Book review

This article is about the use of the term in literary criticism. For the animated short, see Book Revue (film). For other uses, see Book Review (disambiguation).
"Book reports" redirects here. For the term "Book report" in teaching, see Book report.
"Literary review" redirects here. For the British magazine, see Literary Review. For the American magazine, see The Literary Review.

A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.[1]

A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view.[2] Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial essay. Such a review may evaluate the book based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-fiction work.

Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as the Book Review Index and Kirkus Reviews; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and discipline-specific databases.

  1. ^ Princeton (2011). "Book reviews". Scholarly definition document. Princeton. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  2. ^ Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (2011). "Book reviews". Scholarly definition document. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Archived from the original on September 10, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.