here you can insert the summary you wrote before.
• This is the only place where you can use it. No summary can be written in the main body!
• Use one paragraph for every separate analyzed aspect of the text (style, organization, fairness/bias, etc.).
• Each paragraph should confirm your thesis (e.g., whether the text is effective or ineffective).
• Each paragraph shall start with a topic sentence, followed by evidence, and concluded with a statement referring to the thesis.
• Provide a final judgment on the effectiveness of the piece of writing.
• Summarize your main points and restate the thesis, indicating that everything you said above confirms it.

You can evaluate the chosen work or concept in several ways. Pick the one you feel more comfortable with from the following:

• Descriptive critical essays examine texts or other works. Their primary focus is usually on certain features of a work, and it is common to compare and contrast the subject of your analysis to a classic example of the genre to which it belongs.
• Evaluative critical essays provide an estimate of the value of the work. Was it as good as you expected based on the recommendations, or do you feel your time would have been better spent on something else?
• Interpretive essays provide your readers with answers that relate to the meaning of the work in question. To do this, you must select a method of determining the meaning, read/watch/observe your analysis subject using this method, and put forth an argument.

There are also different types of critiques. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in the article “ Writing critiques ,” discusses them as well as the appropriate critique language.

Critique Paper Topics

• Critique of the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr .
• Interpret the symbolism of Edgar Alan Poe’s The Black Cat .
• Examine the topicality of the article Impact of Racial/Ethnic Differences on Child Mental Health Care .
• Critical essay on Alice Walker’s short story Everyday Use .
• Discuss the value of the essay The Hanging by George Orwell.
• A critique on the article Stocks Versus Bonds: Explaining the Equity Risk Premium .
• Explore the themes Tennessee Williams reveals in The Glass Menagerie.
• Analyze the relevance of the article Leadership Characteristics and Digital Transformation .
• Critical evaluation of Jonathan Harvey’s play Beautiful Thing .
• Analyze and critique Derek Raymond’s story He Died with His Eyes Open .
• Discuss the techniques author uses to present the problem of choice in The Plague .
• Examine and evaluate the research article Using Evidence-Based Practice to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia .
• Explore the scientific value of the article Our Future: A Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing .
• Describe the ideas E. Hemingway put into his A Clean, Well-Lighted Place .
• Analyze the literary qualities of Always Running La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L. A .
• Critical writing on The Incarnation of Power by Wright Mills.
• Explain the strengths and shortcomings of Tim Kreider’s article The Busy Trap .
• Critical response to Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway .
• Examine the main idea of Richard Godbeer’s book Escaping Salem .
• The strong and weak points of the article The Confusion of Tongues by William G. Bellshaw .
• Critical review of Gulliver’s Travels .
• Analyze the stylistic devices Anthony Lewis uses in Gideon’s Trumpet.
• Examine the techniques Elie Wiesel uses to show relationship transformation in the book Night .
• Critique of the play Fences by August Wilson.
• The role of exposition in Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart.
• The main themes John Maxwell discusses in his book Disgrace .
• Critical evaluation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 .
• The ideas and concept of the book The Vegetarian Imperative .
• Different points of view on one historical figure in the book Two Lives of Charlemagne .

Since the APA critique paper format is one of the most common, let’s discuss it in more detail. Check out the information below to learn more:

The APA Manual recommends using the following fonts:

• 11-point Calibri,
• 11-point Arial,
• 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode,
• 12-point Times New Roman,
• 11-point Georgia,
• 10-point Computer Modern.

Add 1-inch margins on all sides.

📌 Page numbers

Page numbers should appear at the top right-hand corner, starting with the title page.

📌 Line spacing

The entire document, including the title page and reference list, should be double-spaced.

📌 Title page

The title page should include the following information:

• page number 1 in the top right-hand corner of the page header,
• paper title,
• the student’s name,
• the name of the department and the college or university,
• course number and name,
• the instructor’s name,
• due date (the date format used in your country).

📌 Critique paper title

The title of your critique paper should be no more than 12 words. In addition, it should be centered and typed in bold using title case.

📌 In-text citations

For the in-text citation, provide the author’s last name and publication year in brackets. If you are using direct citation, add the page number after the year.

📌 References

The last page of your paper should include a list of all sources cited in your essay. Here’s a general format of book and journal article citations you should use:

Book: Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year). Book title: Subtitle . Publisher.

Journal article: Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Title, volume (issue number), start page–end page.

The main parts of good critical response essays are:

• Introduction. The introduction is the most essential part of the critical response. It should be concise and include the author and title of the work being analyzed, its main idea, and a strong thesis statement.
• Summary. This should be brief and to the point. Only the author’s/creator’s main ideas and arguments should be included.
• Analysis/interpretation. Discuss what the author’s/creator’s primary goal was and determine whether this goal was reached successfully. Use the evidence you have gathered to argue whether or not the author/creator achieved was adequately convincing (remember there should be no personal bias in this discussion).
• Evaluation/response. At this point, your readers are ready to learn your objective response to the work. It should be professional yet entertaining to read. Do not hesitate to use strong language. You can say that the work you analyzed was weak and poorly-structured if that is the case, but keep in mind that you have to have evidence to back up your claim.
• Conclusion. The last paragraph of your work should restate the thesis statement, summarize the key points, and create a sense of closure for the readers.

Critique Paper Introduction

The introduction is setting the stage for your analysis. Here are some tips to follow when working on it:

• Provide the reader with a brief synopsis of the main points of the work you are critiquing .
• State your general opinion of the work , using it as your thesis statement. The ideal situation is that you identify and use a controversial thesis.
• Remember that you will uncover a lot of necessary information about the work you are critiquing. You mustn’t make use of all of it, providing the reader with information that is unnecessary in your critique. If you are writing about Shakespeare, you don’t have to waste your or your reader’s time going through all of his works.

Critique Paper Body

The body of the critique contains the supporting paragraphs. This is where you will provide the facts that prove your main idea and support your thesis. Follow the tips below when writing the body of your critique.

• Every paragraph must focus on a precise concept from the paper under your scrutiny , and your job is to include arguments to support or disprove that concept. Concrete evidence is required.
• A critical essay is written in the third-person and ensures the reader is presented with an objective analysis.
• Discuss whether the author was able to achieve their goals and adequately get their point across.
• It is important not to confuse facts and opinions . An opinion is a personal thought and requires confirmation, whereas a fact is supported by reliable data and requires no further proof. Do not back up one idea with another one.
• Remember that your purpose is to provide the reader with an understanding of a particular piece of literature or other work from your perspective. Be as specific as possible.

Critique Paper Conclusion

Finally, you will need to write a conclusion for your critique. The conclusion reasserts your overall general opinion of the ideas presented in the text and ensures there is no doubt in the reader’s mind about what you believe and why. Follow these tips when writing your conclusion:

• Summarize the analysis you provided in the body of the critique.
• Summarize the primary reasons why you made your analysis .
• Where appropriate, provide recommendations on how the work you critiqued can be improved.

For more details on how to write a critique, check out the great critique analysis template provided by Thompson Rivers University.

If you want more information on essay writing in general, look at the Secrets of Essay Writing .

Example of Critique Paper with Introduction, Body, and Conclusion

Check out this critical response example to “The Last Inch” by James Aldridge to show how everything works in practice:

Introduction 

In his story “The Last Inch,” James Aldridge addresses the issue of the relationship between parents and children. The author captured the young boy’s coming into maturity coinciding with a challenging trial. He also demonstrated how the twelve-year-old boy obtained his father’s character traits. Aldridge’s prose is both brutal and poetic, expressing his characters’ genuine emotions and the sad truths of their situations.

Body: Summary 

The story is about Ben Ensley, an unemployed professional pilot, who decides to capture underwater shots for money. He travels to Shark Bay with his son, Davy. Ben is severely injured after being attacked by a shark while photographing. His last hope of survival is to fly back to the little African hamlet from where they took off.

Body: Analysis 

The story effectively uses the themes of survival and fatherhood and has an intriguing and captivating plot. In addition, Ben’s metamorphosis from a failing pilot to a determined survivor is effectively presented. His bond with his son, Davy, adds depth and emotional importance to the story. At the same time, the background information about Ben’s past and his life before the shark attack could be more effectively integrated into the main story rather than being presented as separate blocks of text.

Body: Evaluation 

I find “The Last Inch” by James Aldridge a very engaging and emotional story since it highlights the idea of a father’s unconditional love and determination in the face of adversity. I was also impressed by the vivid descriptions and strong character development of the father and son.

Conclusion 

“The Last Inch” by James Aldridge is an engaging and emotional narrative that will appeal to readers of all ages. It is a story of strength, dedication, and the unbreakable link between father and son. Though some backstory could be integrated more smoothly, “The Last Inch” impresses with its emotional punch. It leaves the readers touched by the raw power of fatherly love and human will.

📚 Critique Essay Examples

With all of the information and tips provided above, your way will become clearer when you have a solid example of a critique essay.

Below is a critical response to The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

When speaking of feminist literature that is prominent and manages to touch on incredibly controversial issues, The Yellow Wallpaper is the first book that comes to mind. Written from a first-person perspective, magnifying the effect of the narrative, the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces the reader to the problem of the physical and mental health of the women of the 19th century. However, the message that is intended to concern feminist ideas is rather subtle. Written in the form of several diary entries, the novel offers a mysterious plot, and at the same time, shockingly realistic details.

What really stands out about the novel is the fact that the reader is never really sure how much of the story takes place in reality and how much of it happens in the psychotic mind of the protagonist. In addition, the novel contains a plethora of description that contributes to the strain and enhances the correlation between the atmosphere and the protagonist’s fears: “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (Gilman).

Despite Gilman’s obvious intent to make the novel a feminist story with a dash of thriller thrown in, the result is instead a thriller with a dash of feminism, as Allen (2009) explains. However, there is no doubt that the novel is a renowned classic. Offering a perfect portrayal of the 19th-century stereotypes, it is a treasure that is certainly worth the read.

If you need another critique essay example, take a look at our sample on “ The Importance of Being Earnest ” by Oscar Wilde.

And here are some more critique paper examples for you check out:

• A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Critique Paper
• Critique on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• “When the Five Rights Go Wrong” Article Critique
• Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey — Comparison & Critique   
• Benefits and Disadvantages of Prone Positioning in Severe Acute Respiratory Distress: Article Critique
• Reducing Stress in Student Nurses: Article Critique
• Management of Change and Professional Safety – Article Critique
• “Views of Young People Towards Physical Activity”: Article Critique

Seeing an example of a critique is so helpful. You can find many other examples of a critique paper at the University of Minnesota and John Hopkins University. Plus, you can check out this video for a great explanation of how to write a critique.

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How to Write a Critique in Five Paragraphs

Last Updated: January 20, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diane Stubbs . Diane Stubbs is a Secondary English Teacher with over 22 years of experience teaching all high school grade levels and AP courses. She specializes in secondary education, classroom management, and educational technology. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Education from Wesley College. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 976,463 times.

A critique is usually written in response to a creative work, such as a novel, a film, poetry, or a painting. However, critiques are also sometimes assigned for research articles and media items, such as news articles or features. A critique is slightly different than a traditional 5-paragraph theme, as it is usually focused on the overall effectiveness and usefulness of the work it is critiquing, rather than making a strictly analytical argument about it. Organizing your critique into 5 paragraphs can help you structure your thoughts.

Laying the Groundwork

• Does the creator clearly state her/his main point or goal? If not, why do you think that is?
• Who do you think is the creator’s intended audience? This can be crucial to determining the success of a work; for example, a movie intended for young children might work well for its intended audience but not for adult viewers.
• What reactions do you have when reading or viewing this work? Does it provoke emotional responses? Do you feel confused?
• What questions does the work make you think of? Does it suggest other avenues of exploration or observation to you?

• For example, if you're critiquing a research article about a new treatment for the flu, a little research about other flu treatments currently available could be helpful to you when situating the work in context.
• As another example, if you're writing about a movie, you might want to briefly discuss the director's other films, or other important movies in this particular genre (indie, action, drama, etc.).
• Your school or university library is usually a good place to start when conducting research, as their databases provide verified, expert sources. Google Scholar can also be a good source for research.

Writing the Introductory Paragraph

• For a work of fiction or a published work of journalism or research, this information is usually available in the publication itself, such as on the copyright page for a novel.
• For a film, you may wish to refer to a source such as IMDb to get the information you need. If you're critiquing a famous artwork, an encyclopedia of art would be a good place to find information on the creator, the title, and important dates (date of creation, date of exhibition, etc.).

• For example, if you’re assessing a research article in the sciences, a quick overview of its place in the academic discussion could be useful (e.g., “Professor X’s work on fruit flies is part of a long research tradition on Blah Blah Blah.”)
• If you are evaluating a painting, giving some brief information on where it was first displayed, for whom it was painted, etc., would be useful.
• If you are assessing a novel, it could be good to talk about what genre or literary tradition the novel is written within (e.g., fantasy, High Modernism, romance). You may also want to include details about the author’s biography that seem particularly relevant to your critique.
• For a media item, such as a news article, consider the social and/or political context of the media outlet the item came from (e.g., Fox News, BBC, etc.) and of the issue it is dealing with (e.g., immigration, education, entertainment).

• The authors of research articles will often state very clearly in the abstract and in the introduction to their work what they are investigating, often with sentences that say something like this: "In this article we provide a new framework for analyzing X and argue that it is superior to previous methods because of reason A and reason B."
• For creative works, you may not have an explicit statement from the author or creator about their purpose, but you can often infer one from the context the work occupies. For example, if you were examining the movie The Shining, you might argue that the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's goal is to call attention to the poor treatment of Native Americans because of the strong Native American themes present in the movie. You could then present the reasons why you think that in the rest of the essay.

• For example, if you were writing about The Shining, you could summarize the main points this way: "Stanley Kubrick uses strong symbolism, such as the placement of the movie's hotel on an Indian burial ground, the naming of the hotel "Overlook," and the constant presence of Native American artwork and representation, to call viewers' attention to America's treatment of Native Americans in history."

• For a research article, you will probably want to focus your thesis on whether the research and discussion supported the authors' claims. You may also wish to critique the research methodology, if there are obvious flaws present.
• For creative works, consider what you believe the author or creator's goal was in making the work, and then present your assessment of whether or not they achieved that goal.

Writing the 3 Body Paragraphs

• If you have three clear points about your work, you can organize each paragraph by point. For example, if you are analyzing a painting, you might critique the painter’s use of color, light, and composition, devoting a paragraph to each topic.
• If you have more than three points about your work, you can organize each paragraph thematically. For example, if you are critiquing a movie and want to talk about its treatment of women, its screenwriting, its pacing, its use of color and framing, and its acting, you might think about the broader categories that these points fall into, such as “production” (pacing, color and framing, screenwriting), “social commentary” (treatment of women), and “performance” (acting).
• Alternatively, you could organize your critique by “strengths” and “weaknesses.” The aim of a critique is not merely to criticize, but to point out what the creator or author has done well and what s/he has not.

