Book Review Template

A review isn’t a summary with an opinion stuck on the end.

The summary is the smallest part. What a reader wants is a judgement they can act on - whether this book is for them, specifically, and on what grounds. That means being clear about what the book was trying to do, whether it did it, and who it will land with. This template is built around that, with a spoiler-free structure and a rating framework you can apply consistently. Been set a school assignment to summarise a book and show you understood it? That’s a book report, which is a different document.

What’s in the book review template

Twelve sections, in the order a review reads.

• Book Details: Title, author, publisher, genre, page count, publication date.

• Opening Hook: One or two lines that make someone read the rest. Not “I picked up this book.”

• Spoiler-Free Premise: Enough setup to judge by, nothing that spoils the experience.

• What Worked: Prose, pacing, character, structure, voice - named specifically, with an example.

• What Didn’t: The honest part. A review with no reservations isn’t a review.

• Comparable Titles: If you liked X, and why the comparison holds.

• Who Should Read This: The most useful sentence in any review.

• Standout Passage: A short quotation that shows rather than tells, and a line on why.

• Rating & Criteria: Your scale, and what each point on it actually means - so your reviews are consistent with each other.

• Content Notes: Anything a reader would want flagged in advance.

• Verdict: The judgement in one line, quotable and clear.

• Disclosure: ARC, gifted or purchased - stated plainly, because it matters.

Why write your reviews in Skrib?

• Your Whole Archive, Searchable: Two hundred reviews in one Library. Find what you said about an author’s last book before you review this one.

• Consistent Every Time: The same structure and the same rating criteria, so your four stars means the same thing in June as in January.

• Reading Notes As You Go: Keep a card per book - quotations, reactions, page numbers - and write the review from notes rather than memory.

• Track the Queue: TBR pile, ARCs, review deadlines and publication dates on one Board.

• Drafts Are Kept: The unfiltered first version and the one you actually posted.

• Publish Anywhere: Export .md or .docx, or paste straight into Goodreads, StoryGraph, a blog or a submission.

Who is this book review template for?

• Book Bloggers and BookTokers posting reviews on a schedule.

• ARC and NetGalley Reviewers working to publication dates and obligations.

• Students writing book reviews for coursework and English classes.

• Book Clubs preparing structured responses for discussion.

• Librarians and Teachers writing recommendations for readers.

• Authors reviewing peers and blurbing thoughtfully.

• Critics and Journalists writing to a word count and a deadline.

Write the review you’d want to read

Drop the template on your Board, keep notes while you read, and say what the book is actually for.