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Review questions
Jan 29 2008 03:30 am #1Spikez_tart
I saw this on Nano, and like the skank that I am forgot to get the name of the persons who put it together. It's a list of questions to consider when reviewing a book. It might be helpful for all you wonderful betas.
Characters
General points
Did you enjoy the book overall?
Would you recommend it to a friend?
What genre would you class it as (Comedy, Horror, Young Adult etc)?
Which character did you most sympathize with?
Which character was the most interesting to read about?
Was the plot line easy to follow? Was it confusing or predictable?
Do you think the book was too long or short?
What were the main themes of the book?
Do you think the author was trying to make a point/emphasise a particular message or set of values?
Did it keep you interested?
The beginning
Did the first paragraph grab your attention?
Did the first page make you want to read on?
Did anything confuse you in the first chapter?
Characters
Did any of the characters act in ways that didn't seem to fit their personality?
Did the relationships between the characters seem realistic?
Did the characters seem well rounded and interesting? Could you imagine
them being real people?
Were the characters distinct from each other, or did many of them seem
very similar?
Is there anything that could improve any of the characters?
Who was the main character? Did you care about what happened to him/her?
Dialogue
Did the speech sound natural and realistic?
Did any of the characters have accents or distinct patterns of speech?
Were the conversations believable?
Was dialogue ever used for obvious plot exposition?
Was any of the dialogue inappropriate for the characters and the setting?
(Using modern slang in a historical novel, characters speaking in ways
that don't suit their age/social background)
Did all of the dialogue either advance the storyline or teach us about the
characters?
Description
Was there enough description to understand the storyline?
Did any of the description seem unnecessary or out of place? (For example
a long chunk of description of clothing interrupting an action scene)
Can you picture the characters and settings in your head?
Was any of the description particularly effective? (Giving a good
understanding of a character's personality or setting the atmosphere
well?)
Point of View
Was the story written in first, second, or third person?
Were you able to sympathize with the point of view characters?
If the point of view changed at any point, was it clear that this was
happening or was it confusing? (For example by changing point of view
mid-scene)
Do you think the story worked well from this point of view or should it be
changed?
Did the narrator have a distinctive voice?
Was it written in a way that was easy to understand, or did it make it
hard for the reader to follow? (Such as too many long words or using too
many fancy writing devices which distract from the plot?)
Plot
Did you think there was a strong storyline running through the novel?
Were there any subplots? Do you think they added to the story?
Was there enough action? Did you feel there were parts where very little
happened, or parts where too much was crammed into a small space?
Did everything in the plot seem believable and/or logical within the
story, or did anything seem out of place?
What was your favorite part?
Were there any parts that should be taken out?
Does anything need more explanation?
Factual Accuracy
Did you notice any factual errors in the piece?
Was everything in keeping with the setting? (No modern technology in the
middle ages, no one wearing kimonos in 1840s England etc)
Did it come to a satisfying conclusion (not necessarily happy, but
satisfying)?
If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?
thanks for the post - excellent resource
” Recent evolutionary models have demonstrated what politicians have long known: the best way to get people to collaborate and to think like a group is to identify an enemy and charge that “they” threaten “us.”
Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Michael Tomasello is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
If you are under the age of 17, please use your head and do not read fics that are labeled "NC-17". Parents, I cannot control what your children are reading, so please be advised that the majority of the fics archived here are NOT suitable for those under the age of 17.
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