• For example, if you are critiquing a song, you could consider how the beat or tone of the music supports or detracts from the lyrics.
• For a research article or a media item, you may want to consider questions such as how the data was gathered in an experiment, or what method a journalist used to discover information.

• Does the author use primary sources (e.g., historical documents, interviews, etc.)? Secondary sources? Quantitative data? Qualitative data? Are these sources appropriate for the argument?
• Has evidence been presented fairly, without distortion or selectivity?
• Does the argument proceed logically from the evidence used?

• If the work is a creative work, consider whether it presents its ideas in an original or interesting way. You can also consider whether it engages with key concepts or ideas in popular culture or society.
• If the work is a research article, you can consider whether the work enhances your understanding of a particular theory or idea in its discipline. Research articles often include a section on “further research” where they discuss the contributions their research has made and what future contributions they hope to make.

Writing the Conclusion Paragraph and References

Sample Critiques

Community Q&A

• Before you begin writing, take notes while you are watching or reading the subject of your critique. Keep to mind certain aspects such as how it made you feel. What was your first impression? With deeper examination, what is your overall opinion? How did you come to this opinion? Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• While the 5-paragraph form can work very well to help you organize your ideas, some instructors do not allow this type of essay. Be sure that you understand the assignment. If you’re not sure whether a 5-paragraph format is acceptable to your teacher, ask! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Avoid using first and second person pronouns such as, “you”, “your”, “I”, “my”, or “mine.” State your opinion objectively for a more credible approach. Thanks Helpful 39 Not Helpful 14

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-critique
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-article-critique
• ↑ https://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/writing-well/critique.html
• ↑ http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/book-review
• ↑ https://www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc/handouts/the-writing-process-1/invention/Writing-a-Critique
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/writing-critiques/

About This Article

To write a 5-paragraph critique, provide the basic information about the work you're critiquing in the first paragraph, including the author, when it was published, and what its key themes are. Then, conclude this paragraph with a statement of your opinion of the work. Next, identify 3 central positive or negative issues in the work and write a paragraph about each one. For example, you could focus on the color, light, and composition of a painting. In the final paragraph, state your overall assessment of the work, and give reasons to back it up. For tips on how to take notes on the piece your critiquing, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write a Book Critique Like a Professional

Last updated: November 2019

First and foremost, let’s define critique:

Do not confuse book critique and book reviews! When assigned to write a critique essay, you need to analyze a book (or an article) rather than summarize and retell its contents.

In other words, it’s not about information but analysis and persuasion . When writing a critique paper, you enhance brain functions and critical thinking. And teachers assign such tasks to encourage students to  read books  and help them shape an opinion on literary works.

Ready to learn how to write a book critique like a boss?

Table of Contents:

• What is a critique?
• Types of critique

What to do before writing

How to start a critique, a body of your critique paper.

• How to write a critique conclusion
• How to critique an article
• The format of your critique paper
• Critique examples
• Your checklist for writing a critique

What is a Critique?

When assigned to write a critique, don’t hurry up to fly to a pen or a keyboard. First, make sure you understand the critique meaning and the specification of this task.

Critique is a detailed analysis and assessment of something: a book, an article, a political or philosophical theory, etc.

To define critique, remember that it’s not the same with a review. And here’s the difference:

• A book review  = its summary aimed at telling readers about the plot.
• A book critique  = its analysis aimed at critical responding and evaluating its quality.

When writing a critique paper, you need to give an assessment of literary works. It’s a systematic analysis discussing a book’s validity and evaluating its worth. Also known as a critical response , this type of writing argues whether a book is worth reading and why. In other words, your paper should discuss:

• a book’s thesis and major argument
• a book’s style
• a reviewer’s (your) comments and assumptions on the book

Critique synonyms are analysis , evaluation , discourse , assessment , commentary , opinion , or study .

Types of Critique

No matter what written work you need to critique, you’ll conduct its systematic analysis, describe its strengths and weaknesses, and decide on a strategy to use for critiquing.

The most common types of critique you’ll meet in college:

• A book critique.  Here you’ll need to describe its contents, summarize the book’s strong and weak points, and provide a recommendation for the audience: to read or not to read this book.
• An article summary (critique).  Here you’ll review an article, discuss its key concepts, and analyze if it’s of value for the field.

For a paper to sound professional, you need to choose and adhere to a language strategy for stating your points.

If you offer praise or criticism, use  modal words and expressions , consider qualifying adjectives and adverbs, and remember about tentative verbs.

Examples ( source ):

• The approach of an online orientation program could be useful for students as it would allow them to have important information at their fingertips, regardless of if they are on campus or not.
• Significant results were noted in the results of this study, but there are limitations to these findings.
• This article focused on an important topic within higher education, as administrators need to find solutions to improve retention.

If you offer suggestions on what could be done for a book or an article to look better, consider conditional verb forms such as “would… if…” and “would have been… if.”

Example ( source ):

• Bolland’s dialectical analysis of Creole society  would be  put to test  if  the antagonisms he identifies were examined in the context of a Hispanic environment.

How to Write a Book Critique

As well as any other type of academic paper, a critique has its structure. It should include:

• An introduction with a clear  thesis statement .
• A body with your synopsis and arguments.
• A conclusion with your article summary and thesis re statement.

So, let’s get right to it. Here’s how to write a critique essay that’s worth A+.

No matter if it was a teacher who assigned a particular book for you to analyze or you had a freedom of choice here, you’ll need to do research and craft a detailed essay outline before writing.

Say you’ve got a book to assess in your essay. What’s next?

• Read the book, taking notes of its main points.
• While reading, write a brief summary for each section.
• Determine the author’s core statement.
• Read some reviews of the book to get a better idea of its content and message.
• Make notes from those reviews. (You can use them for arguments afterward.)
• State your thesis .
• Make sure that you don’t plagiarize it from other reviewers.
• Come up with 3-5 arguments for your thesis.
• Search for relevant references to support your thesis and  arguments .
• Find evidence from the book and write a detailed outline of your critique.

That’s a suggested outline for your work:

Once ready, it’s time to start writing the first draft. Be sure your outline relates to the thesis, and you’ve organized each section coherently.

This one is the easiest part of critique writing because it reminds a summary of a book. Your introduction includes basic information: the book’s title, author, topic, and core ideas. Also,  hook a reader  by stating your essay’s purpose and your reaction to the book (it will be your thesis statement).

With this in mind, the introduction might be as follows:

• Sentence 1:  A book’s author + its title + the main idea. Be objective, and use so-called evaluative verbs to power your writing.
• Sentence 2:  A book’s summary + its purpose ( a core argument ). Stay unbiased and avoid details.
• Sentence 3:  A brief statement of your evaluation. It can be positive-positive (when you want to praise a book) or positive-negative (when you want to criticize it and offer suggestions on what might be done better there).

Depending on a literary work you criticize, the essay introduction may consist of 1-2 sentences or 1-3 paragraphs.

No strict rules exist for how to critique and how many paragraphs to write in your paper’s body. It depends on your task’s requirements and a book you evaluate. With a standard 5-paragraph essay structure, let’s say a body of your critique paper will consist of three paragraphs.

Points to consider while writing:

• Organization.  Depending on the approach, you can arrange paragraphs by points, strengths vs. weaknesses, or topics. Your goal isn’t to just negatively criticize a book but also point out what the author did well.
• Writing techniques and style.  Evaluating a book, don’t forget to mention these points. Discuss how effectively (or not) the author used stylistic devices to prove their ideas.
• Evidence.  Describe what types of arguments the author used. Were they logical and appropriate? Don’t forget to explain why the evidence supports your point.
• Usefulness.  Discuss what the book adds to understanding its topic. Is it useful? Does it present ideas in original and engaging ways? How does it address the core aspects of society?
• Examples.  Support every argument of your critique with examples. You can’t just write that the book was boring; provide a quote as evidence and explain why it does not appeal to you.

And that’s what David Taylor, senior  advisor from UMUC , determines as evaluative criteria for how to critique:

How to write a conclusion

The final part of your paper, this is a paragraph where you summarize and qualify judgments, as well as offer your recommendations on a book.

Writing your  essay conclusion , answer the questions:

• Do you agree with the author? Why, or why not?
• What is the overall opinion on this book?

Be specific . Remind readers of the importance of a literary work you criticized, focus on its strengths and weaknesses, and state what you consider its ultimate success.

The same approach works for those asking how to write analytical book review an article.

How to Critique an Article

An article review of a book essay is a paper when you summarize and evaluate a piece of research, specifying its strengths and weaknesses.

Unlike with a review, the main focus here is on your analysis , not a  narrative  of what the article is about.

As well as a book critique, an article one consists of:

• An introduction.  Here you write about the article’s title, author, and the main point, also stating your thesis that will preview your analysis.
• An article summary .  In short, introduce the arguments and the findings of the article.
• A critique itself.  Discuss the article’s pros and cons, and state your opinion about its clarity and accuracy. Use the data and examples from the article to support your arguments.
• A conclusion.  Summarize the article as well as key points from your analysis and comment about why such research matters or what else needs to be researched in the field.

Article summary example:

The Format of Your Paper

This essay type has clear style guidelines for students to adhere while writing, which are:

• Typed, double-spaced, on one side of a paper
• One-inch margins on all sides
• All pages numbered (except the first one)
• Turabian  or  Chicago  citation style
• No first-person (except referring to your opinion)
• Active voice
• A new paragraph each time you change the point

Content and grammar are of equal importance here. If a reader doesn’t understand your sentence structure, they won’t be able to follow your argument. That’s why revise and proofread your essay but don’t rely much on spell-checkers, as they often miss even the  most obvious spelling mistakes .

Instead, ask someone to proofread your work and revise it accordingly. Or,  chat with our essay writers for help .

Critique Examples

That’s all well and fine, but are there any examples of how to write a critical book review ?

 Here go samples for your consideration.

  ( Note!  Samples are aimed for assistance purposes only: don’t plagiarize them and don’t copy their parts to use in own papers.)

And here go additional resources for you to check when you need the information on how to write:

• How to Write the Academic Assignment , video
• Critical Analysis , with a sample outline
• How to Write a Book Review
• The Article Analysis , with a process of writing and evaluating your critique
• How to Write a Book Analysis

Your Checklist for Writing a Critique

Answer these questions to make sure you have enough data for writing a book evaluation:

To smooth things down, just save this checklist to make sure you haven’t missed anything – and refer to it every time you need a guide for writing a book critical analysis.

Ready to start writing? Essay maker is an amazing tool to help you write an essay quickly and efficiently. With it, you can create an incredible essay in no time!

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How to Write a Good Book Critique

Academic writing

Books have always been considered a crucial source of information. They entertain, inspire, and let us explore numerous topics. Nevertheless, some books can harm instead of help. That’s why it is important to be able to distinguish a good book from a bad one. For this reason, many students at colleges and universities write book critique assignments to check their ability to think critically and express their opinion on a particular piece of literature.

The assignment to critique a book may seem a quickly achievable goal; however, many students face challenges with this paper type. To ease your writing process, check out our guide on writing a book critique.

What Is a Book Critique?

A book critique is a critical analysis of a book or its part. Your task while writing it is to define the main characteristics of the work, pointing out its weak and strong sides. Also, a literary critique means touching upon the purpose of the book where you have to explain why the author decided to create it.

When you get an assignment to write a book critique, remember it differs from writing a review of a book. While a review means summarizing the book plot, a book critique has other objectives:

• You need to present insights you got after reading a book. Your answer should be based on critical thinking and be extensive, involving objective evaluation of the paper.
• You need to disclose a hidden meaning behind a visible context or highlight the triviality of the story.
• Also, you have to mention stylistic features, like metaphors, epithets, and so on, or their absence, and explain the reason of using them. Maybe the author, on purpose, used alliteration in describing the noise of the sea to convey certain feelings to the reader.

Creating a book critique is a demanding task that requires writing and analytical skills. The instructions below will help you out with this assignment.

How to Write a Critique of a Book

A book criticism involves creating a thesis for a book review, providing a book analysis, and focusing on how the author’s life experience might influence the piece of work. It should also include a well-structured evaluation part and conclusion. Besides, you have to express your opinion about the paper, backing up your claims with appropriate examples. Follow these simple steps to write a professional critique.

1. Choose and Read the Book

To start a book review, choose the book first. As you read the text, highlight the main events and their chronology to make a critique outline. Also, don't forget to make notes about the main and some secondary characters.

Be attentive and follow the text carefully to avoid any misinterpretation if you want to write a book critique that will show your true proficiency in the topic.

2. Make a Research on Author's Background

To write a book critique, you will also need to analyze the author’s background. It can help understand the purpose of the book. For example, to share their experiences and vision of life, writers tend to describe autobiographical moments in their books. In "Martin Eden" by Jack London, there are many similarities between the author and the main hero in the novel: both came from the lower class of society but managed to achieve outstanding success. So, we may say that Jack London was inspired by his own life while writing this novel.

3. Analyze and Evaluate the Book

Analysis and evaluation is the foremost part of writing a book critique. It involves studying all the necessary aspects of the text, for instance, the characters, choice of geographical names, various stylistic devices, plot writing technics, etc., and explaining their importance in the text.

Remember to write down any questions that arise during the reading. There may be plot inconsistencies, or some chapters seem redundant and make no sense for the whole story. Firstly, it will show that you read the book carefully, not just looked through its summary on the Internet. Secondly, these questions will make it easier for you to write a quality analysis.

After you finish the analysis, ask yourself if you liked the book, if you would recommend it, or if you would read it once again.

Also, you can read other people's reviews or additional information about the book if you doubt whether you completely understood it or worry if you missed some vital details. Finding a review from another author or literary critic to support your thesis can also be incredibly useful.

4. Formulate Your Thesis Statement

To critique a story also means formulating a clear thesis statement. You need to explain whether this is a first-class or poor-quality paper and what features exactly prove your opinion. You should always support your thesis statement by giving examples from the text.

5. Draft a Critique Outline

To write a book critique, you need to draw a plan first. Make your critique paper outline as broad as you can. It will prevent you from missing important points.

6. Write Your Critique of a Book

Now you are ready to write a book critique. Follow the plan, remember to use rich vocabulary, and don't forget to correct all grammar or spelling mistakes if you want to make your paper exclusive and professional. The good idea is to reread the paper after some rest or ask your friends or relatives to read it; they can notice errors that you didn’t.

Video Guide on How to Write a Book Critique

Writing a book analysis may be a time-consuming and strenuous task. That’s why we offer you to watch this short video guide on critique writing, which can help you with the assignment.

Book Critique Format

As for the book critique format, the commonly used font is Times New Roman, with the text double-spaced. 

