Book Review tips for Bookstagramers

Basic tips for people who post book reviews on Instagram

There is no perfect template for writing a review on Instagram. You can review a book in whichever way you want to but all that you need to make sure is — whether it’s legible and that it conveys a clear message.

The below-mentioned tips are my personal opinions. Not that it’s the correct way. Give it a read, take home the points you like.

1️. Start off by writing about how you felt when you flipped over the last page of the book. Excited? Disappointed? Write about those feelings first.

2️. Brief about the plot in your own words. If you find it hard at first, refer the blurb or book description and try to rephrase it. Make it as crisp as possible.

3️. Discuss some of the below mentioned key aspects:

¶ Prose/Writing style/narration
¶ Characters (traits, depth, etc)
¶ Plotline
¶ Plot twists
¶ Logical loopholes
¶ Plot Structure/sequence/execution
¶ Climax
¶ Any specific scenes/events
¶ Theme
¶ Portions (Romance/action/sentiment etc)
¶ Message conveyed or intent of the author
¶ Story setting (place, time period, etc)

4️. Sum up your overall experience and write a line or two about that. (Essentially lets the people know whether the book is worth reading or not).

5️. Some prefer rating a book by Stars 🌟, some by numbers, some invent their own rating system. (which is pretty cool and creative). Anything is fine.

Use emojis like this pin in-between so as to separate paragraphs. No one likes to read a long continuous review. By using paragraph breaks in-between, it improves readability.

Write two versions of the review (if you can). One for Goodreads and you can condense the same and post on Instagram. If you directly write it here, the character limit would turn out to be a major hurdle preventing you from expressing your complete views and opinions. You’d be forced to cut short which kinda sucks. So once you write the full version in GR, you can then tailor it to suit Instagram.

Last but not least, No spoilers whatsoever. Check out how your friends in Bookstagram review books, take note of the impressive ones, adopt and apply such techniques when you write one, keep experimenting until you get comfy with a particular style.

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