Writing a Useful Review (Seven Suggestions)

I’m tired of reading bad novel reviews. And I don’t mean “bad” in the sense of “negative.” Unfavorable reviews are important—vital, in fact—in an open and honest marketplace of ideas and opinions. No, I mean unhelpful reviews.

Happens all the time: I’ll be looking at a new work of fiction that potentially interests me (even though, like most of you reading this, I already have a daunting and ever-growing to-read stack going) and naturally I check the ratings and reviews. Many of the critiques are insightful and thoughtful, and a truly well-constructed summary, evaluation, and commentary will help me make a purchase decision even if I don’t agree with the reviewer’s ultimate conclusion. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. That’s what I always strive to provide in my own reviews as well.

But too often, instead of a review, I read a rant or a rhapsody. E.g., it’s terrible and I hate it / it’s wonderful and I love it. This does not help me make a choice. Nor does it help the writer improve his or her work. Nor does it contribute to the quality of the culture of our extended literary community. It’s just noise.

I already wrote this blog (called “The Seven Things Challenge”) about pushing yourself, as a reviewer, to find very specific things that you liked about a piece of writing. What worked, and more importantly, why. It’s a helpful service to readers and writers, and a useful intellectual and literary exercise as well.

Of course there is always plenty of room for personal, subjective reactions . . . as long as they are presented that way. It’s absolutely fine to say, for example, “I like books with lots of talking animals in them, and I was disappointed that there weren’t more talking animals in this story.” That’s valid. Dumb, but valid. It’s both dumb and unfair, on the other hand, to say, “this book is awful. It hardly has any talking animals in it.”

Now I’d like to veer in a slightly different direction and propose a few guidelines for putting together a good review. The format and layout, tone and style, sensibility and approach are all, of course, totally up to the reviewer, but I believe that a good review should include answers to at least some of the following seven questions:

(1) Overall, how well does the author accomplish what he or she was apparently trying to accomplish?

I added emphasis to the words “apparently trying” because this is a guess, but it ought to be a guess based on evidence found through a careful and attentive study of the text. What sort of book did the author seem to be attempting to write? And was the author successful? This is where the critic should try to stick to observations such as, “Mr. Smith seemed to be trying to write a supernatural detective thriller that melded the classic noir tradition with monster-centric horror, but it ended up being more of a quasi-autobiographical essay with an off-putting element of magical realism.” It’s tempting, but unhelpful, to make elitist pronouncements like, “all westerns are bad,” or “high fantasy is better than dieselpunk.”

(2) Is the writing clean, tight, and effective?

Does the prose convey ideas clearly and brightly? Does it make the abstract concrete? Is it striking, vivid, and original? Does the author vary the sentence structure and paragraph length to create musical rhythms that appropriately accentuate and highlight the subjects and themes? Are all five senses evoked? Does the author choose the right words, and use them at the right times? Does the text flow? Does the dialogue crackle?

(3) Is the author a good storyteller?

Does the author resist the urge to explain? Do the characters’ actions reveal their thoughts, emotions, and motivations? Do the images and symbols contribute to the story without being overwrought?

(4) Does the story make sense?

Are there glaring inconsistencies or egregious logical gaps that exceed a reader’s willingness and ability to suspend disbelief? Is the plot plausible?

(5) Are the characters complicitous in their fates?

This one is admittedly a major personal peeve. Do the characters bring about their own destinies—downfalls or redemptions—through their decisions, or does the author resort to turgid melodrama? Glory or disgrace, ruin or triumph, it should be, in some narrative sense, their fault.

(6) Are the characters distinct?

Does each character have recognizable, consistent, interesting personality traits expressed through their clothes, behavior, speech patterns, attitudes, and mannerisms? Do they feel like real, authentic, complex, three-dimensional human beings (or robots, or aliens, or goblins, or whatever)? Do these details meaningfully support the story? Some writers only seem capable of creating the same two or three characters over and over again. (The worst offenders are the authors with an agenda or a grudge, who always create one character as a proxy, a paragon of virtue to function as a mouthpiece for their own views, and then others to serve only as representatives of their enemies and critics, to be easily and repeatedly defeated in one-sided conflicts that vindicate one point of view and crush the other.)

(7) Is the ending both satisfying and proper?

This is another peeve of mine. Ever get the feeling that the author just got tired of writing? I wrote an entire blog called The Perfect Ending last year, so I won’t dwell on this too much here, but when you reach the last page and look back at the whole story from the beginning, does it now seem like everything that happened was leading inevitably to this unavoidable and fitting outcome?

A good review is not necessarily positive or negative; nor should it try too hard to clad itself in a mantle of false neutrality. A good review doesn't decree that a book belongs on every bedside table; it simply tells you whether or not it deserves a slot in that pile on yours.

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My author page:
www.AustinScottCollins.com

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