Before writing any paper, you need to have a clear vision of its structure. To write a critique, create a book critique outline first. When you see the main points to mention and know their order, it will be easier for you to compose the text. In general, a critique paper outline contains an introduction, body, summary, evaluation, and conclusion. Also, you may need to include a title page and a list of resources. Let’s discuss each part briefly:

Book Critique Introduction

A literary criticism paper should start by introducing a book in an essay. Here, you should mention the most important points about the book, for example, its author and some prominent facts about their life, the title, the year it was published, its length, and structural elements like the presence of a prologue or epilogue, etc. Also, you may mention your thesis in the last sentence of the intro.

Body of a Book Critique

In this part, you need to describe the book's main idea and decide whether the author managed to cover it wholly. You can, for example, cite a phrase from the book which may reflect its thesis. Besides, you have to define the target audience of the literature piece. The author can mention it in the prologue, for instance. The characters' age or the issues described also can help you in determining the potential group of readers.

Book Critique Summary

The summary should highlight the main issues covered in the book. You have to describe the overall impression the work had on you and write whether you agree or disagree with the author’s main statements. Make sure to briefly focus on all the vital details: plot, characters, location, etc. It is crucial because not everyone who reads your summary is familiar with the book. Of course, a book summary doesn’t mean describing precisely every chapter.

The evaluative criticism part is a key stage of your book critique as it shows your analytical skills. Here you should:

• describe the book thesis and define whether the author managed to prove it completely.
• analyze characters. They can be too stereotypical, or the author probably failed to mention enough information about the heroes’ backgrounds. It can make it hard to understand them and the whole book itself.
• study the author's writing skills, for example, style and vocabulary. The language can be too simple or too sophisticated, as if the writer was trying to show off.
• explore the uniqueness and flawlessness of the plot. You may notice that another author has the same story, but names and places differ. Also, you may see some details inconsistencies; for example, the cat of the main hero was ginger in the first chapter, but in the second one, it became black.
• discuss the novel’s usefulness and importance. A good book not only tells a compelling story but also enriches our mind with life philosophy or historical and cultural knowledge. You have to define whether the author coped with writing a meaningful work.

Summing up all the pros and cons you highlighted, you have to say whether this work is worth spending time on. In the final part of your work, you need to explain why you support the authors’ main statements or not. Besides, you can give recommendations to potential readers.

Book Critique Examples

Whether you need to write a book critique for a university/college or want to become a book reviewer yourself, you might be wondering how to create a decent paper. While writing a book critique, a good example is necessary. You may surely find book critique templates online; however, they will only show you what structural parts to include in your critique, but it's not always clear what you need to write in each point. A good book critique sample would be more practical in your work since it can become a source of inspiration and may help you express your opinion more efficiently.

To check some book critique examples, follow this link .

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Book Critiques

If you have the assignment to submit a book critique but you do not have the faintest idea of how to do it, feel free to look through a book critique example provided by our custom writing experts. Before starting to work on such kind of paper, you need to be well aware of what a critique is and how to structure it. First of all, try to understand that a critique is not a summary of a literary work, where you have to summarize the ideas and narrate them. When writing a critique, you should not provide a compilation of citations, or the main ideas expressed in the literature work.

The essence of critique writing is to provide a comprehensive analysis and evaluation. You need to demonstrate your analytical and critical thinking skills while working on a critique. On the whole, a good critique is not easy to write. That is why you frequently need to consult a book critique example to understand how it is structured and what ideas need to be included. To be successful and effective in book critique writing, it is essential to be aware of specific criteria.

Book Critique Format

A book critique should follow a specific structure: it should start with an introduction, further develop its main idea in the body paragraph, and finish with a conclusion. Read on to take a detailed look at each of these sections:

Introduction

As can be inferred from the name of the section, here you need to introduce your topic and intention of writing. You need to clearly explain why you have chosen a specific topic or why the topic assigned to you is worth attention or is significant for analysis. All in all, it is a must to provide your target readers with such information as the book title and the book’s author, the year of publication, the genre, some brief background information about the history of writing, and other facts that you consider to be worthy of attention. Sometimes, you are free to mention your personal impression of the reading.

You may also be interested in reading our article:  “Article Reviews”

The Main Body

In the main body of the paper, you need to elaborate on your idea and provide both summative and analytical information. If you do not know for sure how to organize your body paragraphs, you are free to check some book critique examples. The book should be briefly summarized in the first body paragraph. However, since it is a critique, make sure you do not delve deep into the paper summary. The core part of the text should be devoted to analysis. The summary has the intention to provide a general idea or notion of the piece of literary writing to those people who have not read the book and do not have any idea what it is about. As such, when summarizing the book, make sure to emphasize the main events of the plot, mention the main characters, and pinpoint the relation between them. After the summary, make sure to pay enough attention to the critique and evaluation part. Writing this part involves the application of your analytical and critical skills in practice. As such, you need to pinpoint the potential reason why the author wrote the book, how masterfully he did that, what the book intends to convey, whether it bears some historical significance, etc.

Aspects You Should Pay Attention to in the Evaluation Part:

• Is the plot logical? Is it well-developed? Is it easy to understand what is going on in the book? Is there any confusion? Are there inconsistencies in the way the events are narrated or discussed?
• Provide your opinion and analytical perspective of the characters. How do they relate? How do they behave? Why do they behave in a specific way? Do they have specific motifs behind their actions? Are they properly described or do you lack some key information about a specific character? Are there both positive and negative characters?
• Take into consideration the language of the book writing. Why does the author use specific language or concrete literary devices? What impression does the author provide with the way he/ she writes?
• What is the main theme / message/ idea of the book? Has the author managed to convey it in a clear and understandable way?
• Are the ideas presented in the book unique and original? Or have you managed to notice some parallels with the other literary works? If yes, which ones?
• Does the book bear some social or historical significance? What lesson does it teach?
• Hare your personal opinion on the book after reading it. Make sure to sound convincing and provide strong arguments.

The Conclusive Paragraph

The conclusion should provide information on whether the book is worth reading and paying attention to. You need to re-emphasize the idea expressed in the thesis statement or just make it clear whether you were right as you conveyed a specific idea in the thesis.

Enjoy the same experience that many other customers have been enjoying – exceptional writing assistance and a book critique service of the highest quality!

Topics for Book Critique Essays

• Write a book critique on the following: Achieving a Poverty-Free World.
• Consider how a particular novel moved through its build-up to its ultimate climax.
• Write a Critique of Muhammad Yunus’ book “Banker to the Poor”.
• Critique of “Everyman” by Roth Philip.
• Critique the allegory in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
• Critique the notion of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty in “Why Nations Fail”.
• The presentation of irony in classical writing.
• Critique of “The Goal” in terms of the improvement process.
• What was the role of The Canterbury Tales in the development of literature?
• Write a description of a memorable secondary character in your favorite classical novel.
• Does the background of an author influence their ability to create a true masterpiece?
• The utilization of dark humor in 20th-century literature.
• Which genre of literary work do you prefer? Be specific when describing its features.
• What role imagery plays in fairy tales and is it effective?
• Choose a literary piece you like and discuss the role of its secondary heroes.
• Critique of Shirley Jackson’s book “Human Cruelty and Indifference”.
• Discuss how similes, metaphors, and other style devices are used in contemporary poetry.
• Choose a writing by Steve Jobs and critique it.
• Identify a scholarly article on environmental health and write a critique of it.
• Critique of some of the common elements of feminist ideology as found in modern masterpieces.

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It may be that you are looking for somewhere to buy book critiques. If so, welcome to WritingLeader. We are a leading online provider of academic writing solutions to customers all over the world. So why not allow our excellent academic writers to help you with your book critique requirements? We are confident you will be impressed! Are you struggling with an assignment? Wondering how to write a critique? Our company is a trustworthy and professional provider of academic writing solutions. WritingLeader’s aim is to provide the finest quality content to our customers. Therefore, when using our services you are promised a product you will definitely be delighted with. Don’t go with lower quality companies that are usually cheaper when you can get exceptional quality writing from WritingLeader for an affordable price.

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The philosophy by which WritingLeader operates is to provide content of such a high quality that it changes your views about online writing services. All the writers employed by WritingLeader are well-qualified to help you. Over many years we have delivered countless book critiques and article reviews and a lot of customers return again and again to place more orders with us, not least because we guarantee content that is authentic. Feel free to read the testimonials on our website to see how much we differ from other writing services. All of our writers have completed four-year degree courses at various colleges so you can be sure that working with us is the best option you can have today. Moreover, when it comes to writing critique kind of papers, you should know that you will be choosing an excellent customer support service at WritingLeader. Our support agents are dedicated to helping you anytime and are on hand to answer all your questions at all times. This is another feature that differentiates us from other writing services. We care about our customers no matter what.

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It is quite easy to place an order with WritingLeader

• Choose your topic;
• Choose your educational level;
• Specify the document type;
• Select single or double spacing;
• Select the format e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA, etc., or let us know if you want a style that we don’t have on the drop-down list;
• Select the number of sources you want, especially if you want ones that are additional to the book itself;
• Provide any detailed instructions or details for your assignment;
• Specify the deadline;
• Confirm the details of your order;
• Make the payment.

And that’s all there is to it. Upon receiving your order, our expert writers will start working. Feel free to contact us by phone or live chat if you have any questions about placing an order or want to view a critique example. It is really important you maintain contact with your assigned writer during the process to make sure you get the exact paper you want. We also ask that you don’t post any personal information in the messaging area because one of our highest priorities is protecting your privacy.

What are Book Critiques?

A lot of people mix up book critiques with book reviews, but a critique involves much more than just summing up a book’s content. It analyzes the book in a critical manner in terms of its theme, purpose and other factors. The writer should draw attention to both the strong and weak points in the style of the book and any merits they see in its content. A book critique can vary in length from one to several pages, depending on whether  it is the full book or just some of its sections are to be critiqued. There is a specific format on how to critique a book, which our writers will follow. This format usually starts with a statement that sets out the important information on the book e.g. its title, author, genre, and roughly what it is about. It is also important to specify the book’s purpose and there are some questions that will need answering, such as:

• What was the author’s reason for choosing this subject matter more than any other?
• What viewpoint is the book written from (e.g. first or second person, etc.)?
• What is thought to be the author’s reason for writing the book?
• How well does this particular book fit its type or genre?
• What audience is the book intended for?
• Is the book written in a formal, informal, or another style?
• Additionally, there should be a note about the theme (or topic). Is the theme clear or obscure? Or what type of theme is it e.g. narrative, descriptive, argumentative, persuasive, etc.?

How important the book is will need to be assessed. This part of the critique should clearly state whether the presentation was sufficiently clear and coherent. A critique of this type should end with a summary of the key points of the book as well as argument statements. If our writers use sources apart from the book itself, these will be properly cited according to the format you specified on the order form, and they will be accurately listed on the reference page or bibliography.

Book Critiques Sample PDF

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Book Critiques from WritingLeader

When you buy book critiques from WritingLeader the writer we assign will pay close attention to the genre of writing your book belongs to – e.g. is it a fictional or non-fictional work. Our writers really do know how to write a book critique and take a responsible approach to each project. They will write a comprehensive critique in order to provide you with a unique, original and high-quality essay. We are extremely proud of the fact that every single analysis we provide is compelling and thought-provoking. Moreover, our plagiarism policy guarantees that you will receive a brand-new, logical, and properly organized critique at a fair price. Not a re-written piece of someone else’s work.

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• A bibliography.

How to Write a History Book Review

Writing a book review is one of the fundamental skills that every historian must learn. An undergraduate student’s book review should accomplish two main goals:

• Lay out an author’s argument, and
• Most importantly, critique the historical argument.

It is important to remember that a book review is not a book report. You need to do more than simply lay out the contents or plot-line of a book. You may briefly summarize the historical narrative or contents but must focus your review on the historical argument being made and how effectively the author has supported this argument with historical evidence. If you can, you may also fit that argument into the wider historiography about the subject.

The 'How to ... ' of Historical Book Reviews Writing a book review may seem very difficult, but in fact there are some simple rules you can follow to make the process much easier.

Before you read, find out about the author’s prior work What academic discipline was the author trained in? What other books, articles, or conference papers has s/he written? How does this book relate to or follow from the previous work of the author? Has the author or this book won any awards? This information helps you understand the author’s argument and critique the book.

As you read, write notes for each of the following topics.

• Write a few sentences about the author’s approach or genre of history. Is the focus on gender? Class? Race? Politics? Culture? Labor? Law? Something else? A combination? If you can identify the type of history the historian has written, it will be easier to determine the historical argument the author is making.
• Summarize the author’s subject and argument. In a few sentences, describe the time period, major events, geographical scope and group or groups of people who are being investigated in the book. Why has the author chosen the starting and ending dates of the book’s narrative? Next, discover the major thesis or theses of the book, the argument(s) that the author makes and attempts to support with evidence. These are usually, but not always, presented in a book’s introduction. It might help to look for the major question that the author is attempting to answer and then try to write his or her answer to that question in a sentence or two. Sometimes there is a broad argument supported by a series of supporting arguments. It is not always easy to discern the main argument but this is the most important part of your book review.
• What is the structure of the book? Are the chapters organized chronologically, thematically, by group of historical actors, from general to specific, or in some other way? How does the structure of the work enhance or detract from the argument?
• Look closely at the kinds of evidence the author has used to prove the argument. Is the argument based on data, narrative, or both? Are narrative anecdotes the basis of the argument or do they supplement other evidence? Are there other kinds of evidence that the author should have included? Is the evidence convincing? If so, find a particularly supportive example and explain how it supports the author’s thesis. If not, give an example and explain what part of the argument is not supported by evidence. You may find that some evidence works, while some does not. Explain both sides, give examples, and let your readers know what you think overall.
• Closely related to the kinds of evidence are the kinds of sources the author uses. What different kinds of primary sources are used? What type of source is most important in the argument? Do these sources allow the author to adequately explore the subject? Are there important issues that the author cannot address based on these sources? How about the secondary sources? Are there one or more secondary books that the author seems to lean heavily on in support of the argument? Are there works that the author disagrees with in the text? This will tell the reader how the work fits into the historiography of the subject and whether it is presenting a major new interpretation.
• Is the argument convincing as a whole? Is there a particular place where it breaks down? Why? Is there a particular element that works best? Why? Would you recommend this book to others, and if so, for whom is it appropriate? General readers? Undergraduates? Graduates and specialists in this historical subject? Why? Would you put any qualifications on that recommendation?

After having written up your analyses of each of these topics, you are ready to compose your review. There is no one way to format a book review but here is a common format that can be varied according to what you think needs to be highlighted and what length is required.

• Introduce the author, the historical period and topic of the book. Tell the reader what genre of history this work belongs to or what approach the author has used. Set out the main argument.
• Summarize the book’s organization and give a little more detail about the author’s sub-arguments. Here you would also work in your assessment of the evidence and sources used.
• Strengths and weaknesses or flaws in the book are usually discussed next. It is up to you to decide in what order these should come, but if you assess the book positively overall, do not spend inordinate space on the book’s faults and vice versa.
• In the conclusion, you may state your recommendations for readership unless that has been covered in your discussion of the book’s strengths and weaknesses. You might review how convincing the argument was, say something about the importance or uniqueness of the argument and topic, or describe how the author adds to our understanding of a particular historical question.

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How to Write a Critique Paper: Guide + Steps & Tips

Critical thinking is an essential life skill taught in academia. Critique essays help us develop this skill. However, it’s challenging to figure out how to write one independently. Our team has created this comprehensive guide to teach you how to express opinions in an academically correct manner. Here, you’ll discover step-by-step guidelines to help you write an essay. We’ve also addressed the proper essay critique format structure and provided several practical examples of how it should look. So, if you are interested and wish to learn more, start reading ASAP!

📃 What Is a Critique Paper?

A critique paper is a piece of writing that provides an in-depth analysis of another work. These include books, poems, articles, songs, movies, works of art, or podcast episodes. Aside from these, a critique may also cover arguments, concepts, and artistic performances. For example, a student may evaluate a book they’ve read or the merit of the First Amendment.

In a critique essay , one addresses the subject of the analysis, its source, intent, and purpose, in addition to its structure and content. You may present your own opinion on the analyzed work or include alternative points of view. Your paper can consist of an interpretation of what a piece of work means and an assessment of its worth.

🔍 Discover All Critique Essay Types

Now, we will detail everything you need to know about the main types of critique papers. Use the table below to determine which one will suit your essay best.

🥇 19 Best Critique Essay Topics

This segment has some of the best topics for critical essays that you can use in your assignments. Make sure to look through them and find some inspiration! Some of them are sure to catch your attention.

• Analyze the effectiveness of the justice system in curbing drug use.
• Why are people reluctant to change their views on the Second Amendment?
• Critical review of the moral lessons in contemporary young adult novels.
• Is critical thinking still relevant in the modern world?
• Analyze the health effects of fast food on the human body.
• Describe the effects of racism on underrepresented groups.
• Build a case for the causes of the homeless crisis in the US.
• Unraveling motivational factors: a critique of psychological theories in the workplace.
• Analyze the shifting of gender roles in modern society.
• What is the impact of corruption on the economy?
• The impact of setting and atmosphere on the reader’s experience of a book.
• Investigate the role of mass media in decreasing racial tension in the US.
• Analyze the use of symbolism and imagery in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories.
• Ethical dilemmas in medical study: critical analysis of journal articles on human trials.
• Which themes are the most common in current TV shows?
• Explain how fashion choices impact one’s identity.
• Build a case for a free higher education.
• What are the effects of social media on human communication?
• From page to screen: A comparative critique of the book and movie versions of The Lord of the Rings.

🗝 How to Write a Critique Paper: 5 Key Steps

We recognize that tackling a critique paper without proper guidance can be time-consuming and daunting. That’s why we have outlined the steps you should take to make a detailed plan for your future essay. These five steps will guide you in analyzing work successfully and creating quality papers.

• Explore the work. Before writing your essay, carefully examine the text you will be critiquing. Take notes relevant to your paper’s topic along the way. Pay attention to details and try noting the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of work.
• Conduct research. Aside from inspecting the work itself, you should also thoroughly study the surrounding context. Learn everything relevant about its author, background, and cultural and historical factors. So, you will receive essential information about the research subject, allowing you to understand it better.
• Create a thesis statement. This part usually includes a concise summary of the analysis of the work and conducted research. Students must carefully write their thesis statements to present their main argument or the work’s brief evaluation.
• Write the critical paper. After you have composed a solid thesis statement, it’s time to write your essay. Begin by providing background data in the introductory paragraph. Follow with analysis and evidence that supports the paper’s intent. Finish with a conclusion that gives a summary of the key points and reinforcing the thesis statement.
• Edit and revise to perfection. When you have the first draft, carefully review and edit its segments. See if the paper is structurally sound, easy to follow, and has a coherent format. Good writing provides its arguments logically, with clear connections between evidence and analysis. Pay close attention to segments that make you stumble and reread all sentences twice.

📝 Critique Paper Format & Structure

Before attempting to write your critique essay, you should familiarize yourself with its structure and form. We’ll examine each part in-depth and describe which elements they should have. It will give you an idea of how to structure your essay correctly.

Examining each component is essential after you get acquainted with the basic structure of a critique paper. We have detailed for you below.

Critique Essay: Introduction

You probably already know how essential the introduction is in a critique paper. This is why it’s vital to understand its proper structure. One should consider all elements that must be present in this part of the paper.

• Provide the name of the critiqued work, when it was first published, and by whom.
• Describe the thesis statement or the main idea of the paper.
• Give the context of the work, political or social, and its importance in a discipline or an academic field.
• Finish with a sentence that briefly evaluates the examined work and transitions into the main body.

Critique Essay: Main Body

We’ve finally arrived at the analysis, the most crucial part of creating a critique. Here, we’ll look at the structure of the main body paragraphs . This part of the article will explain what to include in your critical paper.

The body starts with a summary that explains:

• The main points of the work.
• How the points were achieved through characters, symbols, and various techniques.
• The aim of the research, how it was conducted, and based on what.

The rest of the body is a detailed critical evaluation of the work that includes:

• A systematic and thorough approach to assessing different elements.
• An assessment of the author’s ability or lack thereof to achieve their goals with these components.
• Supporting evidence for your arguments and evaluation.

Critique Essay: Conclusion

Lastly, let’s consider the conclusion of your critique paper. It is the time to summarize and reiterate what you have discussed in your work. An essay conclusion should contain the following elements:

• A concise statement that summarizes the entire work.
• A rundown of key points identified and covered in the evaluation.
• If necessary, the conclusion may provide recommendations for others interested in getting acquainted with the work.

🏆 Great Critique Paper Examples

We believe a good sample is one of the best aids in writing a quality essay. After all, theory can be insufficient and it’s best to see something done in practice. We’ve provided several great essay examples below for you to consider.

• Critique Against Orwell’s Style in “Animal Farm.” Orwell’s Animal Farm is a witty commentary on society and the cycle of power. To this day, the work is one of the strongest anti-Stalinist novels. Despite its themes, one of his most famous novels is often criticized for its mediocre writing style. This essay wants to advocate for this opinion through literary analysis.
• Critique of an Adidas Promotional Strategy. Adidas is one of the world’s most fabulous clothes, shoes, and equipment producers. The corporation registers hundreds of patterns on new tech for its products every year. But this doesn’t mean that Adidas does everything right. This paper demonstrates the unethical practices the company uses in its advertising campaigns.
• A Reader Response Critique of “A Rose for Emily.” Written in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It talks about the role of women in the late 1800s. Back then, they were regarded as passive individuals who couldn’t think independently. This paper critically examines the text’s effectiveness as a psychological horror story.
• Organizational Personnel Policy Critique. Personnel management covers many aspects of a company’s daily operations. It helps create a harmonious work environment that benefits all participants. However, some of the current policies are outdated and need to be adjusted. This paper critically analyzes policies that drive and evaluate performance. It also shows which changes can be applied to standard HR guidelines.

We are confident that our tips and instructions will make it easier for you to achieve great results. Besides, you can try our helpful essay topic maker to come up with writing ideas! Consider forwarding this article to your friends who may be looking for a quality guide on critical papers.

🔗 References

• What Makes a Critique a Critique? – Tara Horkoff, Writing for Success, OpenTextBC
• How to write a critique – CiteWrite, Queensland University of Technology
• Writing a Critique – Tiffin University, Pfeiffer Library
• Writing a Critique Paper: Seven Easy Steps – Patrick A. Regoniel, Simple Educate
• How to Write a Critical Analysis Essay – Dan Brown, MasterClass

Essay Papers Writing Online

How to craft an effective critique essay – a step-by-step guide to capturing readers’ attention, providing insightful analysis, and offering constructive feedback.

Evaluating someone else’s writing can be a challenging task, but with the right tools and approach, you can become a skillful critic in no time. Whether you’re analyzing a piece of literature, an article, or a research paper, a critique essay allows you to delve into the elements that make up a strong written work.

By honing your critical thinking skills, you’ll be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a piece and provide insightful feedback. Through this process, you’ll not only improve your own writing abilities but also enhance your understanding and appreciation of the written word.

In this comprehensive article, we will equip you with the essential techniques and strategies needed to write an effective critique essay. From analyzing the structure and organization of a piece to evaluating the author’s arguments and evidence, you’ll learn how to assess a work’s strengths and weaknesses with precision and clarity.

What is a Critique Essay and Why is it Important?

A critique essay is a type of academic writing that involves analyzing and evaluating a piece of work, such as a book, film, artwork, or research paper. Unlike a simple summary or review, a critique essay goes beyond providing a surface-level examination of the work and delves into an in-depth analysis of its strengths, weaknesses, and overall value.

But why is writing a critique essay important? Well, there are several reasons. Firstly, it allows you to develop critical thinking skills by carefully examining and assessing the merits of a work. This type of analysis helps you become more discerning and thoughtful in your judgments, which is a valuable skill in many aspects of life.

In addition, writing a critique essay encourages you to become an active participant in the intellectual discourse surrounding a particular topic or field. By engaging with a work and providing your own analysis, you are contributing to the ongoing conversation and expanding the collective understanding of the subject matter.

Furthermore, a critique essay can serve as a useful tool for the creator of the work being critiqued. Constructive criticism can provide valuable insights and suggestions for improvement, helping the creator gain a fresh perspective and refine their skills.

Ultimately, the importance of writing a critique essay lies in its ability to foster critical thinking, contribute to intellectual discourse, and provide constructive feedback. Whether you are a student honing your analytical skills or a professional offering insights in your field, learning how to effectively critique a work is a valuable and essential skill.

Choosing a Topic for Your Critique Essay

When it comes to writing a critique essay, the first and most important step is choosing a topic that is both interesting and suitable for critique. The topic you choose will determine the direction and focus of your essay, as well as the arguments and evidence you will present. It is crucial to select a topic that you are passionate about and have a strong opinion on, as this will make the writing process more enjoyable and engaging.

When considering potential topics for your critique essay, it can be helpful to brainstorm a list of subjects that you have recently encountered in your studies, personal life, or current events. This can include books, movies, artworks, scientific studies, political speeches, or social issues. Reflect on your experiences and think about which topics have sparked your interest or elicited an emotional response.

Once you have a list of potential topics, narrow it down to one that you feel confident in critiquing. Consider the availability of resources and research materials related to the topic, as well as the relevance and significance of the subject matter. It is important to choose a topic that is not too broad or too narrow, but one that allows for a thorough analysis and evaluation.

Furthermore, when selecting a topic for your critique essay, consider the potential audience and the purpose of your writing. Are you writing for a specific academic or professional audience, or for a general readership? Is your goal to persuade, inform, or entertain? Understanding your audience and purpose will help you choose a topic that is relevant, engaging, and appropriate for your intended readers.

In conclusion, the process of choosing a topic for your critique essay requires careful consideration and reflection. By selecting a topic that you are passionate about, narrowing down your options, and considering the audience and purpose of your writing, you can ensure that your critique essay is engaging, informative, and well-structured.

Effective Methods for Analyzing and Evaluating the Work

When it comes to critiquing a piece of work, it is important to employ effective methods for analyzing and evaluating the work. These methods allow you to objectively assess the strengths and weaknesses of the work while providing constructive feedback.

One method for analyzing the work is to carefully examine the overall structure and organization. This involves evaluating the flow of ideas and the logical progression of the work. Pay attention to how well the work introduces and supports its main argument or thesis statement. Look for any inconsistencies or gaps in the logic and assess the effectiveness of the transitions between ideas.

Additionally, it is important to assess the use of evidence and examples in the work. Look for both quantitative and qualitative evidence that supports the main argument. Evaluate the credibility and relevance of the sources cited and determine if they strengthen the overall argument. Consider the quality of the examples provided and how well they illustrate the key points of the work.

Another critical aspect to evaluate in the work is the clarity and effectiveness of the writing style. Assess the use of language, considering factors such as clarity, conciseness, and precision. Look for any instances of wordiness or ambiguity and consider how well the writer communicates their ideas. Pay attention to the use of tone and voice and evaluate if they are appropriate for the intended audience.

Furthermore, it is essential to consider the originality and creativity of the work. Analyze whether the ideas presented are innovative and unique, or if they rely heavily on existing research and ideas. Evaluate the extent to which the writer brings a fresh perspective or contributes new insights to the topic. Consider the level of critical thinking and depth of analysis demonstrated in the work.

Finally, it is crucial to provide constructive feedback when evaluating the work. Identify specific strengths and weaknesses and provide evidence to support your analysis. Offer suggestions for improvement and recommend areas where the writer can further develop their ideas or arguments. Remember to maintain a balance between positive and negative feedback to help the writer grow and improve their work.

• Analyze the overall structure and organization of the work
• Assess the use of evidence and examples
• Evaluate the clarity and effectiveness of the writing style
• Analyze the originality and creativity of the ideas presented
• Provide constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement

By utilizing these effective methods for analyzing and evaluating the work, you will be able to provide a comprehensive critique that offers valuable insights and helps the writer enhance their work.

Tips for Writing a Strong and Persuasive Critique Essay

When crafting a critique essay, it is essential to adopt a strong and persuasive writing style to effectively convey your thoughts and opinions. By employing certain techniques and considerations, you can enhance the impact of your critique and make it more persuasive. This section will provide valuable tips to help you write a compelling critique essay.

First and foremost, clarity and conciseness are key. Make sure your critique is written in a clear and straightforward manner, avoiding any unnecessary jargon or complex language. This will ensure that your ideas are easily understood by your readers, allowing them to fully grasp your perspective.

Additionally, providing evidence and examples is crucial to strengthen your critique. Back up your opinions with credible sources, such as research studies, statistical data, or expert opinions. This will make your arguments more persuasive and lend credibility to your critique.

It is also important to offer a balanced perspective in your critique. While expressing your own views, be sure to acknowledge and address counterarguments or differing opinions. This will demonstrate your ability to consider multiple perspectives and make your critique more comprehensive and well-rounded.

Using persuasive language and rhetorical devices can significantly enhance the impact of your critique. Employ techniques such as persuasive appeals (ethos, logos, pathos), rhetorical questions, metaphors, and analogies to captivate your readers and engage them on an emotional and intellectual level.

Structuring your critique in a logical and organized manner is another essential aspect. Break down your critique into distinct sections, such as introduction, body paragraphs discussing various aspects of the subject, and a conclusion summarizing your main points and reinforcing your overall perspective. This will make your critique more coherent and reader-friendly.

Consider your target audience when writing your critique. Tailor your language, tone, and style to resonate with your intended readers. Adapt your arguments and examples to align with their interests, values, and beliefs. This will make your critique more relatable and persuasive to your specific audience.

Lastly, support your arguments with credible sources. Incorporating research findings, expert opinions, or firsthand experiences will strengthen the validity of your critique and provide additional weight to your arguments. This will make your critique more persuasive and enhance its overall impact.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your critique essay is not only strong but also persuasive. By employing clear and concise language, providing evidence and examples, offering a balanced perspective, using persuasive language and rhetorical devices, structuring effectively, considering your target audience, and supporting your arguments with credible sources, you can craft a compelling critique essay that effectively conveys your thoughts and opinions.

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November 13, 2022 By Anne R. Allen 24 Comments

Critiquing 101: Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Giving Helpful Critiques

Bad critiquing can pop somebody’s bubble without being helpful

by Anne R. Allen

I often advise new writers to look for a critique group to help them learn the writing ropes and get free feedback as well as the support they need when starting on a writing journey. But critique groups vary widely and some can be dangerous to a writer’s mental health.

I’ve written about how Critique Groups Can Help AND Hinder Your Writing Growth , the types of Critique Groups that Drive you Batty , and Dangerous Critiques.

But now I think it’s time for a checklist for providing a useful critique. It’s a delicate business, and not everybody can critique effectively. If you don’t read much outside your genre, or you never read fiction, you need to learn to open your mind or find a group that’s genre-specific.

No matter your genre, a good critique requires empathy. Learn to empathize with your fellow writers. If they are newbies, critique accordingly. Remember you were a beginner once. Pick one or two areas to work on. Nobody can take in a huge amount of information all at once, and 100% negativity shuts down a person’s ability to listen. It feels like an attack, even to a seasoned writer.

These tips are variations on the traditional “Milford” method of workshopping writing, first used at the Milford Writing Conference in 1956.

Notes for the Critiqued:

• Tell your group the genre and audience you’re writing for, and let them know where you want readers to focus: pacing, clarity, dialogue, grammar, repetitions, authenticity, etc.
• Don’t expect 100% praise.
• Stay silent during an oral critique, except to give a quick answer to a direct question. Once the critiques are finished, you can elaborate.
• Don’t argue or explain “what you really meant.” One of the major things a critique can do is tell writers how much of what’s in our heads did or didn’t make it onto the page.
• Give trigger warnings : If you’re going to read a scene of rape, abuse, torture, or extreme violence, let the critique group know beforehand. Some members may prefer to give it a pass and not read or listen to that piece.

Do’s and Don’ts for Critiquing

1. do keep in mind the purpose of the critique.

Remember everybody was a beginner once, and everybody makes mistakes. It’s your job to help them remedy those mistakes, not send them home in tears.

A manuscript critique is not the same as a book review:

• A review is for readers — to help them decide whether a book is for them.
• A critique is for writers — to help them improve the piece they are working on.

Whether you’re exchanging critiques online or in person, reading out loud, or sending around digital copies, as a critiquer, you have ONE job: help writers improve their work.

This is not a time to talk politics, religion, or hold forth on your distain for people who order pineapple on their pizza.

No matter how much you hate Chick Lit, don’t condemn a Chick Lit piece because it’s not angsty prose about middle-aged academics with prostate issues. Your job is to help make it the best Chick Lit it can be.

Avoid culture wars. We live in an era when the simple act of writing is going to offend somebody somewhere, so work on being helpful, not offended.

A critique is also not the place to show off. The writer being critiqued doesn’t care that you’ve read all the works of Proust in the original French, or that you once took a writing workshop with somebody who went to high school with Stephen King.

2. Don’t Judge or Condemn

Don’t critique as if you’ve recently arrived from Mt. Olympus on a fault-finding mission.

Unless you’re actually the Pope, nobody believes you’re infallible, so don’t talk as if you are. Say you don’t like something, not that it is “bad.”

Use “I” statements: It’s better to say “I wasn’t interested in your character,” rather than “your character is shallow and stupid.” Say, “I found this part boring” not, “your story is boring.”

It also helps if you make some suggestions for making it more engaging rather than simply condemning the piece.

And don’t assume the author is a mentally deficient space alien recently arrived from a galaxy far, far away. If you catch a typo, just say, “there’s a typo here where you wrote ‘cqt’.” That’s much better than, “you don’t know how to spell the word ‘cat’.”

3. Do Use the “Sandwich Method”

The human brain can’t take unrelenting criticism. 100% negativity comes across as an attack, and the only thing gained is the writer’s anger and distrust.

Start with something positive and conclude with another. Even if a beginner has presented 5 pages of embarrassing classic writing mistakes , use your imagination to come up with something positive to say. You’re a creative person, remember?

When I was first learning the ropes as a stage director, a veteran director told me that no matter how dismal an actor’s performance is, you should never give notes that are 100% critical.

Sometimes you have to say, “You remembered your blocking! You didn’t fall down!” before you tell him that playing Hamlet with a hillbilly accent is not working.

Make sure you remember the nice comment at the end too. “You looked good up there!” always worked, and kept the costumers happy.

4. Don’t Make ad hominem Criticisms

Critique the writing, not the writer. And remember the characters are not always stand-ins for the author.

Avoid calling the author a Satan-worshipper because he writes about vampires. And if you’re critiquing a steamy romance, it’s not helpful to call the author a slut. (Or a harlot, trollop, doxy, chippie or floozy. 🙂 )

Ditto the characters. If the author intends for the reader to see the character has a dangerously chaotic sex life, you don’t need to call the character derogatory names. 

That kind of statement is about you and your prejudices, and unhelpful for the author.

5. Do Listen to and/or Read the Other Critiques

If your critiques are done in person, don’t take a snooze during the other members’ critiques. It’s painful to hear the same criticism from two or more critiquers. Plus it wastes everybody’s time.

Maybe Sadie says, “I think it’s ridiculous when the vampire breaks into song in the middle of the battle with the werewolves. Everybody knows vampires can’t sing.”

So the next critiquer might say, “I agree with Sadie. I got taken out of the story when the vampire started singing I’m a Little Teapot when the werewolves were attacking his friend.”

But if you’ve been snoozing during Sadie’s critique, it’s annoying if you say, “Nobody else has mentioned it, but it’s ridiculous that the vampire starts singing about teapots in the middle of the battle.”

6. Don’t Mistake Critiquing for Group Therapy

Therapy stuff is most likely to surface with a memoir. People may feel the need to tell the author that he was being co-dependent with his second wife, or his current squeeze sounds like she’s got Borderline personality disorder. Resist it.

This is true with fiction too. You may not approve of the choices or lifestyles of an author’s characters, but your job is to judge the writing, not the characters. Say “I’d like more reasons to care about this character.” Or, “I find it hard to be sympathetic to his problems when he keeps turning into a werewolf and eating his girlfriends.”

And remember your # 1 goal here is to be helpful, not to blabber your unfiltered thoughts. Your honest opinion might be that the author is ugly and his mother dresses him funny, but keep it to yourself.

7. Do Know Your Own Blind Spots

Some neurodivergent people genuinely don’t get irony, sarcasm, or subtext. Satire is not fun for them. The strongly empathetic don’t find violence entertaining or enlightening. And many people have a powerful dislike of certain genres.

If you’re one of those people, give critiquing that kind of work a polite pass. You simply aren’t the right audience. 

Also, people who are recently clean and sober often see addiction everywhere. If that’s you (congrats!), think twice before pronouncing every character a hopeless alcoholic or addict, and realize you’re seeing things through different eyes than the average reader.

8. Don’t Enforce Stupid Writing Rules

One of the biggest problems with critiquers and beta readers is the belief that there are hard and fast rules that every writer must follow. Of course there are rules of grammar and spelling that are necessary for your work to be read by others.

But dogmatic enforcement about silly rules like “You should never use the word ‘was’,” or “Contractions are forbidden on the written page,” or “Your characters must never utter a cliché” is unhelpful and, well, stupid.

Here’s my post about Stupid Writing Rules and The Writing Police .  And last month’s post on Clichés, Tropes, and Archetypes .

9. Do Give Attention to Detail.

Attention to detail makes a good critique. Any author is going to be deaf and blind to certain things and a good critique will point them out.

So watch for repetitions, grammar problems, imprecise word choices and continuity issues.

A good critique can help the author avoid embarrassing mistakes like having four Saturdays in a row, or your hero’s eyes changing color half way through the love scene.

10. Don’t Try to Rewrite the Work

When a passage is unclear, suggesting a substitute word or phrase can be extremely helpful. Rewriting whole paragraphs is not. Resist the urge to rewrite the author’s work.

Then go home and use that creativity on your own WIP.

As in all things, the Golden Rule needs to be in force here. If you would be furious if somebody said that stuff about you or your work, don’t say it about others’. 

What about you, scriveners? Do you think your critiquing chops are up to snuff? Have you ever had a critique that felt like a personal attack? How do you react to an unhelpful critique?

BLOG NEWS: 

We have some sad news here at the blog. Our beloved webmaster, Barb Drozdowich, is having to step down while she fights a serious health issue. Do check out her publishing and marketing books at Bakerview Consulting . The sales and support will mean a lot to her. We’ve spotlighted one of her wonderfully helpful books below.

Tech guru Nate Hoffelder , a frequent guest here, has played superhero and jumped in to take over as webmaster and move the blog to a new host. There may be some glitches along the way. The blog may not go up on its regular schedule and MailChimp notices may not arrive. So please do check in regularly, even if you don’t get a notice. Our loyal readers mean so much to us, and we want to keep you informed.

Ruth and I give a massive “Thank You” to both Barb and Nate. You are the tech angels who have kept this blog alive. 

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Ghostwriters in the sky, the first book in the camilla randall comedy-mysteries is only 99c, ghostwriters in the sky:  camilla mystery #1.

Did bad critiquing lead to a writer’s death?

Murder and mayhem (and a bogus agent) at a California writers’ conference. 

After her celebrity ex-husband’s ironic joke about her “kinky sex habits” is misquoted in a tabloid, New York etiquette columnist Camilla Randall’s life unravels in bad late night TV jokes.

Nearly broke and down to her last Hermes scarf, Camilla accepts an invitation to a Z-list Writers’ Conference in the wine-and-cowboy town of Santa Ynez, California, where, unfortunately, a drag queen dominatrix named Marva plies her trade by impersonating Camilla. When a ghostwriter’s plot to blackmail celebrities with faked evidence leads to murder, Camilla must team up with Marva to stop the killer from striking again.

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ebook only 99c at Amazon!

How to Self-Publish a Book: For the Technology Challenged Author is perfect for authors who have finished creating a story, but are intimidated by the next steps. This book’s step-by-step, friendly format will make it easy for you to shake off the anxiety of the unknown and find your way safely and quickly to the fun and profits of self-publishing. Many books on publishing focus only on Amazon. This book helps you understand the full range of choices available to all authors. It helps authors understand how to make their book available to as many readers as possible.

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About Anne R. Allen

Anne writes funny mysteries and how-to-books for writers. She also writes poetry and short stories on occasion. Oh, yes, and she blogs. She's a contributor to Writer's Digest and the Novel and Short Story Writer's Market.

Her bestselling Camilla Randall Mystery RomCom Series features perennially down-on-her-luck former socialite Camilla Randall—who is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong, but always solves the mystery in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.

Anne lives on the Central Coast of California, near San Luis Obispo, the town Oprah called "The Happiest City in America."

November 13, 2022 at 10:03 am

Anne—Thanks for a most excellent post loaded with wit, charm and very very good advice!

Bottom line: Mind your manners and watch your language….don’t say such-and-such is stupid. Instead: Such-and-such doesn’t work for me. Such-and-such isn’t quite there yet. And get specific! No global, generic disses. Please!

How do I know this? Years as a writer (on the receiving end) and as an editor (on the giving end) clued me in. 🙂

November 13, 2022 at 1:34 pm

Ruth–Exactly! Your years of experience in the publishing business showed you how to communicate with new writers and help them get better, rather than squelching their dreams.

November 13, 2022 at 10:09 am

Huzzah! The more good critiques there are in the world, the better. Thanks, Anne, for highlighting quality critiquing.

November 13, 2022 at 1:35 pm

CS–True! We need more good critiques!

November 13, 2022 at 11:06 am

You covered everything well! Yes, resist the urge to rewrite it for the writer. And the part about not being offended is spot on.

November 13, 2022 at 1:37 pm

Alex–Some people will be offended that I mentioned being offended. 🙂 but it’s a pet peeve of mine. Fiction should be above manufactured culture wars.

November 13, 2022 at 11:25 am

Good post, Anne! After 30 years of teaching writing, with readabout in every class, the best line I found to help writers understand criticism is one you promote here: “I got taken out of the story when…” This is such an honest and gentle thing to say and addresses exactly what we’re all about – we want to hook readers into the story and keep them reading. We don’t want them to leave!

November 13, 2022 at 1:40 pm

Melodie–It’s a useful phrase I’m sure came in handy during all your years of teaching new writers. I guess my Camilla would say it comes down to good manners. 🙂

November 13, 2022 at 12:21 pm

I co-ran an in-person critique group almost a decade ago. It was run a lot like the way you describe how such groups should be run. Looking back on it now, I see how fortunate I was to have been part of it. I took critiques kinda hard at first, though. Took me awhile to appreciate them.

November 13, 2022 at 1:42 pm

Rich–A good critique group can make all the difference in a writer’s career. And way cheaper than writing classes. But those first lessons can be painful, whether from a teacher or a critique. I remember it well.

November 13, 2022 at 1:05 pm

Anne, what great guidelines for positive, helpful critique.

For more than three decades, I’ve been fortunate to take part in some amazing groups. Each has its own personality and quirks but every writer sees tremendous improvement in their work.

When you put someone else’s story under a microscope to find effective fixes for them, you recognize your own problems.

Not everyone sees the same thing so you wind up with the collective wisdom of six or seven brains.

Critique groups aren’t for every writer. Some are downright toxic–if you stumble into one of those, run fast and far away. But if members genuinely want to help each other, everyone wins.

November 13, 2022 at 1:48 pm

Debbie–It’s true that we often learn more from other people’s mistakes than we do from our own. It’s one of the benefits of critiquing. But you need to shop for the right group. As you say, many can be toxic. I wrote this post about the ones you should run away from, very fast. https://annerallen.com/2019/09/critique-groups-can-drive-you-bonkers/

November 13, 2022 at 1:07 pm

P.S. Wishing Barb strength and healing. She’s been a rock. Thanks also to Nate for stepping up.

November 13, 2022 at 1:54 pm

Debbie–Barb has been so good to us. Now she needs our positive thoughts and support. She’s going through a tough time. Nate has been wonderful!

November 13, 2022 at 4:43 pm

Thank you for this checklist, Anne. There is so much of this post to like–especially the reminder to remain sensitive to the neurodivergent. It’s so helpful when I share with critique partners who know about dyslexia and don’t think my poor spelling has anything to do with my intellect or lack of care. One of my favourite critique partners always used the sandwich method. In the beginning it was difficult for me to share my writing. I always feared that I would be judged harshly and sent packing. However, her critiques always made me feel supported and encouraged.

November 13, 2022 at 5:22 pm

Leanne–A good critique should make you feel encouraged. Generally we know where our writing needs work, but we’re not sure what the exact problem is. When someone can point that out to us, we know we can make it better. Overcoming dyslexia is hard. Congrats on being a writer in spite of it.

November 13, 2022 at 5:31 pm

Got Barb’s book – picked up a good use for the X-ray feature on ebooks at Amazon: being able to put a bit of information on a character – in case the reader has forgotten because they read the first book in my mainstream trilogy YEARS ago.

I don’t do character reminders in the next book; since I use multiple third person deep pov, a character would have to have a reason for thinking or talking about another character (“As you know, Bob”) for that little bit of description to be dropped into the current book – or another character would have to have a reason for asking – and that wouldn’t work for me.

But at least one reader has asked, and taking the time to do a classic ‘Cast of Characters’ page, even for the books’ site, still wouldn’t make it available at the point of reading in the ebook, this may be a good solution.

I thought X-rays were for dictionary terms!

Thanks, Barb.

November 17, 2022 at 12:53 pm

Alice–As a reader, I appreciated those “cast of characters” pages in big books in the past. I think it would be a great idea to revive the practice. Thanks for supporting Barb by buying her book!!

November 14, 2022 at 6:34 am

Thank you for your encouragement and support, Anne.

For many years, I believed that I had to overcome dyslexia. But now I realize that it’s due to my amazing dyslexic brain that I can draw from a seemingly bottomless pool of ideas and that solving plot problems is fun. Now I realize that I don’t write in spite, I write because of dyslexia. After all, it’s part of who I am.

All the best, Leanne

November 17, 2022 at 11:55 am

Leanne–“Overcoming” was obviously the wrong word choice. I apologize. I do get it that we can use our differences to our advantage.

November 14, 2022 at 10:07 am

Brilliant. This is so needed by those who write and those who review.

November 17, 2022 at 11:56 am

Mark–Many thanks!

November 21, 2022 at 6:52 pm

I joined a critique group three years ago with established guidelines. One idea that works fabulously is the writer must wait for everyone to share their comments about the chapter before he/she responds. This method prevents writers from immediately getting defensive or trying to justify or arguing for their choices. I agree with at least 90% of their comments and suggestions. When all critiques are finished, we open it up for open discussion and the writer can join in.

It’s crucial to develop trust in the group and to not take it personally if someone else offers suggestions. They’re merely trying to help by making recommendations. It’s the writer’s job to look at their remarks with an open mind.

November 21, 2022 at 7:24 pm

Pete–Yes! I covered all this in the first part of the post– To recap: “These tips are variations on the traditional “Milford” method of workshopping writing, first used at the Milford Writing Conference in 1956. Notes for the Critiqued: *Tell your group the genre and audience you’re writing for, and let them know where you want readers to focus: pacing, clarity, dialogue, grammar, repetitions, authenticity, etc. *Don’t expect 100% praise. *Stay silent during an oral critique, except to give a quick answer to a direct question. Once the critiques are finished, you can elaborate. *Don’t argue or explain “what you really meant.” One of the major things a critique can do is tell writers how much of what’s in our heads did or didn’t make it onto the page.” The point of this post was also to give some pointers on how to critique effectively, because some people take the silence of the critiqued as a license to bully.

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The New York Times Book Review I've I want THE 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY read to it read it 1 My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante 26 26 Atonement, by lan McEwan 2 The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson 27 Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 3 Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel 28 Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell 4 The Known World, by Edward P. Jones 29 The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt 5 The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen 30 Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward 6 2666, by Roberto Bolaño 31 White Teeth, by Zadie Smith 7 The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead 32 The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst 8 Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald 33 Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward 9 Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro 34 Citizen, by Claudia Rankine 10 Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson 35 Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel 11 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz 36 Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates 12 The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion 37 The Years, by Annie Ernaux 13 The Road, by Cormac McCarthy 38 The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño 14 Outline, by Rachel Cusk 39 A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan 15 Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee 40 H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald 16 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon 41 Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan 17 The Sellout, by Paul Beatty 42 A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James 18 Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders 43 Postwar, by Tony Judt 19 Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe 44 The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin 20 Erasure, by Percival Everrett 45 The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson 21 Evicted, by Matthew Desmond 46 The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt 22 22 Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo 47 A Mercy, by Toni Morrison 23 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro 48 Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi 24 The Overstory, by Richard Powers 49 The Vegetarian, by Han Kang 25 25 Random Family, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 50 Trust, by Hernan Diaz I've I want read to it read it

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Totalitarian Gigantomania

Tim brinkhof explores the poetics and politics of the cruise-ship essay., by tim brinkhof august 24, 2024.

Memoir & Essay

IN THE SPRING of 1995, on assignment for Harper’s , David Foster Wallace spent seven days aboard the MV Zenith , a 47,413-ton cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises, Inc. The magazine asked him to report on everything he saw, and Wallace saw everything: flared lapels, rubber thongs, conch fritters, projectile vomit, pre-melanomic lesions, potbellies, cellulite, “1,500 professional smiles.” The only thing he didn’t see was his cabin maid Petra, who—to the author’s amazement as well as distress—managed to fully tidy up his room each time he left, even when it was only for a minute or two.

Most of what Wallace saw he did not like. He immediately caught on to the massive class divide aboard the ship, where white Americans are—often to their delight—pampered by underpaid workers from the Global South. When Wallace insisted on carrying his own bag, he realized that he had put his Lebanese porter “in a terrible kind of sedulous-service double bind, a paradox of pampering: The Passenger’s Always Right versus Never Let a Passenger Carry His Own Bag.” The landlubbing Illinoisian also disliked being in the middle of the ocean, a place that—courtesy of teaching Stephen Crane’s 1898 shipwreck story “The Open Boat” at Emerson College—he could not see as anything except a “primordial nada, bottomless depths inhabited by tooth-studded things rising angelically toward you.” The Zenith itself was consumer culture incarnate, providing passengers with food, drink, and entertainment to the point of infantilizing them. “The fact that adult Americans tend to associate the word ‘pamper’ with a certain other consumer product,” he said of the term, which he had encountered over and over in Celebrity’s brochures, “is not an accident.”

The now-iconic essay, originally published under the title “Shipping Out” but better known as “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” not only gave birth to a vibrant genre of nonfiction writing but also laid out that genre’s central conceit—that this supposedly fun thing isn’t actually that fun at all, if you stop and think about it.

Largely dormant during the 2000s and early 2010s, the cruise-ship essay is currently riding a second wave—one generated, perhaps, by shows like HBO’s The White Lotus (2021– ), which casts a critical eye on the leisure industry of the obscenely rich, not to mention by media coverage of the rampant culture of sexual assault aboard many of the world’s most prominent cruise ships. Although some of the more recent essays in this genre—including Lauren Oyler’s “I Really Didn’t Want to Go” (2023) and Gary Shteyngart’s “Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever” (2024)—borrow heavily from Wallace’s pioneering work, they also diverge from it in important ways. To some extent, these divergences can be attributed to the unique style and experiences of each writer, but they are also indicative of changing times. If the cruise ship is, as almost all of these essays note, a microcosmic distillation of American culture, then studying these texts in chronological order should reveal how that culture has developed since 1995.

Nearly 30 years later, Wallace’s shadow still looms large over the genre. “To journalists,” Oyler writes in her own piece, which documents her stay on a megaship chartered by Gwyneth Paltrow’s controversial lifestyle brand Goop, “a ‘cruise piece’—in addition to being a free vacation you’re paid to express all your darkest thoughts about—is a career achievement,” placing the assignee in the same imaginary category as the late author of Infinite Jest . And surely, several themes and thoughts expressed in “A Supposedly Fun Thing” reappear in both her essay and Shteyngart’s. Each of these writers assumes the role of an undercover reporter, passing themselves off as an ordinary vacationer in order to mingle with the other cruisers. All relate their experiences in a deeply ironic tone, using cruise lingo and giving people nicknames like Mr. Dermatitis, GP, and Duck Necklace, imposing a degree of separation between the narrators and the late-capitalist dystopia in which they find themselves. “No,” Shteyngart wants to tell an “old Rastafarian” on the US Virgin Islands who calls him a redneck, “that’s not who I am at all. On my island, Mannahatta, as Whitman would have it, I am an interesting person living within an engaging artistic milieu. I do not wish to use the Caribbean as a dumping ground for the cruise-ship industry.”

The most obvious difference between “Shipping Out” and later cruise-ship essays is in their emphasis on the political orientation of the passengers. Wallace, despite being remembered as a champion of postmodernist writing, channels the spirit of classic literature as he attempts to ascertain fundamental elements of the human experience, such as loneliness and existential dread. Oyler and Shteyngart, by contrast, treat the cruise ship as a mirror for a very particular segment of American society, one that has grown increasingly threatening to the future of democracy. On Paltrow’s Goop cruise, tailored to wealthy alternative-healing afficionados whose limited knowledge of real-world medicine borders on the superstitious and conspiratorial, Oyler runs into a “psychological astrologer” who claims that someone’s teenage son’s tinnitus “might be due to effects from the ‘hot lava, do-not-go-there topic’: the COVID vaccine.” Toward the end of Shteyngart’s cruise, which took place on the planet’s biggest vessel yet, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas , he describes the way many of the passengers “shed their INAUGURAL CRUISE” attire for “caps pledging to make America great again and T-shirts that celebrate words sometimes attributed to Patrick Henry: ‘The constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.’” Shteyngart notes that,

[w]ith their preponderance of FAMILY FLAG FAITH FRIENDS FIREARMS T-shirts, the tables by the crepe station sometimes resemble the Capitol Rotunda on January 6. The Real Anthony Fauci , by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appears to be a popular form of literature, especially among young men with very complicated versions of the American flag on their T-shirts.

Though Wallace’s cruise also had its share of proto-MAGA followers—participating in a clay-pigeon shooting class, the author squares up against guys with military backgrounds who go hunting with their papas and have their own range in their backyards—those in Oyler’s and Shteyngart’s essays appear much more threatening. “Both of them had a look I have never seen on land,” Shteyngart writes of two such individuals, “their eyes projecting absence and enmity in equal measure. In the ’90s, I drank with Russian soldiers fresh from Chechnya and wandered the streets of wartime Zagreb, but I have never seen such undisguised hostility toward both me and perhaps the universe at large.” A third, in the elevator, announced, seriously rather than jokingly, that someone on board ought to kill one of the Filipino employees, and do so as brutally as possible.

It makes sense that Floridians would be overrepresented on cruises that leave from cities in South Florida, just as it makes sense that passengers with an interest in guns would be attracted to a shooting class. Still, one wonders if there could be a more poetic reason why so many cruise-ship lovers seem to lean starboard on election days.

Research suggests that there is. Drawing upon various surveys, Andrew Van Dam of The Washington Post discovered that in 2020, 26 percent of Trump voters reported going on at least one cruise before the pandemic, compared to only 17 percent of Biden supporters. While 32 percent of Trump voters said they would be “very comfortable” going on a cruise after the pandemic ended, 48 percent of Biden’s said they would be “very uncomfortable” doing so.

Cruise-ship essays can help us understand why this is the case. On a cruise with GOP organizers, pundits, and lobbyists shortly after the 2012 presidential election, New York magazine’s Joe Hagan overheard one disgruntled supporter of Mitt Romney propose that they all burn their passports and “stay on this boat forever,” implying they should live a pirate’s life in the Bermuda Triangle, where they would be free to decide which government policies they obeyed and which they ignored. Shteyngart muses that it’s the cruise ship’s “totalitarian sense of gigantomania” that appeals to folks such as the Rands, a Florida couple nicknamed after their favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand. He goes on to describe an ice-skating show as having the “style and pomp and masterful precision that would please the likes of Kim Jong Un.”

Perhaps it’s got something to do with socioeconomics—both Wallace and Shteyngart point out that cruise vacations are popular among middle-income families: people affluent enough to afford a bit of luxury but not affluent enough to shed their status anxiety, a well-documented force of conservative discontent.

Or maybe it’s about following the leader. As Tim Murphy discusses in a 2020 Mother Jones essay, it’s no coincidence Donald Trump has been longtime friends with Carnival Corporation’s former CEO Micky Arison. Both are billionaires in the hospitality industry, in charge of businesses they inherited from their fathers. Carnival has hosted cruises themed after Trump’s TV show The Apprentice (2004–17) ­ and sponsored one of its season finales. Trump, in turn, used his presidential powers to soften pandemic restrictions, lower tax rates, and loosen workers’ rights, a process he is expected to resume should he win back the White House this fall.

Let’s also not forget the cultural impact of the cruise-ship essay genre itself. With so many prominent, almost exclusively left-wing writers deriding both the cruise vacation and cruise vacationers, it’s not surprising that cruises have become even more attractive to conservatives than they already were, granting them a political significance they did not initially possess. Nowadays, booking a cruise is almost like making a political statement. Cruises are political rallies on water: places where both the silent majority and not-so-silent minority can share their opinions knowing that pretty much everyone around agrees with them. (Tellingly, The Washington Post ’s inquiry began in response to a conservative newsletter that “characterized Democrats as ‘snobs’ who look down on anyone who ‘goes on cruises or to all-inclusive resorts.’”)

If you think about it, the right-wing appeal of cruise ships isn’t all that surprising. If conservatism is defined, as many historians and political theorists argue, by resistance to change and, on a deeper level, by mistrust of the unknown, then a cruise really is the perfect vacation for a conservative person. It’s travel for people who hate travel, who want to enjoy nice weather and exotic locales without needing to come into contact with different cultures. When cruise ships like the Icon of the Seas dock at foreign ports, the passengers enter not a foreign country so much as a resort, a commercial colony operated by the companies that own the ships themselves.

Returning to shore, Shteyngart reaches the harsh but—in light of all he has suffered—understandable conclusion that it is simply “unfair to put a thinking person on a cruise ship.” Writers, he continues,

typically have difficult childhoods, and it is cruel to remind them of the inherent loneliness that drove them to writing in the first place. It is also unseemly to write about the kind of people who go on cruises. Our country does not provide the education and upbringing that allow its citizens an interior life. For the creative class to point fingers at the large, breasty gentlemen adrift in tortilla-chip-laden pools of water is to gather a sour harvest of low-hanging fruit.

It’s a conclusion that, despite the essay’s overtly political nature, hearkens back to Wallace’s mostly apolitical focus on infantilization in “Shipping Out.” “How long has it been since you did Absolutely Nothing?” he asks the reader.

I know exactly how long it’s been for me. I know how long it’s been since I had every need met choicelessly from someplace outside me, without my having to ask. And that time I was floating, too, and the fluid was warm and salty, and if I was in any way conscious I’m sure I was dreadless, and was having a really good time, and would have sent postcards to everyone wishing they were here.

In the final paragraphs of “Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever,” Shteyngart shares words of sympathy he received from other writers, who congratulated him on making it off Icon of the Seas alive and opined that, after publication of his essay, “it’s time this genre was taken out back and shot.” They have a point. Cruise-ship essays can be as perversely entertaining as the trashiest reality TV, but like trashy reality TV, they also tend to repeat the same point, one originally expressed by Wallace: that this supposedly fun thing isn’t actually fun at all. Now, it’s also politically incorrect.

Featured image: Joseph Mallord William Turner. Whalers , ca. 1845. Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1896, The Met Museum (96.29). CC0, metmuseum.org . Accessed August 21, 2024. Image has been cropped.

LARB Contributor

Tim Brinkhof is a Dutch journalist and researcher based in the US. He studied history and literature at New York University and has written for Vox , Vulture , Slate , Esquire , Jacobin , GQ , New Lines Magazine , and more.

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I Walked Down the Aisle With the Man Who Panned My Book on Goodreads

When the best man at my friend’s wedding gave my novel a one-star review, I wasn’t sure I could forgive him. It was harder, ultimately, to forgive myself.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Sooner or later, we all come across our critics. Maybe it happens via a stinging romantic rejection, or a meeting about our “disappointing performance” in the job we worked so hard to get. In my case, I came face-to-face—literally—with my biggest critic while walking down the aisle with him. He was the best man at my friend’s wedding; I was the maid of honor. And he’d given my debut novel a one-star review on Goodreads.

For the uninitiated, Goodreads is a (now notorious) website—one which the New York Times Opinion Section declared an “online hellscape”—where more than 150 million users publicly track and rate the books they’ve read. Authors who decide to look up their own books’ reviews do so at their own peril: You might find a five-star review confirming that the story you poured your heart into is, as you secretly suspected, the next Great American Novel. Alternatively, you could encounter a casually devastating review that will haunt you forever.

With my first book, I blithely took the plunge. Most of my readers were friends and family anyway, so I spent far too much time gorging myself on their Goodreads praise. As a rabid people-pleaser who hated the idea of anyone disliking me, it was intoxicating to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’d done the impossible and created a piece of art that was universally loved.

Until a one-star rating popped up. My stomach dropped. I reminded myself that it was bound to happen sooner or later. Then I immediately clicked on the account to see who had decided to tell the internet that my life’s work was trash. I knew that name, didn’t I? Yes, he was a friend of my close friend’s fiancé. And not just any friend, either. He was going to be the best man at their upcoming wedding. And his maid of honor counterpart? That would be me.

It was intoxicating to believe that maybe, just maybe, I’d done the impossible and created a piece of art that was universally loved.”

I was indignant—and worried. Maybe the book was bad, and my friends had been sugarcoating their responses. But I was also confused. Did this man not realize how uncomfortable this would make the wedding? As the big day approached, I spent a lot of time questioning how best to handle the situation. Should I reach out to him to clear the air? Ignore him completely? Demand that he tell me exactly why he hated the book so that I could tell him why he was wrong?

At first, I tried rising above. Perhaps he’d be so taken by my friendliness and charm that he’d rethink his opinion of the book, even go back and change his one-star to a five-star! As we lined up for the ceremony, I locked my face into a smile, making semi-awkward small talk. I figured he knew that I knew about the rating, but neither of us mentioned it. We simply made our way down the aisle, arm-in-arm, to watch the beautiful ceremony.

But by the time the reception rolled around, politeness didn’t feel adequate. So I got petty. Both of us were due to deliver toasts to the crowded ballroom, and mine would be better ! This man might have hated my book, but I’d make it impossible for him to hate my speech. I tried to remind myself that the toast was about celebrating my friend and her husband, not about making their best man regret his life’s choices. Still, I couldn’t help feeling a surge of triumph when, at the end of my speech, the crowd rang with laughter and applause.

Finally, I got drunk. (This seemed, at the time, an appropriate response to Goodreads slander.) As the wedding guests grooved to a dance floor standard, with the encouragement of a couple other bridesmaids, I shimmied up to the best man and slurred-shouted, “So, what would you rate my toast ?” (I thought this was very clever.) I don’t think he heard me clearly amidst the guests’ Whitney Houston scream-singing, because he turned to me, confused. “What?” he yelled back. I wasn’t brave enough to repeat myself, so I danced away, Homer Simpson-ing back into the crowd.

We saw each other one final time, at the end of the night. He gave me a friendly wave and told me to reach out if I was ever passing through his city, as if totally unbothered by the feud between us. Or perhaps I’d invented the feud altogether.

Ultimately, my friend got the backstory from him: He’d bought the book as a show of support, and it hadn’t been his thing. He liked to keep track of his reading for himself, so he’d marked it with a one-star review without thinking about the fact that the review would appear publicly. As soon as he realized, he took it upon himself to delete the rating.

Even if he hadn’t, readers have a right to rate books however they wish. It’s part of the bargain that an author makes in exchange for getting their book published. Authors get to control so much when we’re in the writing process. We make up entire worlds where the characters do exactly what we want. We edit and futz with sentences until they shine. Then, if we’re lucky, we release our story into the real world, and suddenly it doesn’t belong to us anymore. It’s not for us anymore. And therefore we can’t expect to—nor should we desire to—control audience’s responses.

If I was going to keep writing, something that brought me so much joy and fulfillment, I had to forgive that best man. But more importantly, I had to forgive myself. I didn’t write a perfect book, and then, when someone forced me to face that fact, I overreacted by getting petty and annoyed. That was okay. That was human.

Acknowledging my own inadequacies ultimately allowed me to be more empathetic toward my characters, my readers, and myself. So my first novel hadn’t blown every single reader away. That meant there was room for me to grow. I would never write a perfect book, but I could use this man’s criticism to write a better one, pushing myself to dig deeper when I tried again—even while knowing that, still , some people wouldn’t love it.

Now, I’m grateful for that one-star rating. It was an early, impossible-to-ignore lesson that it’s not my job as an author to make every one of my readers happy, nor is it my job to monitor and police their responses—however natural the urge to defend myself might be. If there’s a person out there who’s managed to please everyone they’ve ever known—including their haters!—I’d like to meet them. To shake their hand, sure, and maybe study them for science. But also to tell them: If you’re willing to be hated a little, you might grow to love yourself more.

One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin

And it turns out that this man gave me so much more than a one-star review. He also gave me the idea for my latest novel, One-Star Romance , a romantic comedy about a maid of honor, the best man who gives her book a one-star review, and what happens when they’re forced back together each time their married best friends celebrate another life milestone. I took risks in the writing of this one, letting my characters make mistakes, trying to honestly capture that disorienting period in your twenties and thirties when, suddenly, everyone starts moving at different speeds and it’s easy to feel like you can’t keep up—that you’re doing something wrong. I knew the feeling well.

In real life, unlike in my book, the best man and I did not fall in love. Instead, I married someone who’s only ever rated my novels five stars. Occasionally, my husband goes on my Goodreads page and tells me snippets of nice things that people are saying. And sure, for One-Star Romance , I might have written down, “Someone apparently called it a masterpiece!!” on my Notes app, and maybe I look at that Note whenever I get anxious about publication. Because it turns out that, while risk-taking might get easier, it never gets easy .

Still, I’m so proud of this book. It’s better than my writing before; I’m better than I was before. I like to think that even my old best-man nemesis might begrudgingly rate this book more than one star. But since I no longer check my own Goodreads, I’ll never know.

Laura Hankin is the author of One-Star Romance , Happy & You Know It , A Special Place for Women , and The Daydreams . Her musical comedy has been featured in publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post , and she is developing projects for film and TV. She lives in Washington DC, where she once fell off a treadmill twice in one day.

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Lebanon has made survival an art form, after decades of war and unrest

Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University

Disclosure statement

Ian Parmeter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Australian National University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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I first visited Lebanon in 1978, three years into the civil war and six years before Theodore Ell was born. I mention this because, despite the fact our experiences of this fascinating country were at different times, his impressions and judgements in his excellent new book Lebanon Days – which spans the tumultuous period from 2018 to 2021 – accord very much with my own.

At the time of my first visit, I was studying Arabic in Cairo at the behest of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. DFA (no “T” on the acronym in those days) was seeking to increase its Middle East expertise in the wake of the massive rise in oil prices engineered by Gulf oil producers following the 1973 Arab–Israeli war .

My department had approved the trip to enable me to broaden my knowledge of the Middle East and to practise Arabic in different environments where that devilishly difficult language is spoken. This was travel on the cheap through Lebanon, Syria and Jordan over three weeks – using “service” taxis (taxis with several passengers) and staying in hotels that would struggle to earn a half-star rating.

The point was to have full immersion in environments where little or no English was spoken, and I would have to make myself understood in Arabic for all the practicalities of daily life.

Book Review: Lebanon Days by Theodore Ell (Atlantic)

Beirut: a city divided

Before flying to Beirut, I consulted books on the region in the Cairo embassy’s library. Those on Lebanon predated the civil war: I was struck by the beauty of Beirut’s centre, particularly Martyrs’ Square (which features several times in Ell’s book), with large palm trees on its eastern and western sides.

At Beirut airport, just south of the city, I hailed a taxi and asked the driver in “ fus’ha ” (formal) Arabic to take me to Martyrs’ Square. He looked at me in surprise – I assumed because my Arabic was not the “ aarmi ” (colloquial) dialect he was used to. But there was another reason. When we arrived at the square, all the palm trees had been shorn off about a metre from the ground, by high-velocity bullets.

I had stumbled onto the “green line” dividing Beirut’s east and west, the main fighting arena of the war. The taxi driver was clearly nervous about being near the square and, as a Muslim, would not take me into the Christian east.

In subsequent years, I visited Beirut several times during the war. I worked there for three years in the late 1990s, when the country seemed for a few years to be getting back on its feet.

While posted in Damascus, capital of Syria, in the mid-1980s, I periodically went to Beirut with another staff member to carry out various official tasks during breaks in the fighting. If we stayed in West Beirut, we usually slept in the then-closed embassy building. As a precaution we used to drag mattresses from bedrooms into the internal hallway, to minimise the risk of being peppered with shattered glass if an explosion happened near the building.

Another vivid memory of that time is being invited by a Lebanese businessman to lunch in one of Beirut’s finest restaurants. The food was French and the interior décor was what one might expect in an upscale European restaurant. The only detraction from a delightful dining experience was that the restaurant windows were covered with sandbags.

The 2019 revolution

The Taif Accord of October 1989 is generally seen as the formal end of the war. But even then, René Moawad , Lebanon’s first postwar president, served for only 18 days before unknown assailants assassinated him on 22 November that year.

Rafiq Hariri , prime minister for six years during the 1990s, invested much of his own personal fortune in the postwar reconstruction of Beirut. During that time, he invited other businessmen to pay a voluntary tax of 10% of their income to the state to assist with financing the reconstruction.

I recall a business acquaintance telling me he regarded this request as a joke – no one would pay such a tax. I asked how he expected the state to finance schools, hospitals and roads without taxes. He responded that in Australia I could reasonably assume my tax payments would go to these purposes. In Lebanon, such payments would end up in Swiss banks.

In Lebanon Days, Ell recounts many such stories, based on his experiences accompanying his wife, Caitlin, an Australian diplomat on a posting at our embassy in Beirut.

His time there included the economic devastation caused by the collapse in the value of the Lebanese pound. The Lebanese Central Bank had kept the value of the pound artificially high at 1,507.5 to the US dollar from 1999 to 2019. This distorted the economy by making imports artificially cheap and exports expensive, hampering development of export industries and causing unsustainable deficits to accumulate.

The policy depended on the Central Bank being able to obtain dollars more cheaply than it sold them, in order to maintain the pound’s value. It was a confidence trick doomed to eventual failure, which happened in October 2019. The result was social meltdown – thowra or revolution, involving riots over months. People from all of Lebanon’s 18 religious sects were affected equally, and protesters of all faiths gathered in Martyrs’ Square to shout slogans and sing protest songs. According to Ell, one such slogan described Lebanon as “a nation of sheep, run by wolves, owned by pigs”.

Then, in early 2020, Covid struck the country: Ell and Caitlin included. But that did not stop the revolution, which finally culminated in another disaster waiting to happen – the horrific explosion in Beirut’s port in August 2020, from negligent storing of a vast quantity of ammonium nitrate.

Ell won the 2021 Calibre Essay Prize for his essay published in Australian Book Review, in which he described the explosion and its impact on residents of the city in vivid detail. He expands on that detail in his book. I was particularly impressed with his comment that the ammonium nitrate had not been moved to safer storage because no one had worked out how to make money from it.

Ell’s book exudes reality to anyone who has lived in Lebanon. He describes vividly the Lebanese sense of fun, the nightclubs in East Beirut where patrons could drink and dance till dawn – and had done even in the depths of the civil war.

The flip side was the determination of Lebanese people to maintain appearances as the economy collapsed around them. Those who had frequented chic shopping malls but no longer had money for anything more than basic essentials would continue to walk the aisles of the malls – buying nothing, but carrying a luxury brand shopping bag to suggest that they had.

The war that did not end

Early in Lebanon Days, Ell makes the valid point that the civil war did not end: it simply became invisible. As he describes it, “Lebanon’s religious differences refined alienation into a way of life”.

Particularly telling is his account of Genevieve, a Maronite Christian woman, who “told us, in all candour, as though it were obvious things could be no other way, that she had never met a Muslim”. Genevieve “spoke as though the number of Muslims in her country – in her entire region of the world – was not a reality of history, an intrinsic part of life, but something offensive and noxious to be resisted”.

To make the Taif Agreement work, a national unity government was formed in the early 1990s, comprising the various sectarian leaders who had prosecuted the war. The main hold-out from this arrangement was Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces , a Christian militia. Geagea objected to continuing Syrian influence in the country’s governance. In 1994, he was arrested and jailed for crimes allegedly committed during the war. No such charges were laid against other ministers, who could have been accused of similar crimes.

I recall the US Ambassador in 1997 invited a group of Lebanese politicians and some Western ambassadors to his residence to brief a US congressional delegation on these postwar arrangements.

A congressman asked if the Lebanese had held a “truth and reconciliation commission” after the war, in the way South Africa had after the abolition of apartheid. One of the guests was the mercurial Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt , at the time a minister. He immediately responded, “No, we were more sophisticated in Lebanon. We put all the war criminals in the Cabinet, and any war criminal who refused to become a minister was put in jail.” Amid the laughter, the US ambassador explained to the bemused delegation that was pretty much what had happened.

Conspiracy theories

Ell constructs his narrative chronologically, but with a preface that explains how Lebanon became the country it is.

He describes the remarkable stelae (standing stone slabs used in the ancient world as markers) on the rock face near the Dog River, just north of Beirut. Each stela records an invader – from Ramses II of Egypt through to the Romans, the Ottomans, the French under Napoleon III and a contingent of the Australian Imperial Force, whose plaque records their campaign against Vichy French forces in Lebanon in 1941.

He describes the conspiracy theories espoused by Lebanese as a result of the constant threat of Israeli military action. That has usually followed attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, the Shia militia better armed than the Lebanese Army, over which the government has no authority. Sonic booms from Israeli aircraft breaking the sound barrier over Beirut cause instinctive searches for places to shelter.

Ell concludes the book with a sad account of his and Caitlin’s departure. They had made many Lebanese friends, but many of them were leaving as well. The only ones reasonably happy to remain had dual citizenship, which gave them a foreign bolthole in the event of another disaster.

The book is well presented. It includes a map showing places mentioned in the narrative, a useful historical timeline, a glossary of Arabic terms and a guide to further reading.

Lebanon Days is a meditation on a country that never leaves its visitors unaffected. Ell is a gifted writer: his prose is unaffected, precise and elegant. He has taken the drama of his three years in Lebanon to illuminate this fascinating country’s past – and to point to a future that for now looks bleak, particularly with the ever-present threat of war between Israel and Hezbollah. But what emerges as well is the resilience of the people. This paradoxical country has made survival an art form.

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The False Narrative of Settler Colonialism

The rise of an academic theory and its obsession with Israel

O n October 7 , Hamas killed four times as many Israelis in a single day as had been killed in the previous 15 years of conflict. In the months since, protesters have rallied against Israel’s retaliatory invasion of Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. But a new tone of excitement and enthusiasm could be heard among pro-Palestinian activists from the moment that news of the attacks arrived, well before the Israeli response began. Celebrations of Hamas’s exploits are familiar sights in Gaza and the West Bank, Cairo and Damascus; this time, they spread to elite college campuses, where Gaza-solidarity encampments became ubiquitous this past spring. Why?

The answer is that, long before October 7, the Palestinian struggle against Israel had become widely understood by academic and progressive activists as the vanguard of a global battle against settler colonialism, a struggle also waged in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries created by European settlement. In these circles, Palestine was transformed into a standard reference point for every kind of social wrong, even those that seem to have no connection to the Middle East.

One of the most striking things about the ideology of settler colonialism is the central role played by Israel, which is often paired with the U.S. as the most important example of settler colonialism’s evils. Many Palestinian writers and activists have adopted this terminology. In his 2020 book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine , the historian Rashid Khalidi writes that the goal of Zionism was to create a “white European settler colony.” For the Palestinian intellectual Joseph Massad, Israel is a product of “European Jewish Settler-Colonialism,” and the “liberation” referred to in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organization is “liberation from Settler-Colonialism.”

Western activists and academics have leaned heavily on the idea. Opposition to building an oil pipeline under a Sioux reservation was like the Palestinian cause in that it “makes visible the continuum of systems of subjugation and expropriation across liberal democracies and settler-­colonial regimes.” When the city of Toronto evicted a homeless encampment from a park, it was like Palestine because both are examples of “ethnic cleansing” and “colonial ‘domicide,’ making Indigenous people homeless on their homelands.” Health problems among Native Americans can be understood in terms of Palestine, because the “hyper-­visible Palestine case …  provides a unique temporal lens for understanding settler colonial health determinants more broadly.” Pollution, too, can be understood through a Palestinian lens, according to the British organization Friends of the Earth, because Palestine demonstrates that “the world is an unequal place” where “marginalised and vulnerable people bear the brunt of injustice.”

Although Israel fails in obvious ways to fit the model of settler colonialism, it has become the standard reference point because it offers theorists and activists something that the United States does not: a plausible target. It is hard to imagine America or Canada being truly decolonized, with the descendants of the original settlers returning to the countries from which they came and Native peoples reclaiming the land. But armed struggle against Israel has been ongoing since it was founded, and Hamas and its allies still hope to abolish the Jewish state “between the river and the sea.” In the contemporary world, only in Israel can the fight against settler colonialism move from theory to practice.

T he concept of settler colonialism was developed in the 1990s by theorists in Australia, Canada, and the U.S., as a way of linking social evils in these countries today—such as climate change, patriarchy, and economic inequality—to their origin in colonial settlement. In the past decade, settler colonialism has become one of the most important concepts in the academic humanities, the subject of hundreds of books and thousands of papers, as well as college courses on topics such as U.S. history, public health, and gender studies.

Read: The curious rise of settler colonialism and Turtle Island

For the academic field of settler-colonial studies, the settlement process is characterized by European settlers discovering a land that they consider “terra nullius,” the legal property of no one; their insatiable hunger for expansion that fills an entire continent; and the destruction of Indigenous peoples and cultures. This model, drawn from the history of Anglophone colonies such as the U.S. and Australia, is regularly applied to the history of Israel even though it does not include any of these hallmarks.

When modern Zionist settlement in what is now Israel began in the 1880s, Palestine was a province of the Ottoman empire, and after World War I, it was ruled by the British under a mandate from the League of Nations. Far from being “no one’s land,” Jews could settle there only with the permission of an imperial government, and when that permission was withdrawn—­as it fatefully was in 1939, when the British sharply limited Jewish immigration on the eve of the Holocaust—they had no recourse. Far from expanding to fill a continent, as in North America and Australia, the state of Israel today is about the size of New Jersey. The language, culture, and religion of the Arab peoples remain overwhelmingly dominant: 76 years after Israel was founded, it is still the only Jewish country in the region, among 22 Arab countries, from Morocco to Iraq.

Most important, the Jewish state did not erase or replace the people already living in Palestine, though it did displace many of them. Here the comparison between European settlement in North America and Jewish settlement in Israel is especially inapt. In the decades after Europeans arrived in Massachusetts, the Native American population of New England declined from about 140,000 to 10,000, by one estimate . In the decades after 1948, the Arab population of historic Palestine more than quintupled, from about 1.4 million to about 7.4 million. The persistence of the conflict in Israel-Palestine is due precisely to the coexistence of two peoples in the same land—­as opposed to the classic sites of settler colonialism, where European settlers decimated Native peoples.

In the 21st century, the clearest examples of ongoing settler colonialism can probably be found in China. In 2023, the United Nations Human Rights office reported that the Chinese government had compelled nearly 1 million Tibetan children to attend residential schools “aimed at assimilating Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically.” Forcing the next generation of Tibetans to speak Mandarin is part of a long-­term effort to Sinicize the region, which also includes encouraging Han Chinese to settle there and prohibiting public displays of traditional Buddhist faith.

China has mounted a similar campaign against the Uyghur people in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. Since 2017, more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims have been detained in what the Chinese government calls vocational training centers, which other countries describe as detention or reeducation camps. The government is also seeking to bring down Uyghur birth rates through mass sterilization and involuntary birth control.

These campaigns include every element of settler colonialism as defined by academic theorists. They aim to replace an existing people and culture with a new one imported from the imperial metropole, using techniques frequently described as genocidal in the context of North American history. Tibet’s residential schools are a tool of forced assimilation, like the ones established for Native American children in Canada and the United States in the 19th century. And some scholars of settler colonialism have drawn these parallels, acknowledging, in the words of the anthropologist Carole McGranahan, “that an imperial formation is as likely to be Chinese, communist, and of the twentieth or twenty-­first centuries as it is to be English, capitalist, and of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.”

Yet Tibet and Xinjiang—­like India’s rule in Kashmir, and the Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999—­occupy a tiny fraction of the space devoted to Israel-­Palestine on the mental map of settler-colonial studies. Some of the reasons for this are practical. The academic discipline mainly flourishes in English-­speaking countries, and its practitioners usually seem to be monolingual, making it necessary to focus on countries where sources are either written in English or easily available in translation. This rules out any place where a language barrier is heightened by strict government censorship, like China. Just as important, settler-colonial theorists tend to come from the fields of anthropology and sociology rather than history, area studies, and international relations, where they would be exposed to a wider range of examples of past and present conflict.

But the focus on Israel-­Palestine isn’t only a product of the discipline’s limitations. It is doctrinal. Academics and activists find adding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to other causes powerfully energizing, a way to give a local address to a struggle that can otherwise feel all too abstract. The price of collapsing together such different causes, however, is that it inhibits understanding of each individual cause. Any conflict that fails to fit the settler-colonial model must be made to fit.

I srael also fails to fit the model of settler colonialism in another key way: It defies the usual division between foreign colonizers and Indigenous people. In the discourse of settler colonialism, Indigenous peoples aren’t simply those who happen to occupy a territory before Europeans discovered it. Rather, indigeneity is a moral and spiritual status, associated with qualities such as authenticity, selflessness, and wisdom. These values stand as a reproof to settler ways of being, which are insatiably destructive. And the moral contrast between settler and indigene comes to overlap with other binaries—­white and nonwhite, exploiter and exploited, victor and victim.

Until recently, Palestinian leaders preferred to avoid the language of indigeneity, seeing the implicit comparison between themselves and Native Americans as defeatist. In an interview near the end of his life, in 2004, PLO Chair Yasser Arafat declared, “We are not Red Indians.” But today’s activists are more eager to embrace the Indigenous label and the moral valences that go with it, and some theorists have begun to recast Palestinian identity in ecological, spiritual, and aesthetic terms long associated with Native American identity. The American academic Steven Salaita has written that “Palestinian claims to life” are based in having “a culture indivisible from their surroundings, a language of freedom concordant to the beauty of the land.” Jamal Nabulsi of the University of Queensland writes that “Palestinian Indigenous sovereignty is in and of the land. It is grounded in an embodied connection to Palestine and articulated in Palestinian ways of being, knowing, and resisting on and for this land.”

This kind of language points to an aspect of the concept of indigeneity that is often tacitly overlooked in the Native American context: its irrationalism. The idea that different peoples have incommensurable ways of being and knowing, rooted in their relationship to a particular landscape, comes out of German Romantic nationalism. Originating in the early 19th century in the work of philosophers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Johann Gottfried Herder, it eventually degenerated into the blood-­and-­soil nationalism of Nazi ideologues such as Richard Walther Darré, who in 1930 hymned what might be called an embodied connection to Germany: “The German soul, with all its warmness, is rooted in its native landscape and has, in a sense, always grown out of it … Whoever takes the natural landscape away from the German soul, kills it.”

For Darré, this rootedness in the land meant that Germans could never thrive in cities, among the “rootless ways of thinking of the urbanite.” The rootless urbanite par excellence, for Nazi ideology, was of course the Jew. For Salaita, the exaltation of Palestinian indigeneity leads to the very same conclusion about “Zionists,” who usurp the land but can never be vitally rooted in it: “In their ruthless schema, land is neither pleasure nor sustenance. It is a commodity … Having been anointed Jewish, the land ceases to be dynamic. It is an ideological fabrication with fixed characteristics.”

In this way, anti-Zionism converges with older patterns of anti­-Semitic and anti­-Jewish thinking. It is true, of course, that criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-­Semitic. Virtually anything that an Israeli government does is likely to be harshly criticized by many Israeli Jews themselves. But it is also true that anti-­Semitism is not simply a matter of personal prejudice against Jews, existing on an entirely different plane from politics. The term anti­-Semitism was coined in Germany in the late 19th century because the old term, Jew hatred , sounded too instinctive and brutal to describe what was, in fact, a political ideology—­an account of the way the world works and how it should be changed.

Wilhelm Marr, the German writer who popularized the word, complained in his 1879 book, The Victory of Judaism Over Germanism , that “the Jewish spirit and Jewish consciousness have overpowered the world.” That spirit, for Marr, was materialism and selfishness, “profiteering and usury.” Anti-­Semitic political parties in Europe attacked “Semitism” in the same way that socialists attacked capitalism. The saying “Anti-­Semitism is the socialism of fools,” used by the German left at this time, recognized the structural similarity between these rival worldviews.

The identification of Jews with soulless materialism made sense to 19th-century Europeans because it translated one of the oldest doctrines of Christianity into the language of modern politics. The apostle Paul, a Jew who became a follower of Jesus, explained the difference between his old faith and his new one by identifying Judaism with material things (­the circumcision of the flesh, the letter of the law) and Christianity with spiritual things—­the circumcision of the heart, a new law “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Simon Sebag Montefiore: The decolonization narrative is dangerous and false

Today this characterization of Jews as stubborn, heartless, and materialistic is seldom publicly expressed in the language of Christianity, as in the Middle Ages, or in the language of race, as in the late 19th century. But it is quite respectable to say exactly the same thing in the language of settler colonialism. As the historian David Nirenberg has written, “We live in an age in which millions of people are exposed daily to some variant of the argument that the challenges of the world they live in are best explained in terms of ‘Israel,’” except that today, Israel refers not to the Jewish people but to the Jewish state.

When those embracing the ideology of settler colonialism think about political evil, Israel is the example that comes instinctively to hand, just as Jews were for anti-Semitism and Judaism was for Christianity. Perhaps the most troubling reactions to the October 7 attacks were those of college students convinced that the liberation of Palestine is the key to banishing injustice from the world. In November 2023, for instance, Northwestern University’s student newspaper published a letter signed by 65 student organizations—­including the Rainbow Alliance, Ballet Folklórico Northwestern, and All Paws In, which sends volunteers to animal shelters—­defending the use of the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” This phrase looks forward to the disappearance of any form of Jewish state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, but the student groups denied that this entails “murder and genocide.” Rather, they wrote, “When we say from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, we imagine a world free of Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-­Blackness, militarism, occupation and apartheid.”

As a political program, this is nonsensical. How could dismantling Israel bring about the end of militarism in China, Russia, or Iran? How could it lead to the end of anti-Black racism in America, or anti-Muslim prejudice in India? But for the ideology of settler colonialism, actual political conflicts become symbolic battles between light and darkness, and anyone found on the wrong side is a fair target. Young Americans today who celebrate the massacre of Israelis and harass their Jewish peers on college campuses are not ashamed of themselves for the same reason that earlier generations were not ashamed to persecute and kill Jews—because they have been taught that it is an expression of virtue.

This essay is adapted from Adam Kirsch’s new book, On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice .

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2024 Lincoln Lecture - A discussion with award-winning author Clint Smith

Thursday, September 12, 2024 7:30 PM

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This conversation, moderated by Christina Abreu, Director of the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, draws on Smith’s 2021 book , How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021.

Smith’s bestselling books include  How the Word Is Passed , which  Publishers Weekly  called “an essential consideration of how America’s past informs its present.” It has won numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and was named one of the best books of the year by  TIME ,  The New York Times ,  The Economist and  The Washington Post .

His latest book,  Above Ground , was named to  TIME  magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books and  NPR ‘s Books We Love. Smith’s first book,  Counting Descent , won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. In his forthcoming book,  Just Beneath the Soil , he will explore the little-known stories behind World War II sites and discuss how they shape our collective memory of the war.

His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine , The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review and elsewhere. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic .

The W. Bruce Lincoln Endowed Lecture Series brings to campus distinguished scholars who address topics of interest to both the academic community and the general public. The lectures engage key issues and are often interdisciplinary, in the spirit of Professor Lincoln’s research, writing and teaching.

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Anne Hanley

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